PARRISH - Developer Reynold Glanz's $32.5 million purchase of land off State Road 62 was one of the biggest vacant land sales in Manatee County history a couple of years ago. Now, he now wants to turn the former Cone Ranch into one of the biggest residential developments in north Manatee, just a few miles south of Hillsborough County.

The California developer filed plans last week for a 1,999-home project that also would include a 40-acre lake and 2.3 acres of commercial development at the site, which is about five miles east of where Interstate 75 intersects with Interstate 275. Still, it remains to be seen whether the Manatee County Commission would approve a project of such scale before northern Manatee's rural roads are upgraded.

That includes Parrish, where the county has asked a consortium of developers to come up with a plan to widen U.S. 301 and build a bridge across the Manatee River by 2012.

"We are not interested in approving any more developments north of the river," Manatee County Commission Chairman Joe McClash said Oct. 24 at a meeting to preview new developments.

Many local residents agree, saying that S.R. 62, a two-lane road that connects Parrish to Duette, cannot handle extra traffic.

"I would think they're going to have lot of problems getting anything done with 62 being the kind of road it is," said Ben Jordan, president of the Parrish Civic Association. "For that kind of thing you would have to look at widening 62."

Developers in northern Manatee generally have tried to sweeten large projects by offering land for schools and parks, although the plans for Cone Ranch do not include any such incentives.

"This is the first, preliminary site plan," said Glanz, who did not offer a firm timeline for the project, which would be built in phases. "You don't offer anything. They tell us what to do."

Northern Manatee has attracted several developers in recent years, with proposals that would add thousands of homes to the area. Land is cheaper than more populated parts of Manatee, and the area also is within easy reach of I-75 and I-275, broadening its appeal to commuters who work in Sarasota, as well as southern Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

"I just think that's basically right where all the action is," Glanz said. "It's right in the growth path. It's just an ideal area for people to get to all the metropolitan areas."

Glanz said it is too early to start pricing homes, especially as sales prices continue to drop throughout the area. Plans call for the development to include 300 affordable homes that the county calls work-force housing. The county's price ceiling for such homes is $201,600.

Preliminary site work likely would not begin until more than a year from now, after what Glanz hopes will be a favorable review process. Projects that include 10 percent or more of work-force housing are normally fast-tracked through the approval process, but county planners have never expedited a project of this size, county planning director Carol Clarke said.

On a project this size, it may take at least a year and a half before the county commission would vote to approve or reject it.