To the Editor:
I have seen several complaints about the rapid expansion taking place throughout Ocala. Like many, I came here 19 years ago to enjoy something special in the country setting that was Ocala. Not knowing of course that the commission was willing to allow anything and everything to be developed without concern for preserving the uniqueness that was Ocala.
Seems you can’t pass an intersection without a new car wash going up. Didn’t know cars got so dirty here. Yet none of them have lines waiting for use. Housing development after housing development going in left and right. Retirees? If not, where is the industry to support them, unless you consider car washes and restaurant chains to be industry. And where exactly is all the money from impact fees and taxes going? It is certainly not back into the infrastructure of this community. Roads are abysmal. As traffic thickens they will get worse, pit hikes everywhere, loose and decaying asphalt making driving dangerous.
The only solutions I have seen and felt are lengthening the traffic light timing if you’re on 200. Side streets now have shorter times. And whatever happened to the concern over saving and protecting the springs? You can’t tell me that the springs are being cared for when thousands of new homes are going in. Where is Florida Water Management…..asleep or told to take a vacation by the governor?
I’m no geologist but I can predict a rise in sink holes in the coming years due to drawing down the water tables. Sloppy land management and development strategies for sure. Or is it just a cash grab by the commission?
Infrastructure now people! Not after the headache gets unmanageable.
Tory Gee
Ocala