OCALA - A proposal for 600 homes between the Dunnellon/Marion County Airport and the Dunnellon city limits ended up between a rock and a hard place during the Marion County Commission's land use hearings Wednesday.

Dunnellon elected officials and residents said plans for the Blue Run Ranches property along the north side of County Road 484 did not fit in with the rural land to the west inside the Dunnellon city limits, or the airport and industrial development planned to the east.

They also relayed concerns about traffic gridlock on CR 484 and school crowding when the elementary, middle and high schools in the city already exceed their capacity. Mayor Fred Ward said the development could put a strain on the city's fire and police departments, because they have a mutual response agreement with county departments.

"The citizens of Dunnellon and the Dunnellon City Council are not against growth," Ward said. "They're for quality of life. That's our concern - quality of life and what are the impacts to quality of life."

The County Commission voted down property owner Sandy McBride's application 4-1, with Jim Payton dissenting.

Commissioner Andy Kesselring, who voted against the majority of the applications for development that came before the board Wednesday, praised Dunnellon city officials for trying to preserve a small town atmosphere and protect the Rainbow River.

"I think the more we think we can put subdivisions like this out there and not change what makes Dunnellon, Dunnellon, we are mistaken," Kesselring said.

The county Planning Department recommended denial of the application. Staff members said there was no need for the development, because there are 10,000 vacant, platted lots in a three-mile radius.

"That was an issue staff just could not move away from," Assistant Planning Director Jimmy Massey said.

McBride's land use attorney, Jimmy Gooding, said it would be better for the protection of groundwater, Rainbow Springs and the Rainbow River for the Blue Run Ranches Property to be developed, instead of those thousands of lots - because it would require central water and sewer instead of the wells and septic tanks allowed on the vested parcels.

Land-use requests approved Wednesday - and those approved in a second hearing today - will be sent to the Florida Department of Community Affairs, known as DCA, for review. They will then come back for a second County Commission vote in about three months before going back to DCA. If the development plans pass muster with that state agency - a process that sometimes takes a few years if the DCA has objections - they still will need zoning changes from the County Commission before construction may begin.

Also on Wednesday, commissioners unanimously voted down a proposal for a 37-home community with a horse barn and track on 90 acres along Southeast 59th Street, a little less than a mile west of U.S. 301. The land is near the Country Club of Ocala and several larger horse farms. Nearby residents who live on those farms showed up to oppose the plan, saying it didn't fit in with the area or 59th Street, which is designated as a scenic roadway.

After the unanimous vote to deny, Kesselring asked if commissioners would reconsider the application if it was cut from 37 homes to 18. They voted no, 3-2.

In spite of the denial, the property may be developed - legally at up to 90 homes - because it has an urban reserve land use designation and is in the designated receiving area for the county's transfer of development rights program.

The TDR program allows property owners who opt to keep rural lands in a designated farmland preservation area undeveloped to sell development credits - at a rate of one home for every acre put in conservation - to the owner of an eligible property with an urban reserve land use designation.

Christopher Curry may be reached at chris.curry@

starbanner.com or 867-4115.