The Ocala City Council voted Oct. 21 to transmit a proposed map amendment changing the future land-use designation for a roughly 74.11-acre property owned by Friends Recycling LLC and Friends Real Estate LLC from “medium-intensity special district” to “employment center.” The action sends the item to the Florida Department of Commerce for state review; council members characterized the transmittal as a cleanup to resolve a conflict between zoning and the comp plan.

Jeff Schrum, growth management director, said the map-amendment request stemmed from a difference in how the comprehensive plan’s medium-intensity special district language and the city’s land-development regulations each treat high-impact industrial uses such as construction-and-demolition (C&D) landfills and materials-recovery facilities. “This was initiated at staff’s request … to clean up a conflict between our comprehensive plan future land-use designation and the current uses of the property,” Schrum said, noting the employment-center designation better reflects the current use and reduces allowable residential density and overall intensity.

Schrum told the council the employment-center designation would reduce potential residential units from 30 to 24 units per acre and lower the floor-area ratio intensity from 4 to 2, so the change is not an expansion of allowable intensity. The property also has state permits extending landfill operations, Schrum said.

Fred Roberts, who spoke for applicants earlier on other items, and Fred Roberts (again representing or supporting the applicant) explained the amendment is intended to make the comp plan consistent with the code and long-standing industrial uses on the site.

Council members called the roll and approved the transmittal unanimously. As with the other planning transmittals, the state will review and return comments; the council will consider final local adoption after staff and the applicant submit any required PD plan or supporting materials.