West Oak development approved for major increase in number of homes

The West Oak planned development, to be built on the former Pine Oaks Golf Course land in northwest Ocala, was unanimously approved by the Ocala City Council on Aug. 15 to expand to nearly 70% more housing units than originally approved [Courtesy of the city of Ocala].

The West Oak planned development, to be built on the former Pine Oaks Golf Course land in northwest Ocala, was unanimously approved by the Ocala City Council on Aug. 15 to expand to nearly 70% more housing units than originally approved.

The development is near giant distribution centers for Amazon, FedEx, Chewy and AutoZone—and lies just south of the future Buc-ee’s location off of Interstate 75.

To accommodate the growing workforce in the area, the developers believed that additional housing would be a necessity but only at the right price.

“There is a need for more housing development in the city, especially affordable housing, considering the recent increase in employment opportunities that resulted from the development of major distribution centers on NW 35th Avenue Road and NW 35th Street,” according to a staff report from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

The original approved plan for the 198.8 acres of property included 386 single-family lots, 832 multifamily units and 150 townhomes, for a total of 1,368 units. Now, the development is approved for 1,980 multifamily units and 170 single-family units and the same number of townhomes, for a total of 2,300 units.

Scott Siemens, owner of Siemens Development and agent of West Oak Development LLC, requested this amendment to the plan because he said that without increasing the number of units, they wouldn’t be able to meet the requirementagreed upon with the city of 20% affordable housing. This would require a minimum of 460 units out of the total 2,300 single-family, multifamily and townhome units to meet the threshold for affordable housing.

Affordable housing is privately owned housing that receives a subsidy to bring its purchase price or rent down to an affordable level for a low to moderate-income family, according to the Housing Finance Authority of Marion County.

As of 2020, the median household income in Marion County was $46,587 a year. By definition in Florida, people are eligible to live in affordable housing when they spend no more than 30% of their income on rent or mortgage payments.

Siemens said he believes that the affordable housing units within the development will be priced at about $200,000 per unit, based on housing and urban development data.

Siemens said to the city council that he believes with this amendment they will be able to go above and beyond the requirement and bring many more affordable homes to the area.

“We are actually, with this ask, increasing our affordable (housing) to almost 600 units on this project. I think my actual requirement based on count is closer to 500 units, but I’m going to make a 600-unit mark,” Siemens said.

Probably the biggest change that comes with the amendment, however, is the amount of commercial space allotted, which would potentially be used for a grocery store for the influx of residents in the area. Rather than the 70,000 square feet of commercial space approved originally, there will now be only 12,000 square feet of commercial space for the 2,300 units planned.

The decrease in commercial space is due to a necessary drainage area, that will take up 5.83 acres that the council rezoned to governmental use during the same Aug. 15 meeting.

The Aurora St. Leon Apartments are already under construction on the property, but its developer opposed the change in square footage for commercial space. When Aurora initiated development on the West Oak property the company was under the belief that the 70,000 square foot commercial space would stay, allowing for a grocery store to be built there, said Aurora Ocala LLC attorney Austin Dailey.

“We don’t think that it’s appropriate at this time to reduce the commercial square footage. The demand in that area—it’s a food desert,” Dailey said.

The closest grocery store is a Harvey’s Supermarket, a little over a mile away.

The Southampton Development Company plans to take advantage of the amendment as a way to add more units, as buildings can now be up to 75 feet tall, allowing for much larger apartments, which may house the bulk of newly allowed units.

Southampton, which plans to build two five-story apartment buildings on the property, was one of the developers willing to accommodate for blended housing, with affordable and non-affordable housing. Their caveat to do so was that they would need to build about another 800 apartments, said Siemens.