OCALA — Dunnellon city officials would like to send Blue Run Ranches out to pasture.

In late January, the Dunnellon City Council sent a letter to the Marion County Commission objecting to Blue Run Ranches, a residential development proposed just east of the city limits along County Road 484.

The City Council's objections included school crowding, gridlock on County Road 484 and environmental concerns because the property is in the primary protection zone for Rainbow Springs and north of the 9,479-acre Halpata Tastanaki Conservation Area.

Since then, property owner Sandy McBride has whittled his original land-use change application from nearly 2,000 homes on almost 1,000 acres to 600 homes on less than 300 acres. The opposition remains, said Burt Eno, a Dunnellon resident and president of the Rainbow River Conservation Inc. For one thing, Eno said they feel the decision to remove those 700 northern acres from the project is a temporary one.

"That's a ruse," Eno said. "What are they going to do with the rest of it? They're going to come back at a later date and ask for a change in land use to higher residential development because it's contiguous."

The total 986 acres in the original application forms a right angle around a 218-acre parcel McBride also owns. On Feb. 19, a 3-2 County Commission (Andy Kesselring and Stan McClain voted no) vote approved heavy business and light industrial zoning on that property.

Against that backdrop, the land-use change application for Blue Run Ranches heads to the County Commission Wednesday. McBride's contracted land-use attorney, Jimmy Gooding, said he feels the area between the city limits and the Dunnellon/Marion County Airport is a logical place for residential growth. Gooding also disputed the argument that the residential project could do environmental harm because it is in the springs protection zone. He noted the city's utility has not yet expanded to east of the Rainbow River, where there are still septic tanks and wells.

"I find it ironic that some people in the city of Dunnellon would oppose a development in the county with central water and sewer that protects the Rainbow River more than growth in the city of Dunnellon east of the Rainbow River."

FARMLAND PRESERVATION
Also Wednesday, the County Commission will consider whether to add all the property with a rural land-use designation within the boundaries of the Shady/ Magnolia Rural Preservation Area to the county's farmland preservation area. In English, that means owners of those properties may voluntarily choose to enter the county's transfer of development rights program, Marion County Planning Director Dwight Ganoe said. That program allows a rural property to be put in a conservation easement, which means it won't be developed. The property owner may then get credits to build residential somewhere not in the farmland preservation area at a rate of one home for every acre put in the conservation easement. Those credits may be sold to a developer.

Ganoe said the Shady/ Magnolia Rural Preservation Area covers unincorporated Marion south of Ocala down to the county line and between Interstate 75 and U.S. 441.

Christopher Curry may be reached at chris.curry@starbanner.com, or 352-867-4115.