The Leesburg City Commission approved an amendment Monday night to a plan calling for the city to deliver natural gas to homes and structures in the new portion of The Villages south of State Road 44.
The amendment allows the city to also deliver natural gas to a greenhouse complex called The Villages Grown, which is being built on property near the southwest corner of SR 44 and Morse Boulevard. The project is designed to provide locally grown vegetables to restaurants, food stores and retail customers.
The Villages Grown includes a single-story, 30,000-square-foot plant on 6.26 acres that will process vegetables grown on an adjacent 85 acres. The plan calls for those vegetables to be grown in greenhouses using hydroponic methods, which net a higher yield per acre than traditional farming methods.
In February, the city approved an agreement with South Sumter Gas Company, which is constructing natural gas infrastructure in the new portion of The Villages in Wildwood, known as the Villages of Southern Oaks. At the time, it was estimated that about 14,000 homes using natural gas will be built there in the next four to five years. And that number is expected to increase as The Villages continues to acquire more land for continued expansion.
The original agreement calls for the city to fund construction of a 6-inch main line on County Road 501 and another in the future on SR 44 and County Road 468. Both lines have been deemed necessary to sufficiently provide natural gas to the quickly expanding retirement community, a Feb. 12 memo from Jack Rogers, the city’s gas director, says.
The city also agreed to supply automated reading devices needed to assure accuracy and efficient reading of meters, Rogers’ memo says, adding that the automated reading devices already are in use for all 12,000 of the city’s current natural gas customers.
The original agreement also calls for Leesburg and the South Sumter Gas Company to share revenues paid by residential and commercial natural gas customers. The city agreed to establish a “Villages Natural Gas” rate that largely will mirror the rates Villagers pay who are served by TECO Peoples Gas. The term of the agreement is 30 years, and the city has the option to terminate it at any time if the revenues don’t meet the expected thresholds established in the agreement.
Monday’s action calls for a single meter to be installed for The Villages Grown complex, with pressure being regulated at each greenhouse. The action doesn’t require the city to spend any more money on the project but is expected to lead to increased revenues from the natural gas supplied to heat the greenhouses at the innovative vegetable-growing complex.
