Around a dozen Alachua County citizens attended a neighborhood workshop at the NV5 engineering firm’s office on Wednesday to learn about an amendment to the private Tomoka Hills Golf Course coming to the city of Alachua.
In April, Alachua’s Planning and Zoning Board unanimously approved a site plan for the 197-acre, 18-hole golf course located at 156012 NW 167th Blvd. The golf course sits less than a mile from Mill Creek Sink and the proposed controversial Tara housing and commercial developments.
The Tomoka Hills Golf Course is part of a larger development by Bill Shively in Alachua. Shively is executive chairman of Tower Hill Insurance, which is currently building its corporate headquarters just north of I-75 off exit 399.
The golf course surrounds the corporate headquarters and is being built by Tomoka Hills Farms Inc., which is owned by Shively. The conditions for the golf course originally gave private use to Tower Hill Insurance employees, their affiliates and guests, and anyone with a special exception permit.
Craig Brashier, NV5’s lead engineer for the project, said on Wednesday that the proposed amendment only changes who can use the course.
He said the condition that detailed ownership caused heartburn at the state level over misconceptions that an insurance company was building a golf course. He added that the original site plan was approved, assuming golf course patrons would use the insurance office’s parking space.
Brashier said the amended condition aims to clarify that Tomoka Hills is building, owning and operating the course, not Tower Hill Insurance.
It states that the golf course is for the private use of Tomoka Hills Property Owners Association (POA) members and their guests. It also requires POA members to have approved site plans consistent with Alachua’s Land Development Regulations.
Following the neighborhood meeting, Brashier said staff will review the application before putting it back before the Planning and Zoning Board as early as March. Crews expect to break ground in the middle of this year.
Stacie Greco, Alachua County’s water conservation coordinator, attended the neighborhood meeting. She also represented the county at a regular commission meeting in Alachua in June 2025 with concerns about the Tomoka Hills Golf Course location and the quantity of water use.
According to Greco, the property’s two-acre pond and regular irrigation is expected to use 250,000 gallons of water every day—more than Meadowbrook Golf Course and as much as the entire city of Alachua.
Tomoka Hills received a permit from the Suwannee River Water Management District, but Greco said the karst geology of the area still causes concerns about sinkholes and that fertilizer will go down into the Floridan Aquifer and wells.
Brashier said the owners can’t have a pond that’s any smaller, like the county recommends, in order to irrigate the course.
Resident Tamara Robbins asked for clarification about the relationship between Tomoka Hills and Tower Hill Insurance.
She said if the state is concerned about the insurance company misspending money and raising premiums without knowing it’s also building a golf course, the executives should have to pay for access like everyone else.
Robbins also asked who’s paying for the golf course and if they’re going to recoup their money through housing on the property. Brashier said the owners of Tomoka Hills are paying to build and operate the course. Where they get the funding, he said, is private.
Resident Soorya Lindberg said she felt the neighborhood meeting was premature without an official definition of who constitutes the POA, which could fluctuate depending on what housing is built.
Brashier said there are plans to develop around the golf course, including other mixed-use, nonresidential and some high-density residential zoning.
Although the Planning and Zoning Board approved the site plan 3-0, they also shared concerns about whether the size of the development belonged on the periphery of Alachua.
Robbins agreed with Lindberg and said the plan seemed like a slippery slope for future development.
“It’s going to become a public golf course, and it’s going to result in a whole different level of impact to this community,” she said. “That would be naive to believe that it’s going to remain the same as it is right now.”