A proposal to rezone more than 81 acres of a former mining site in southwest Ocala for the development of 590 residential units will go before city leaders for its first reading next week.
A first reading and introduction for the proposed development will come before the Ocala City Council during its next regular meeting on Tuesday, July 21.
While Tuesday’s meeting will see the first reading the of proposal, a second reading and final vote will be scheduled for a subsequent council meeting (likely, the council’s first or second meeting in August).
City records show that the developer, Ocala 52 Partners, LLC, along with their agent Tillman & Associates Engineering, LLC, is requesting to rezone approximately 82.10 acres located at 5575 SW 52nd Street from county general agriculture to city planned development.
If ultimately approved, the developer’s master plan and standards book outlines a multi-tiered neighborhood program yielding a maximum of 590 total dwelling units.
This includes 230 single-family residential homes spread across 45.4 acres and 360 multi-family residential units situated on 20.2 acres.
The blueprint also designates 4.5 acres of the property for commercial development, allowing for a maximum of 147,000 square feet of space for businesses.
The property was actively used for earth and mineral mining from the 1960s until about 2022, after which the Florida Department of Environmental Protection issued an official release of reclamation obligations. Several small existing structures and an old septic system currently remain on the site, all of which must be completely cleared before any new construction could begin.
The developers also intend to preserve a 6.7-acre man-made lake on the southern edge of the property and a 16,000-square-foot pond in the northeastern corner, with plans for both bodies of water to be incorporated into the final neighborhood design as community amenities and stormwater drainage retention areas.
The rezoning request follows a series of successful municipal approvals for the project over the last few months.
In late May, the Ocala Planning and Zoning Commission initially voted seven-to-zero to approve the annexation of the land into the city limits alongside a future land use map amendment changing the property’s designation to low intensity.
In June, the Ocala City Council formally transmitted those land use adjustments to the Florida Department of Commerce for an expedited state review, which is legally mandated for projects exceeding 50 acres.
More recently, on June 8, the Planning and Zoning Commission held a separate public hearing specifically for this rezoning ordinance, passing it with a unanimous five-to-zero vote.
During that session, city staff corrected an earlier clerical error to clarify that the developer will be required to pay standard school impact fees rather than school concurrency fees during the review process, and officials noted they received three pieces of correspondence from the public regarding the project.
To maintain compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods like Fore Ranch to the north and the Saddle Oak Club to the south, city staff has recommended approval of the planned development with several strict operational conditions.
Under those proposed guidelines, all existing agricultural activities on the land would have to completely cease within one year of the ordinance’s final approval.
Furthermore, the developer would have to ensure that all internal roadways remain privately owned and maintained, construct a public sidewalk along SW 52nd Street in phases matching the timeline of the adjacent construction, and fully connect to city public utilities.
Because there are currently no sanitary sewer connection points within the immediate right-of-way of SW 52nd Street, the project would be required to establish its infrastructure connections through the existing sewer network located directly to the north within Fore Ranch.
What are your thoughts on transforming this former southwest Ocala mining site into a mixed-use residential and commercial neighborhood? Share your perspective in a comment below or write a letter to the editor.