WEC Jockey Club and opposing neighbors to face off

File photo: Ralph Brookes, an attorney for the opposition to the WEC Jockey Club, front, works on making notes over a large satellite map as the auditorium was filled to capacity at 235, mostly with people opposed to the project, during the Marion County Commission meeting on the WEC Jockey Club development at the McPherson Governmental Complex in Ocala on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

Editor’s Note: This hearing will be rescheduled. 

Another volley in the fight against the massive WEC Jockey Club development is scheduled to take place next week, with expert witnesses offering testimony that either refutes or supports the reason for its approval in June. 

A Formal Administrative Hearing will take place at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday (Jan. 12-13) at the Marion County Board of County Commissioners Auditorium, 601 SE 25th Ave., with Administrative Law Judge Suzanne Van Wyk presiding over the hearing.

In July, Cape Coral-based land use expert attorney Ralf Brookes filed the request for the hearing on behalf of the property owners living adjacent to or nearby the 1,029 Planned Unit Development, and the conservation group Save Our Rural Areas (SORA) following the Marion County Board of County Commissioners (MCBOCC) June 21 approval of the project. 

The suit challenges the Commission’s adoption of amendments to its Comprehensive Plan which allowed a rezoning of the property, which then subsequently allowed the 3-to-2 vote approving the PUD. 

“The Administrative Hearing Request is because the Comprehensive Plan Amendments were not supported by data or analysis,” Brooks said after filing the request. 

The former Ocala Jockey Club property is located within the Farmland Preservation Area on rural two-lane County Road 318 in northwest Marion County. It was purchased in August of 2021 by Golden Ocala Equestrian Land, LLC., owned by billionaires Larry and Mary Roberts, long-distance trucking magnates who also developed the World Equestrian Center in Ocala. 

As approved, the project will allow Golden Ocala to build a similar multi-use equestrian venue on the property, with 94-site built homes, polo fields and stadiums 120,000-square-feet of commercial and retail space, 100-site RV park, and convenience store, but sans hotel, which the developer agreed to nix during the June meeting. 

The petitioners include Damian and Rebecca Guthrie, who reside on 22 acres directly adjacent to the WEC Jockey Club and Don Love who lives nearby. SORA is listed as an intervenor. 

Golden Ocala is represented by attorney Jimmy Gooding of the law firm Gooding and Batsel, PLLC. Gooding declined to comment for this story via email.