Developers of the massive World Equestrian Center want to make it even bigger by adding another 1,000-plus acres to the already approved 3,200-acre footprint of the project in northwest Marion County.
On Monday, however, the Marion County Planning and Zoning Commission balked at part of that plan, voting 4-1 to recommend excluding about 370 acres north of U.S. 27 between Golden Hills Turf and County Club and County Road 225A. The sticking point was its distance from the main WEC property south of U.S. 27. P&Z Commissioner Andy Bonner cast the lone dissenting vote.
The P&Z commission is an advisory board and will send its recommendation to the Marion County Commission. The commission, which is not bound by the recommendation, is scheduled to consider the plan at its May 28 meeting.
The developer, RLR Investments LLC, is led by trucking magnate Larry Roberts, who owns extensive property in Marion County.
Under the proposed plan, the number of homes remains at just below 2,400, but commercial space increases to 4 million square feet, up from 525,000 square feet. Hotel rooms could top out at 1,350, suggesting plans for more hotels besides the 254-room facility currently under construction. Seating at the WEC outdoor stadium would also increase from 10,000 seats to 13,500.
Horse Farms Forever, a local rural land conservation organization, of which Roberts is a member, is against parts of the plan because it infringes on the Farmland Preservation Area (FPA) boundary. About 118 acres of the new land eyed for residential development falls over the FPA boundary to the north of the main WEC development. Another 160 acres to the west also falls in the FPA.
While RLR suggests it would put polo fields on the 160-acre site, representatives fear it will eventually fall to commercial development.
In 2017, the County Commission moved the FPA boundary west to accommodate about 1,000 acres of the WEC project.
The County Commission designated the Farmland Preservation Area in December 2004. It covers much of northwest Marion.
The WEC would feature a sport horse competition area as the centerpiece of an upscale residential community currently planned for about 3,200 acres between Northwest 80th Avenue and Northwest 100th Avenue and U.S. 27 and State Road 40.
The new proposal, introduced on Monday, would add about 1,000 acres, including more than 560 acres north of U.S. 27, 160 acres west of Northwest 100th Avenue and about 52 acres east of Northwest 80th Avenue.
Jimmy Gooding, an attorney representing RLR, presented the plan, which would bring all 4,200 acres under the same umbrella.
“It allows us to continue to develop the WEC without having to come back for everything and having to get separate approvals for movement of items,” Gooding said.
Gooding said they would still be bound by limits in the underlying development agreements.
“It’s not the Wild West. It is governed by the text policy that we have, and it’s covered by our (planned urban development) zoning,” he said.
But P&Z Commission Chairman Greg Lord did not feel it was appropriate to include the property outside of the core project.
“It’d be a lot easier for me to support almost everything you’re asking for if you didn’t have all these outparcels outside of the major portion,” Lord said. “As you ease out to these other parcels, I really feel like they should be addressed individually instead of being put all in there together.”
During the meeting, several people addressed the issue of the FPA intrusion, though the commission did not discuss that issue.
“While we agree the WEC will be a great boon to our horse industry and economy, we believe it needs to be well managed,” said Busy Shires Byerly of the Ocala-based Horse Farms Forever.
The organization is against changing the FPA boundary.
“We believe this land use category is really like a Trojan horse. It sounds and looks good, but if it is approved, it will invade the Farmland Preservation Area with undefined, intensive commercial development,” she said.
Gooding said they hope to work with the group to find a compromise, but ultimately the changes they seek would only affect a tiny portion of the FPA.
“I understand some people think the lines are cut into stone, and they are perfectly entitled to their opinion, but under the county’s comp plan, it contemplates changing the boundary,” he said. “There are circumstances where the applicant can show the need to move the boundary, and we are seeking to move it.”
Separately, the commission unanimously recommended the county move forward with a plan to swap 20 acres on Northwest 80th Avenue, adjacent to the WEC, and currently owned by the Marion County School Board, for other property from RLR.
— Contact Carlos E. Medina at 867-4157 or cmedina@starbanner.com
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Thank you for keeping me in the loop of everything. I don’t have a horse farm but we live very close to all of you and I love our surroundings and we are so very lucky to see your beautiful horse farms and cattle farms. I truly love living here and it would truly be awful for this expansion to happen in our community. I love the quiet and beauty for this land.
Thank you for all that you do.
In one meeting we lost l,000 acres of Farmland Preservation, farms retreated (domino effect), now WEC is asking to take more. What message is being sent? If you have the money it doesn’t matter about public trust or that years have been invested in saving farmland? It was the public that supported the FPA and a County that saw all the merits. Giving WEC approval sets a dangerous precedent as WEC will continue to ask for more. The land grab will continue, as more and more property owners sell because, the new land uses are not compatible. This is sprawl. Giving WEC unbridled consent only begets more farmlands, equine residential areas to fall as farms recede from incompatible, encroaching development. EMBRACE the FPA, not erase. This should Include the FPA and existing communities that “obstruct” WEC’s plan. BLEND IN, to the surrounding communities, lessen densities not increase them. Add step down densities and buffers. Finally we need, as a community, to stand up and say a clear and resounding NO to this expansion and ask our county commissioners to oversee EACH land use application on the number one rule of planning. NEED. Speculation is not need and brings premature growth to an area totally unprepared and vulnerable.
It will only be a matter of time before they purchase (if they don’t already own) the land between the “out parcel” sites requested for variance and the core development. Seems indeed like a slippery slope.
The properties mentioned were bought with clear and full knowledge of their designation as FPA. Therefore there is no economic hardship nor pressing reason to change anything with the FPA boundary location. There still can be 10 acre farms located therein.
My family lived in Orlando around the time that Disney quietly purchased thousands of acres of basically what was considered at that time scrubland around Kissimmee. Over the next several years surrounding land owners started selling their land. Some sold to take advantage of making a profit, but others sold because they didn’t want to be surrounded by the congestion, construction, traffic etc.
The people adjacent to WEC are already starting to do the same thing! These boundaries for FPA were set for a reason. We do not want Ocala’s beautiful farms to start down the same path as Disney World! WEC in its original form was welcomed, with some trepidation, knowing that it could be a boon to the equine community but also some fears as to what damage it could cause to the aquifer and Created congestion. Now it seems to be the start of a new kind of development that will end up as “The Villages” for horse people!
As a Real Estate Broker living in the Ocala area for over 30 years and dealing almost exclusively in Equine properties, I must agree strongly with those interested in preserving the FPA and the ambiance connected with the horses and farms that ARE Ocala. Many changes have occurred here over the years, and the majority of those changes are not in favor of keeping Ocala peaceful and beautiful. I sometimes wonder if developers understand that you can’t keep horses in “back yards”. We are destroying their habitat.