Planned development behind Publix on SW 42nd Street and 27th Avenue

A concept rendering of the future four-story apartment buildings which will be a part of the development behind Publix at Southwest 42nd Street and 27th Avenue [Courtesy of Jimmy Gooding].

A future development in southwest Ocala envisions building 528 multifamily units and 30,000 square feet of medical office space.

The owner and developer, Leon Ocala Holdings III LLC, was first approved by Marion County for the development at Southwest 42^nd Street and 27^th Avenue to have 474 units in 2012. The developer now seeks to have its Planned Development zoning amended to have additional high-rise apartments and low-rise townhomes.

The development lies behind the Publix in the Grand Oaks Shopping Center, which was also developed by Leon, according to the developer’s attorney Jimmy Gooding.

Residents of the El Dorado neighborhood, an area overseen by Marion County rather than Ocala, expressed concerns about flooding, which is a long-running problem they say would be exasperated by a new development next door.

The developer was required to hold a meeting, which took place on Oct. 26, with the neighborhood before submitting an application for a zoning change. The application has not yet been submitted but likely will be soon, according to an engineer from Kimley Horn.

“El Dorado was built in a flood zone and it is at the bottom of a large basin, all of the water of which flows down into El Dorado,” Gooding said. “Back when the county built 42nd Street, it went to great efforts to try to minimize or reduce the flooding and El Dorado.”

The development will have three drainage retention areas, or DRAs, so stormwater on the property will be diverted into the ponds rather than running off into the El Dorado neighborhood, Gooding said.

The president of the El Dorado Homeowners Association said the neighborhood still floods despite the mitigation efforts done by the county while building 42^nd Street. Gooding said the flooding is likely caused by water flowing through a large ditch just east of the future development, which is not part of the property.

“(The president) says they still flood, and then wants to meet with us about that. We’re going to meet with them pretty soon to see if there’s anything else we can do,” Gooding said.

To mitigate noise, stormwater runoff and add additional privacy, the development also is putting in a 50-foot-wide landscape buffer, Gooding said.

“We’re required to put in some sort of live oaks at that height, small trees at that height, then have a vinyl fence with patching on either side of it but on our property,” Gooding said. “That will grow up into the type of vegetation that you see on the other property.”

Once this vegetation grows tall enough, a two-story house in El Dorado will likely not even be able to see the apartment complex, he said.

The development is expected to generate an additional 3,033 daily trips in and out of the low-rise apartments, high-rise apartments and the office building, according to data from the ITE Trip Generation study.

Gooding said the apartment buildings have the potential to be a high-end, luxurious complex with a number of amenities.

“We anticipate this will be a fairly unique project, because it has the four floors with the elevators,” he said.

The retention ponds may be filled with water, which would add a pleasant view in the heart of the complex, in addition to a clubhouse, pool, and recreation court for either tennis or pickleball, Gooding said.

“Because of that, they’re more likely to be rented to people with established sources of income as opposed to some ordinary folk just getting out of college,” he said. “We anticipate a potentially higher age level associated with these.”

“Our apartments will be different from most other apartments being constructed in Ocala or Marion County right now,” Gooding said.