City Council pushes vote on planned Maricamp development

Tye Chighizola, the director of Growth Management, speaks during the Ocala City Council meeting at Ocala City Hall in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

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Posted January 5, 2022 | By James Blevins
james@ocalagazette.com

The Ocala City Council had its second of two public hearings on Jan. 4 in anticipation of approving a development agreement for 320 multi-family housing on 23.51 acres located near the 2400 block of Southeast Maricamp Road.

The first public hearing was held on Dec. 21.

Ultimately, the City Council voted for a continuance on the agenda item until its first meeting in February, so the council could properly review recent changes to the amendment agreement by the applicant (pending a legal review), as well furthering the discussion on possible traffic issues associated with the planned development.

The applicant’s lawyer, Chris Roper, voiced frustration to the council over the delay stating they had complied with all the requests of the city.

Roper told the council that he would submit a stack of traffic studies that his firm’s traffic engineer had conducted over the last year that the proposed adjustments to the road would resolve any feared issues.

“Mind you,” added Roper, “this is all without any extension of 25^th Avenue down to the property. We’re not talking about that. That’s not associated with this project. That’s a different project to the north. Our traffic study says that we don’t need the extension. Our traffic study also says that we don’t need any bypass route through the fluid routing property. We’re good to go with 24^th Street as it exists today, subject to being upgraded to city standards.”

Roper added some more to the question of extending 25^th Avenue.

“We’re not going to [extend it]. However, we have monetarily agreed to donate our share of the ride-away that would be required to connect Southeast 24^th Street to Southeast 25^th Avenue,” he said. “So that’s in the agreement as well.”

Tye Chighizola, director of Growth Management for the city, stood up to the lectern and confirmed the accuracy of everything Roper had said. He also introduced a presentation to the council that brought context to all the traffic issues and solutions discussed by the applicant’s attorney.

Owned by the Albright Family Trust, the property is accessed via an 8-foot wide road that connects with the western terminus of Southeast 24^th street. It was annexed into the city in 2006 and a zoning district was never established.

There is currently one existing single-family residential home still on the property.

A traffic study was performed and approved by staff on Oct. 13. The study projected that, based on the adopted level of service standards of the city and county, the intersection of SR 464 and Southeast 24^th Street will have inadequate capacity at peak hour to accommodate projected new traffic generated by development of property.

However, the study also identified “98 crashes reported within 500 feet of the signalized intersection of SR 464 and SE 24th Street between the years of 2016 and 2020. Over 50% of those crashes were rear end collisions, and approximately 33% were categorized as unknown or other. All crashes categorized as unknown crash type (24) occurred in 2016 and 2017.”

The concurrency agreement stipulated that the density of the planned property shall not exceed a maximum of 180 single-family residential dwelling units or a maximum of 320 multi-family residential dwelling units—or any combination of residential types—as long as the traffic impact of whichever combination is chosen does not exceed the number of PM peak hour trips that would be generated by those assessed for 180 single-family units.

PM peak hour trips are the highest volume of traffic for a continuous hour between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. during a typical weekday.

All other future developments impacting the same roadways, according to Chighizola, would be required to count the Albright trips as well.

“There are multiple projects within the vicinity but do not affect Southeast 24^th Street directly,” said Aubrey Hale, a Chief Development Official for the city.

However, Hale explained, the Maricamp Road project is located a near a development of approximately 4.5 acres, consisting of five commercial lots. Other projects in the area include Maricamp Multi-Family and Maricamp & 25^th Avenue subdivision. These projects are located north of the Albright parcel and adjacent to SR 464 and Southeast 25^th Avenue. These projects are all still under review.

Taking into account existing and background traffic, and the projected growth of both, the agreement established a proportionate share payment of $37,500 to be made by the developer to the city to mitigate the impact on public transportation generated by the proposed development of the property.

The money goes towards improvements to public transportation, including signal-timing adjustments to allow for additional green lights for the eastbound, left-turn lane; an extension of the eastbound left turning lane to allow for additional cars to queue; and installation of a “Right Turn on Red Must Yield to U-Turn” sign for the southbound right turning lane from Southeast 24^th Street to SR 464.

Michael Lea spoke up at the first public hearing addressing his and many homeowners adjacent to the proposed development’s concerns regarding traffic on Maricamp Road.

“Traffic is a complete disaster at this time,” he said. “Solving this issue is going to be an extremely hard job. I’m not a traffic or civil engineer, but as my father once said, ‘Pants first. Then shoes.’ We need to get the traffic situation corrected before we start developing these parcels.”