OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The Marion County Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval of a zoning change request with a 5-1 vote for a 151 single-family dwelling development at their meeting Aug. 25, 2025. It will come before the Marion County Board of County Commissioners Sept. 16 at 2 p.m.
The owner Prosperity US 27, LLC, was requesting a zoning change to change from an expired planned unit development that had previously been general agriculture to planned unit development for a maximum total of 151 single-family residential dwellings on 39.36 acres. The agent for the owner is Tillman and Associates Engineering, LLC.
The parcel is medium residential, which allows one to four dwellings per acre, is located in the urban growth boundary, and is in the primary springs overlay and they also have availability through the City of Belleview for water and sewer, with immediate availability to the parcel, said Kathleen Brugnoli, Marion County growth services planner,
Staff didn’t believe this would have an adverse effect on the public interest, is consistent with the comprehensive plan and is compatible with the land uses in the surrounding area being that it is proposing single-family residential. There is a recommendation of approval with conditions.
The parcel has a history having come before the planning and zoning board a couple of times previously, in 2016, there was a request to go from low residential to high residential, but they were ultimately granted medium residential. They also had a planned unit development, Chestnut Hill and that was for 123 multi-family units.
In 2024, the parcel came back before the board as the planned unit development zoning had expired in 2021, where the applicant was requesting another PUD for 158 single-family detached homes, and that was ultimately repealed in March 2025 because there was an issue related to the density and the medium residential land use, said Brugnoli.
The applicant said that the majority of the development would be pushed toward the east side of the project. Direct access to the school, Legacy Elementary, will be provided so children won’t have to go out on Juniper Loop Road. The public schools had no objection to the applicant’s rezoning or the proposed pedestrian access into their site. The applicant said there is no question that this zoning is an expired PUD and stated that from the very beginning, and the code says that the parcel reverts back to its original zoning and should be evaluated that way.
Jane Graham, an attorney from Sunshine City Law, representing owners, who live just north of the proposed project, asked the board to reevaluate the proposed zoning requests, as the density would be at the top-end of the density scale and is incompatible with the surrounding area, and the board should recommend denial. Graham also went onto say that the property reverted back to A-1 when the PUD expired. There was also opposition from residents of the area who said studies hadn’t been done on the nitrate levels and pollution content, stating that it was a direct access way to the Floridan aquifer and would affect the groundwater. Owners also argued the proposed development would be extremely intrusive.
However, the applicant did disagree with those in opposition about compatibility, when directly across the street there are triplex units, that are in the neighborhood and directly adjacent to the proposed project, and there’s a school directly to the south. Also, he said adequate buffer is being provided, and that the proposed development did create separation and abide by all the nutrient criteria that applies to the karst-sensitive areas.
