Applicant for West End Golf rezoning asks for 60-day deferral

West End Golf Course hole 6 sign
West End Golf Course hole 6 sign
Suzette Cook

The civil engineering firm representing a developer’s application for the rezoning of the former West End Golf property has requested a 60-day deferral in order to prepare information.
 
According to Alachua County Senior Planner for Growth Management Gerald Brewington,  Jay Brown, Jr., P.E., President of JBrown Professional Group made the following request.
 
“Our team feels like we need more time to communicate with the neighboring property owners and to provide staff with additional information in support of our application.  We would therefore request that you defer our pending Comprehensive Plan Amendment and Rezoning applications for at least 60 days.  We will stay in touch with ACGM staff and let you know the status of our additional efforts.  Please reply that you have received this email and the deferral of our application is acceptable to County staff.”
 

The Tara Club West End Conceptual Master Plan

Brewington said that as a result of the request, there is no estimated time at this point,” for a date to proceed with a hearing.
 
“Until such time as the applicant is ready to proceed, we are basically in a holding pattern,” Brewington said about the application that would convert the 75 acres of recreation zoned property into 487 homes and commercial space.
The potential buyer of the property is Developer Sayed Moukhtara who has the property under contract with Owner Peter Min. The deal won’t go through unless the Board of County Commission approves of the rezoning. The 75 acres is currently listed at $6.25 million by Min who represents the property under Pepine Realty.
 
Min closed the golf course almost a year ago and has allowed the buildings and greens to go unkempt causing concern to homeowners who paid premium prices to live adjacent to the course for easy access and views of the greens.
Because of the deferral, the next stages of the rezoning process might not happen until early 2021.
 
“If they should amend their request in any way, we would need to re-evaluate any proposed changes,” Brewington said. “As such, there is no timeframe for when public hearings will take place, although a 60 day deferral would most likely, at a minimum, push hearings into next year.”
 

west end weeds

JBrown held a neighborhood meeting in July in which more than 300 comments were made against the development and even Brown said it was the highest attended meeting in his career. That meeting lasted four hours and no neighbor was in favor of the rezoning.
 
Since then, a group of more than 50 “Friends of West End” have united to defeat the rezoning request arguing that the area can’t handle the traffic that will be created by people occupying 487 more homes and that the county should keep the recreation space as it is… only one of two green spaces located in West Alachua County.
 

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The Friends of West End have started a GoFundMe account, hired an attorney and have held two protests urging the BOCC to deny the application.

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