To help plan for growth over the next 20 years, Marion County is updating its Comprehensive Plan through the Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR) process. The County Commission held 17 workshops and also conducted an online survey to seek feedback from citizens about growth and their vision for the community through the Beyond 2024 Survey. Horse Farms Forever attended about a dozen of the EAR workshops as part of our role to monitor the process of updating the Comprehensive Plan. The Commissioners all expressed support of the Farmland Preservation Area and also to protect our rural areas and neighborhoods.

The results of the Survey were compiled by Kimley-Horn & Associates, the consulting firm that is leading the workshops and drafting the updates to the Comprehensive Plan. The feedback from the nearly 700 citizens that completed the Survey includes top priorities to protect rural and natural landscapes and to promote sustainable growth.

Top Three Survey Results:

1. Promote sustainable and strategic growth

2. Enhance transportation infrastructure and connectivity

3. Preserve and enhance rural and natural landscapes

One of the Survey questions was: When you think about the future of Marion County, what concerns you the most? Traffic, Growth, Infrastructure, Roads and Overdevelopment were listed as top concerns.

On the flip side, the similar but different question – When you think about the future of Marion County, what excites you the most – one of the top results was also Growth. In addition, Opportunities, Horses, Rural, and Farms were also listed as top items.

Some of the comments received from the Survey include: “I’d like to see our Rural areas stay rural.…Growth is good but too much or inappropriately placed will destroy the reasons everyone wants to come to Marion County.” And ““Marion County needs to bring up the roads and infrastructure.”

The comments from citizens were presented to the County Commission during the EAR workshops. To addresses these concerns, the Commission discussed several ways to help protect the rural neighborhoods within and also outside of the County’s designated Urban Growth Boundary. Some of the proposed changes include increasing buffers between different densities and types of neighborhoods, step down zoning, tree protection, and updating the Transfer of Development Rights program to help preserve farms and rural landscapes.

“The Comprehensive Plan will help guide growth inside the Urban Growth Boundary,” said County Commission Chair Kathy Bryant. “The Urban Growth Boundary encompasses 122,000 acres and about 50% of that land is available for development, so there is plenty of room to grow inside of the boundary.”

The Commission will be holding additional EAR workshops and will be discussing topics such as the Urban Growth Boundary, the Farmland Preservation Area and the Transfer of Development Rights program, Traffic and Levels of Service, and defining Planned Service Areas (existing urban areas outside of the Urban Growth Boundary such as Marion Oaks and Silver Springs Shores).

Additional EAR workshops are scheduled to be held in the McPherson Governmental Campus auditorium, 601 SE 25th Ave., Ocala. Be sure to attend or watch the workshops livestreamed online. Horse Farms Forever will be attending the upcoming EAR workshops.

Feb. 6 | 2:30 p.m. Targeted Workshops: FAR, Cluster Density Bonus

Feb. 24 | 2 p.m. Targeted Workshops: Step Down Approaches, Protection of Rural Land & Rural Neighborhoods