Residents expressed skepticism about a Comp Plan proposal to allow more development around the Lake Jackson aquatic preserve — a move environmental groups oppose because of the harm it could cause to the lake system and the North Meridian canopy road.
During a meeting Nov. 13 at the Northside Community Center, concerned citizens got an update from County Commissioner Rick Minor, environmental groups and an attorney representing Jeff Phipps, the landowner who wants to develop 920 acres of land around North Meridian and Orchard Pond Parkway.
The proposal, which found its way earlier this year into a proposed Tallahassee-Leon County Comprehensive Plan update that will be in effect until 2050, would have seen an expansion of the urban service area to include more than 2,000 acres of Phipps-owned land.
It also would have changed the land-use designation from rural, the least-dense in the county, to lake protection, which despite its name allows much more intensive development.
But Minor told residents, as reported earlier by the Democrat, that the proposal is no longer part of the proposed Comp Plan update as recommended by city-county planning staff. County commissioners are expected to vote on that during their Nov. 18 meeting.
“What the Nov. 18 version does — a part that we’re going to vote on next Tuesday — it walks all of that back so that the USA basically remains what it was west of Meridian,” he said. “So if you’re concerned about the urban services area … (that) is no longer proposed by our planning staff.”
And while that has given opponents some measure of hope, the issue isn’t expected to go away. Vivian Young, special projects director for 1000 Friends of Florida, said that even if it doesn’t move forward right now, it could re-emerge later as a proposed large-scale amendment to the Comp Plan or as a city annexation proposition.
“This issue might not be over,” she said. “And I think everybody needs to realize that they need to remain engaged, informed and this is going to be a longer term process than just wrapping up at the end of this year.”
Gary Hunter, a Tallahassee attorney representing Phipps, told the audience that Phipps, who’s in his early 60s, is evaluating options for his property. Phipps’ grandfather, Ben Phipps, bought more than 13,000 acres of land in the 1940s around Lake Jackson comprising Ayavalla Plantation. Jeff Phipps owns about 5,000 acres.
“Eventually Jeff won’t be around, and someone else will inherit the land, maybe his children, or maybe they’ll sell it to someone else,” Hunter said. “And this pressure is going to continue to exist regardless of who the owner of that parcel is.”
Hunter added that, “the wise step for all of us to take, whether we agree or not, ultimately, is to sit down in a room and figure out what’s developable, what’s appropriate for that site.”
A number of residents appeared unconvinced. Amaury Hernandez said he learned about the proposal only recently and that he doesn’t trust developers.
“We can yell all we want,” he said. “But the fact that they railroaded this thing the way they did raises a bunch of red flags. I think there’s a lot of shady stuff going on.”
Residents question development proposal for Lake Jackson
Sophie Wacogne-Speer, president of Friends of Lake Jackson, said the property in question consists of 1,100 acres, including 210 acres that are already in the urban service area and another 920 that aren’t. She said 500 acres are in special development zones that limit how much building can occur.
Minor said the initial Phipps proposal could have allowed as much as 20,000 homes and 25,000 square feet of commercial per acre under a planned unit development.
“This is not the amount of development that landowner I think is seeking, from what I’ve been told,” he said, adding that he hasn’t seen anything “specific” on what the plan would entail.
Hunter said 10,000 residential units on the site were “unrealistic” and 5,000 units were “maybe” unrealistic. Phipps, who built the Orchard Pond Parkway toll road a decade ago amid pledges not to develop around it, told the Democrat that early estimates of home sites were “ridiculous.”
Bill McCully, a friend of the Phipps family, was one of the few people who expressed support for the development proposal.
“The Phipps family has been great benefactors for generations for Tallahassee,” he said. “The reason why we’re talking about it now is because they didn’t want to develop it and turn it into what else it could have been.”
McCully said the development could be the “crown jewel” of Tallahassee. But others were dubious.
“Sorry, I’ve heard that one before,” said Michael Mendez.
Roy Knight complained about cities like Tallahassee that have an “incredible need to get big.”
“That’s one of the worst principles you could possibly think of for human life and saving nature,” he said. “So please let’s come to our senses and save the land, nature and oxygen and breath and good life.”
Minor told the group he was disappointed the proposal came through a Comp Plan rewrite rather than as an amendment request and that if the initial version passed, it would have allowed “tens of thousands of homes” and “millions of square feet of commercial space.”
He also signaled he will propose a measure during the commission’s Nov. 18 meeting to prevent that from occurring in the future.
“I’m not happy with the way this has been done,” said Minor, who’s running for re-election in 2026. “I mean, something’s inherently wrong. And on Tuesday, I am working on something that will fix this so it never happens again, presuming it gets adopted by my colleagues.”
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘Remain engaged’: Residents hear latest on Comp Plan proposal affecting Lake Jackson
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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