Board transmits Golden Ocala/World Equestrian Center comprehensive plan text and map amendments to state; public raises traffic, water and farmland preservation

The Marion County Board of County Commissioners on July 21 voted to transmit two large‑scale comprehensive plan amendments related to the Golden Ocala World Equestrian Center to state and regional agencies for coordinated review. The items were: a text amendment to the WEC future land use definition to explicitly add "sports facilities" (indoor and outdoor) to the list of allowed/supporting uses, and a map amendment to convert roughly 250.86 acres of low‑density residential land north of State Road 40 to the WEC land‑use designation.

Staff summary and proposed changes: County planner Chris Reisen told the board the amendments are large‑scale and require coordinated state review (a 60‑day comment period by state agencies). The proposed text change would add sports facilities (examples listed included soccer fields, softball fields, indoor/outdoor arenas) to the WEC designation and update WEC policies and tables. The map amendment proposed expanding the geographic WEC boundary by about 251 acres on the north side of State Road 40. The applicants also requested program changes that include shifting how some event capacities are measured (moving from seat counts to acreage thresholds in some cases) and increasing the potential number of hotel rooms on the overall WEC campus by 300 rooms to a total of 1,650 rooms. Staff noted no change is proposed for the existing recreational vehicle area or the commercial square footage caps.

Traffic, water and related studies: Reisen said the applicant has supplied a traffic methodology that staff approved and that a traffic study was underway;…