Public comment is being accepted until April 25 on the largest residential development ever proposed in Poulsbo.

Edward Rose & Sons, a development and property management firm based in Farmington Hills, Mich., proposes a mix of family and senior apartments and retail development at the corner of Bond Road and State Route 305. The city anticipates the project would accommodate between 1,200 and 1,300 residents when fully built, a roughly 15 percent boost to Poulsbo’s population.

The site, about 57 acres, would have 540 one- and two-bedroom multi-family apartments, 160 senior apartments, a 6,245-square-foot clubhouse and about 10,500 square feet of retail development. The site is currently zoned Residential Medium; Rose wants to rezone about nine acres to Commercial.

Access to the site would be on Highway 305; Bond Road northeast of Highway 305; and Vetter Road, off 305 between Bond Road and Viking Avenue.

The Planning Commission is tentatively scheduled to review the plan on June 14, 7 p.m., in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 200 NE Moe St. The meeting is open to the public. The project file – including analysis of the project’s impact on streams, wetlands and traffic – may be reviewed in the Planning Department at City Hall, second floor. 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call associate planner Alyce Nelson, 394-9882, to arrange a time to examine the file.

In an earlier Herald story, Paul Mott, director of site acquisitions for Edward Rose, said the project is expected to cost between $40 million and $60 million. He said at the time the company hoped to close on the property this month – the owners live in Bainbridge and Gig Harbor – and start construction by early 2012.

“We’re in Poulsbo because it’s a great community. It’s got a diversified economic base, which is what we’re looking for,” Mott said in the earlier story.

The development would be built in phases. “We’re trying to make a real active area there where people are encouraged to get out and walk around and intermix with each other,” he said. “It becomes more of a walkable community, more in line with some of the sustainable development that people are turning to these days.”

The application was submitted Jan. 3 and deemed completed on April 7. Because the site is being developed as a master plan, the city’s first since College Marketplace, there is increased flexibility for design: 12 to 13 units per acre, instead of the standard 10, and increased heights to accommodate pitched roofs.

“There’s a lot of discretion in the process,” city Planning Director Barry Berezowsky said in the earlier story. “We want it to be as positive an impact on the community and landscape as we can make it.”

The land at SR 305 and Bond is currently forested and hilly, with wetlands that would be preserved, according to project designs. In this type of project, the developer is responsible for paying for and providing infrastructure, including roads, sewer and storm water systems, trails and open spaces, Berezowsky said.

The development will join Poulsbo’s handful of apartment complexes and senior housing communities. A 250-unit apartment complex is still planned in the Olhava area, but the city is waiting for a developer to take on the project, Berezowsky said.

The Edward Rose apartments will target moderate-income professionals, namely those in the medical and military community, Mott said.

Edward Rose has teamed with a Minnesota senior-housing management company to manage the senior apartments in Poulsbo as well as a similar project being built in Memphis.

The company historically holds onto the projects it builds. It began single-family home development in the 1920s and moved into apartment construction and management in the 1960s. It has built more than 65,000 units apartments, and about 57,000 in 10 states are owned and managed by the company.

“We make an invested interest in each project we do,” Michael Colman of Edward Rose said in the earlier story. “We’re not looking to build this and flip it. We’re looking to hold this long-term.”

Edward Rose & Sons is also proposing a 56-acre, $30 million to $40 million multi-family neighborhood near Interstate 82 in Kennewick, the Tri-City Herald reported March 31.

Mott told the Tri-City Herald that 640 apartments would be built in stages. It will consist of three-story apartment complexes, community centers and pools. It will be designed to appeal to young professionals, the Tri-City Herald reported.