Divided Marion County commission approves revised WEC plan for former Ocala Jockey Club

Plans for the World Equestrian Center Jockey Club in northwest Marion County off of County Road 318, which have drawn mixed reviews from the community for months, went to the county commissioners for final consideration on Tuesday in a marathon public hearing lasting five and a half hours.

All but two of some three dozen community members who spoke expressed their opposition to the plan, which originally included two polo fields, a 9,000-seat stadium, 100-lot RV park, 200-room hotel, six barns, 94 homes and other amenities like retail space and a fuel station.

Community members pleaded with the commission to deny the plans for fear of opening the rest of Marion County’s farmland area up to commercial activity, while those representing WEC contended the plan will strengthen the farmland community by keeping an equestrian use at the iconic Ocala Jockey Club property.

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Commissioners ultimately voted 3-2 to approve a text and map amendment to the county’s comprehensive plan that will allow the RV park, but the developer agreed to nix the 200-room hotel. The land will also be rezoned to Planned Unit Development (PUD) from mostly agricultural, but a master plan must come back to the county for approval.

Developers agreed to nix hotel on iconic property

The 1,029-acre property is west of Reddick and less than a mile west of Interstate 75 in a hamlet called Irvine. The land is within the Farmland Preservation Area (FPA), which the county designated to prevent certain development and activities near Marion County’s extensive horse farms.

In August of last year, Golden Ocala Equestrian Land, LLC, the developer of WEC, purchased the Ocala Jockey Club with plans to transform it into an eventing cross-country complex. The site was previously used for a three-day eventing competition once a year.

County staff had initially recommended denial of the plan, but the volunteer Planning & Zoning Commission voted 3-2 in February to recommend approval to the commissioners.

WEC has its own “WEC” future land use classification, which it wanted to apply to the new Jockey Club. But that land use designation does not allow for a hotel and RV park in rural areas (outside the designated Urban Growth Boundary).

“I would like you to talk with your client and see if we can remove this hotel,” commission Chairman Carl Zalak III told attorney Jimmy Gooding during Tuesday's hearing. “I think it would give the community a whole lot of peace of mind.”

The developer agreed to remove the hotel and an accompanying ballroom, but did ask and receive language to keep the property’s existing clubhouse as a restaurant and meeting space.

The changed language will limit the clubhouse and RV park to a one-time use for the Jockey Club.

State feedback considered water supply, wildlife and historical site

Because both text and map amendments to the county’s comprehensive plan were being proposed, the county had to send the amendments to the state for review after the last public hearing.

No state departments objected, but some did offer comments.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Intergovernmental Programs wrote back that the Jockey Club is within the springshed boundaries of the Rainbow Spring Group, which is considered an Outstanding Florida Spring.

“Activities associated with the proposed project have the potential to impact water quality,” the department wrote. “If adopted, appropriate measures should be taken to minimize any potential additional nutrient loadings to the spring(s), including the proper treatment and disposal of wastewater and stormwater.”

The Division of Historical Resources wrote that “there are many cultural resources recorded in the general vicinity” of the location, referring to a potential historic site with human remains called Fort Drane.

“We recommend that any future development plans should be sensitive to locating, assessing and avoiding potential adverse impacts to any resources,” the letter read.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission noted that the Jockey Club is a potential habitat for listed species, including Eastern indigo snakes, Southeastern American kestrels, Florida sandhill cranes, Florida burrowing owls, gopher tortoises and Florida pine snakes.

FWC recommended numerous surveys to minimize impact on these species.

Community members shared many of these concerns. The WEC Jockey Club will be required to connect to central sewer, and wildlife studies will be conducted, which may result in providing habitat for the species, relocating them, or mitigating development by paying for habitat elsewhere.

Neighbors concerned about traffic, houses, pollution

Some community members also questioned the fairness and impact of allowing the 94 homes, which must be on lots of at least 3 acres, even though the requirement for other farms in the FPA is 10 acres.

Traffic was a further point of contention. Assistant County Administrator Tracy Straub told commissioners that $61.2 million in road improvements, most of which would be footed by the developers, would be needed between the Jockey Club and the massive Sunny Oaks warehouse complex that is approved for development off CR 318 east of I-75.

A water plant and wastewater treatment facility will also be needed between the two projects.

Attorney Gooding and engineer David Tillman, who both represented the applicant, balked at many of the traffic numbers and improvement suggestions.

The traffic study “dramatically overstates the potential impact of our project,” Gooding said.

They believe the number of trips generated will be much lower and the road improvements needed will not be as extensive.

“These eventing type facilities, people trickle in, people trickle out,” Tillman said. “It’s not one where everybody shows up and everybody leaves.”

The applicant contended that the RV spaces are compatible with the surroundings, which include the intensive employment center and commercial space across I-75, another 400-unit RV park just down the street, and a mine directly to the south.

"As we can see from the WEC in Ocala, there is a symbiosis, a relationship between the people that have their horses there and that like to stay on property,” Gooding said. “You’re not going to have people come here just to stay in our RV park. They’re going to be coming here because they’re going to be participating in the events that happen at the WEC.”

He added that this will be a rural WEC with only equestrian uses, not a “concert central for North Central Florida or anything.”

Community members in the Reddick area did question the need for a 9,000-seat arena, which they said was especially large for equestrian disciplines, and whether noise and light pollution would be a problem. Neighbors had previously opposed planned 35-foot entrance signs, which the applicant agreed to cut down to 15 feet.

Community pleads to save Farmland Preservation Area

The bulk of comments, though, mirrored Commissioner Craig Curry’s belief that it is a slippery slope once the FPA is opened up to any commercial activity, such as the RV park.

“I’m looking at what’s on the east side (of I-75), and I hate it,” Curry said. “The west side is pristine pretty much. … When you start changing the Farmland Preservation Area and you use the east side to justify the changes you want to make on the west side, that’s what the next person is going to do, that’s what the next person is going to do, and where will it stop?”

He continued that it didn’t make sense to go into the FPA, which they are “trying like hell to protect” and that once it’s changed, it can’t go back.

“I feel like this helps secure the Farmland Preservation Area, not take away from it,” Tillman countered.

Many neighbors and lawyer Ralf Brookes, who represented several residents near the Jockey Club, questioned why the commission would go against the recommendation of its own planning team, which stated concerns about retaining rural character and the encroachment of urban sprawl.

Brookes also suggested litigation of the amendments, which he believes are incompatible with the comprehensive plan for bringing commercial activity into the FPA.

“We don’t need another WEC facility in Reddick,” resident John Nolan said. “What we need is beautiful farmland so that the kids and people that have never seen beautiful country can drive through and enjoy it.”

Others called it an “unacceptable divergence” of the proposal from the FPA’s original intent.

“If the rezoning request is approved, all of Marion County could become devoid of its greatest asset, the farmland that makes Marion County the Horse Capital of the World,” Jerome Feaster of the Shiloh area said.

Della Williams, who has spoken out against other developments, told commissioners to remember that horses are on the Marion County seal.

“I’m an eventer. You people don’t know jack about eventing,” she said. “We like rural settings. Horse trial three-day events occur on large pieces of property, not with fancy dancy restaurants and high-end Hermes saddles and all of that. No, we are rural people. That is a pristine farm, and you’re going to screw it up.”

The measure passed 3-2

Williams also called on two commissioners to recuse themselves from the vote, as Zalak and Commissioner Kathy Bryant have both accepted campaign contributions from the Roberts family, which owns WEC.

Neither abstained. County Attorney Guy Minter said it is common to have to vote on items connected to donors, and they were not doing anything illegal unless they accepted money in exchange for their vote.

Bryant joined Curry in voting against the amendments and rezoning. She said she regretted first approving Sunny Oaks about a decade ago because of what it's doing to the area.

“I love everything that the Robertses have done out at the WEC (in Ocala). It’s amazing. It’s an amazing facility for our community. It’s done amazing things for that area. It is the type of development that you want,” she said. “But when it comes to this up in that area, it’s a totally different animal.”

She said it is the wrong place and time, especially because the infrastructure in the area isn’t in place.

Zalak, along with Commissioners Michelle Stone and Jeff Gold, voted to approve the amendments and rezoning, but the developer must still submit a PUD master plan for approval.

Contact reporter Danielle Johnson at djohnson@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: WEC Jockey Club plan in NW Marion advances with RV park, but no hotel