OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The founder of a venerable and renowned Ocala thoroughbred facility has filed a second legal challenge to the World Equestrian Center Ocala’s plans for building a sports complex, claiming the actions of both the developer and Marion County’s actions in moving those plans forward violate existing authorized land use and zoning for the property.
Acting as both an individual and a trustee of the Charlotte C. Weber 2001 Revocable Trust, Charlotte Weber filed a “Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief and Petition for Writ of Certiorari” last Wednesday, July 22, 2026, against Golden Ocala Equestrian Land, LLC and Marion County. She seeks cessation of the development process due to the fact that her previous legal challenge–filed April 17–is still pending, and any action taken prior to its disposition is in violation of state law.
Weber owns Live Oak Stud, a thoroughbred farm of approximately 4,300 acres located directly to the south of and adjacent to the Golden Ocala property earmarked for the sports complex.
The impetus for this second legal action reportedly stems from a last-minute change made to the development’s Major Site Plan that Weber claims is an end run around complaints that the sporting complex does not fit the property’s authorized land use designation.
An update to the Major Site Plan submitted by Golden Ocala and approved in June by the Marion County Office of the County Engineer’s Development Review Committee changed an area of the proposed development previously planned for soccer fields to polo fields, in order to remain in compliance with the property’s authorized land use designation and zoning. Weber contends that the plans clearly still show lighting and other amenities in the middle of Golden Ocala’s “polo fields,” and that Golden Ocala intends to pivot back to the original sports complex plans once legal and zoning hurdles are overcome.
In any case, her complaint states, the approval and any other actions taken regarding the property before her legal challenge is disposed of constitute illegal activity.
“In flagrant disregard of Florida law and the rights of the public, Golden Ocala has charged ahead with its development of the Sports/Entertainment Property pursuant to the Pending 2026 Approvals, and the County has willfully cooperated by unlawfully issuing permit after permit,” the legal complaint reads, in part.
In late June, Marion County preservation nonprofit Horse Farms Forever successfully challenged the DRC’s authority to approve a waiver request that would’ve allowed Golden Ocala to obtain permits to begin work on the site before a new Major Site Plan was approved.