OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – Marion County’s Growth Services Planning and Zoning Commission voted unanimously on Monday to recommend approval of a 105-acre mixed-use project at a forthcoming Interstate 75 exit, after neighbors used public comment to warn about traffic, buffers, and how the corner will change.

The board recommended both pieces of the 49th Street Gateway project: a land-use change on 31.44 acres from Low Residential to Employment Center, and a planned unit development (PUD) allowing up to 535 homes, a 500-room hotel, 450,000 square feet of retail, offices, restaurants and a gas station. No one voted no. County commissioners will take it up on October 20, 2026, at 2 p.m.

The site sits at Northwest 49th Street and Northwest 44th Avenue, where a jug-handle off the new diverging diamond interchange will pour interstate traffic onto the property. Directly across I-75 is the planned Buc-ee’s travel center, the chain’s first in Ocala, tied to the same exit. Senior Planner for Marion County, Chris Rison, told the board Buc-ee’s cannot open until the interchange is finished, expected at the end of 2028.

Applicant attorney W. James Gooding III said a “jug handle” ramp off the new interchange “runs dead into” the developer’s 105 acres, sending northbound and southbound I-75 traffic onto that corner at 44th Avenue and 49th Street. He called it “almost like a three-intersection project,” with the ramp “pouring traffic directly into it.” His clients, he said, are “considering the possibility of some sort of equine-themed facility here, where there would be horses and whatnot.”

“You get people pulling off of Buc-ee’s across the street. If they could go get back on and go back on our side and see a, say, a horse museum or something like that, and actually see some horses, that may be a little tourist draw,” he continued.

Sheriff’s office: one more deputy $231,000

A letter from Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods’ office is in the file. It states the project “will potentially bring in 1,284 new residents to an already highly populated area” with 535 units times 2.4 people per household, and that those residents would require one more deputy. The first-year cost is listed at $230,802, including pay, training, a vehicle, gear and benefits. Starting pay is about $62,400. The office said it staffs at 1.14 deputies per 1,000 residents, below the statewide sheriff average of 1.65.

“Not adding more deputies will undoubtedly affect service in that area,” the letter said.

“You won’t recognize it”

Gooding said the owners are Bill Kearns and Joe Nisbett.

“The difference between this and prior projects is that the people behind this are Bill Kearns and Joe Nisbett. Bill Kearns developed the commerce park where FedEx and Chewy are. Bill Kearns developed the commercial properties down in The Villages. You’ve got an experienced, hands-on developer here. Now, I’m not saying he’s not going to sell off part of this property for other people to develop, but he has major plans for this property, including some things that’ll be exciting for Marion County that we don’t want to talk about yet,” Gooding said.

“But this is a different person than the previous applicants. You’ve got a person with experience developing property in The Villages and developing the industrial complex right across the street from it… This is somebody who currently plans on developing it. Although part of it could be sold off to home builders or apartment builders, you’ve got somebody with actual desire to develop something major at this point.”

He said the interchange and the county’s plan to four-lane and extend 49th Street west toward 70th/80th Avenue and the World Equestrian Center will remake the corner whether this PUD is approved or not.

“This area, however, is about to be ground for major changes,” Gooding said. “You won’t recognize it in five or ten years.”

He said the project will not break ground in a way that loads the roads before the interchange is done in 2028. Asked when construction would start, he said they do not know yet. “I’m anticipating it’s going to be a year or two.”

On neighbor demands for a wall, Gooding said the edges are heavily wooded.

“Walls don’t do great with heavily treed areas,” he said. “We want the ability to not interfere with the existing vegetation.”

Pressed on trees along 49th, he conceded some will come out.

“The major thrust of this project is going to be at the intersection of two four-lane roads with a jug handle from the interstate pouring traffic directly into it. But yeah, I haven’t thought about 49th that much. But you’re right; there will be trees lost along there.” He said later that the final PUD review can still tighten buffers once uses are known.

Staff recommended approval. Traffic build-out in the study is 2035. Water and sewer are available.

“This is a sad day for us”

During public comment, Dr. Evelyn Kelly said her family owns the land directly across the street.

“We bought this property in 1966,” she said. “We have operated it as different types of agriculture for all of this time.”

“As a private person living right across from them, how is this going to affect my life?” she said.

She feared noise, lighting, drainage, the loss of century-old trees when 49th Street is built, and a four-lane road with no usable driveway.

“Are we going to go up and turn around and do a U-turn and come back down?” she said. “Our main concern is safety, for our own particular safety.”

Her daughter, Natalie Kelly, lives with her. Her mother turns 92 in October.

“This is emotional. This is a sad day for us,” Natalie Kelly said. “My dad came over 60 years ago and bought this land from old man Baldwin. And now our life is changing dramatically.”

“We understand progress,” she said. “But let’s get down to the facts.”

“Waze takes people off the interstate. We’re right parallel to the interstate. 44th is where it takes people off the interstate when there’s a backup on the interstate, and you all know how much that gets backed up. So they’re taking people off the interstate on 44th, and now 44th goes all the way down past 27, past 40, past 200. Okay, so people are getting on that. That was a reason why it was backed up yesterday. I could not even get through two lights. And this is prior to all this,” she continued.

Wayne King lives on 15.3 acres that back up to the project. He keeps horses there and asked the board for a Type C buffer with a wall, not the Type B buffer with no wall the applicant wants. “I don’t want people coming over on our property and mess with our horses,” he said. He also called the “employment center” label on the 31-acre north tract “kind of vague” and asked what else would be built there. That 31 acres is only the land-use change. The full site is about 105 acres.

Tom Burke, a homeowner near The Fountains, whose house faces a proposed entrance, said 49th Avenue has been “a one and a half [lane] country road” for the 15 years he has lived there.

“Well, first off, it’s only a one and a half car country road, which is what it’s been for the 15 years I’ve lived there,” Burke said. “OK, and you show one entrance going in off of 44th down there, which currently is only a four-lane highway. The problem is, is that all these houses are going to be built, [you’ve got] Amazon traffic, and all the other additional traffic that’s been put on these, the roads are not going to handle this traffic. They’re just not. The noise level—they put a what, bumper, what have you, some trees or what have you. OK, that’s not going to keep it quiet like we’ve had it. We don’t agree with what you have there. We don’t.”

“It won’t handle traffic safety. It was mentioned as an issue. And so with that said, I’ve been to the other meetings on the 49th Street overpass and all that, and I understand progress. But right now you’re looking at changing our whole way of life on this street, and with no safety, no security, overrun with traffic. OK, no access even to our own property in the back.”

Gooding said he respected families who bought in 1966 “and don’t like changes in the neighborhood.”

“I really respect people that bought property here in 1966 and don’t like changes in the neighborhood. My grandfather told me in about 1964 that Marion County had gotten too big for him, and because he didn’t like the changes, and that’s a lot of the way a lot of people feel. This area, however, is about to be ground central for major changes,” he said.

Gooding went on to explain that in five to ten years, “you won’t recognize it.”

The P&Z vote is a recommendation only. A Northwest Gateway community plan workshop is still set for the week of Oct. 5, before the commission’s Oct. 20 hearing.