Ocala Council approves remaining grant funds for Foxwood Farms sewer project

Foxwood Farms, a 55-and-older mobile home community in Ocala, will switch from its package treatment plant to the city’s central sewer under a state-funded project expected to cut thousands of pounds of nitrogen from Rainbow Springs each year.

352todayThe budget amendment brings in $718,476 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection so the city can finish connecting a mobile home community’s package plant to the central sewer system.

OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – The Ocala City Council on Tuesday approved a budget amendment that brings in the remaining half of a state grant to finish connecting a mobile home community’s wastewater system to the city’s central sewer, a project aimed at reducing nitrogen pollution runoff into Rainbow Springs.

At its November 3, 2026, meeting, councilmembers voted to adopt Budget Resolution 2027-104, appropriating an additional $718,476 from Florida Department of Environmental Protection Grant No. LPS0025 into the fiscal year 2025-26 budget for the Foxwood Farms Water Quality Improvement Project. The total grant is $1,436,953. The city previously appropriated the first half; this action covers the rest.

According to documents attached to the agenda, the project will design and construct a sanitary sewer system that takes an existing package treatment plant out of service. That plant currently handles wastewater from roughly 276 to 365 residential lots and a community center in the Foxwood Farms subdivision, a 55-and-older mobile home community off Northwest 20th Street. Once complete, the flow will go to the city’s Water Reclamation Facility No. 3 instead.

Rainbow Springs and the Rainbow River are listed as impaired for total nitrogen. The project is expected to cut about 5,491 pounds of total nitrogen per year from the springs basin. The developer, MHC Foxwood Farms, LLC (part of Equity Lifestyle Properties), is matching the FDEP funding so that the city is reimbursed for eligible costs.

Nitrate levels in the Rainbow Springs Group and Rainbow River remain well above the state’s restoration target, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s June 2025 Basin Management Action Plan for the Silver Springs and Rainbow Springs systems. The plan sets a long-term monthly average goal of 0.35 milligrams per liter of nitrate for the springs and river, a threshold intended to correct the biological imbalance that led to their impairment listing. Monitoring has shown concentrations far higher than that standard for years, driven largely by nitrogen moving through groundwater from sources such as fertilizers, septic systems, and wastewater. The Foxwood Farms project is one of the wastewater-focused efforts intended to help reduce that loading by taking a package treatment plant offline and sending the community’s sewage to the city’s central system for treatment.

The original agreement was approved in 2021 with an end date of December 2022. It has been extended twice, first to the end of 2025, then to December 31, 2027, because of delays. Those included an easement dispute that forced a redesign and re-permitting, plus late design changes requested by the city and Ocala Electric Utility. Permits for the revised plans were issued earlier this year.

With the additional funds now in the budget, the city can continue moving the project forward under the extended timeline. Construction is expected to wrap up by early 2027.