24 New Homes Are Coming to Lakeville: Meet Palmer Crossing
TLDR
- The council approved Palmer Crossing, a 24-home neighborhood, on Aug. 3.
- It sits on 10 acres near County Road 50 and Cedar Avenue, with access from Gresham Way to the south.
- It is built by Paling Family Homes, a local builder run by brothers who grew up in Lakeville.
- It got approved during the housing pause because it was submitted before the pause started.
Lakeville is getting a new pocket of houses. On Monday, the council signed off on the Palmer Crossing preliminary plat. A 'plat' is just the official map that divides land into lots. This one turns 10 acres into 24 single-family home lots, plus one extra piece of land for a stormwater pond.
Where it is and who is building it
Palmer Crossing sits south of County Road 50 and north of Gresham Way. It is east of Hamburg Avenue and west of Cedar Avenue. Cars will get in and out from the south, connecting to Gresham Way. There will be no access straight onto County Road 50 — the county controls that road.
The builder is Paling Family Homes. Co-owner Nick Paling told the council he grew up in Lakeville and still lives there. He said he and his brother have wanted to do this project for a long time. 'This is something that we're really proud of,' he said.
City planners called this 'about as straight up as you get for a preliminary plat.' In plain terms: it is a simple, by-the-book project. The land is already zoned for this kind of housing, at three to five homes per acre.
Wait — isn't there a housing moratorium?
Good catch. Yes, Lakeville put a one-year pause on some new housing back in April. So how did this get through?
The answer is timing. Palmer Crossing was submitted before the moratorium took effect. When the council passed the pause, it included a line that lets already-submitted projects keep moving. A council member actually asked staff about this during the meeting, and staff confirmed it passed that test.
If you want the full story on the pause and why the city hit the brakes, read our coverage of the housing moratorium.
What neighbors should know
For folks who already live in the neighborhood to the south, the main change is traffic. The new street connects through Gresham Way, which was always the plan when that area was built. There is also room for the road to extend east someday, which could add about four more lots later.
Screening — think trees and buffers — is only required along County Road 50. The builder added some extra landscaping around the stormwater pond too. There will be some tree removal near the existing home on the site. You can keep tabs on this and other active work on the city's construction projects page.
The Bottom Line
Palmer Crossing is a small, straightforward project from a local builder, and it cleared the council without drama. If you live nearby, expect construction traffic and a new street connection down the road. For folks tracking how fast Lakeville is growing — even during a housing pause — this is a good example of a project that was already in the pipeline. You can watch what else is coming on the city's interactive development map, and find the full project record on the agendas and minutes page. To see what is filling in along Cedar Avenue, check our Marketplace at Cedar update. More local news is on our home page.
