OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The Marion County Board of County Commissioners public hearing for the East Lake-Woodmar Road Improvement project was held Aug. 6, 2025, at the McPherson Governmental Campus Auditorium.
The board unanimously approved the project to move forward into the construction phase. The anticipated construction start is within 60 days, with a substantial completion within 90 days.
Staff received seven public comments in writing regarding the project, six in favor and one in opposition.
The project consists of two platted subdivisions, East Lake to the west and Woodmar to the east. The two roads to be improved are SE 143rd St. and SE 145th Ave. Both are currently lime rock roadways that are Marion County maintained. This project has a total of 0.36 miles of new road construction as well as the creation of drainage swales and engineered ditch blocks, said Chad Wicker, Marion County municipal services director.
Of the properties, 32% are homesteaded in the subdivisions, 63% are approved with structures, the average property value for the improved parcels is around $424,000. The unimproved average is around $32,000.
This was a citizen-initiated petition that passed with a 51.4 percent approval, 44 ballots were mailed, 35 came back, with 18 in favor, 15 were in opposition and two of the ballots were considered invalid by clerk’s office.
Part of the project will be reestablishing county right-of-way and center of road, said Wicker.
The project also uses a stormwater management plan. The current lack of drainage retention areas and the drastic elevation change on SE 145th Ave. pose somewhat of a challenge, but working with the county’s engineers, an effective plan was designed to manage to store and convey water runoff with the use of engineered ditch blocks and roadside swales, said Wicker.
The county received seven bids for the East Lake-Woodmar Improvement Project and awarded the bid to Integrity Site Development, Inc. Ocala, who was the lowest qualified bidder. The construction cost is $378,107.88 and the loaded costs are $540,685.95.
The per parcel unit cost is $8,863.70 and the annual amount to be applied to the property owners’ tax bill is $948.39 per parcel unit for 15 years.
Two people spoke in favor of the assessment. There was no one who spoke in opposition.