16-04-2025
Proposed private Florida golf course for an insurance company to be discussed tonight
Proposed private Florida golf course for an insurance company to be discussed tonight
The city of Alachua's Planning and Zoning Board will hold a public meeting Tuesday to consider plans for a private golf course just south of the intersection of U.S. 441 and Interstate 75. Alachua sits just 20 minutes northwest of Gainesville in the middle of the state.
Tomoka Hills Golf Course, as it would be known, will be for the "private use of the employees of Tower Hill Insurance Group, Inc., its affiliates and subsidiaries and their guests," according to the application submitted by local civil engineering firm CHW on behalf of Lexington, Kentucky-based Tomoka Hill Farms Inc.
The proposed golf course will be next to the new 71,000-square-foot Tower Hill headquarters currently under construction. Other plans for the immediate area include single-family homes, apartments, a hotel, and office and retail space.
The golf course, clubhouse and maintenance facility is slated for almost 200 acres directly west of I-75 and east of Northwest 173rd Street, near Santa Fe High School.
According to the application, the actual golf course would take up about 160 acres, with the greens, fairways and tee boxes only accounting for about 25 acres.
Staff recommends approval of the application based on several conditions, including the development of a groundwater monitoring plan that will monitor for pollutants from fertilizer and stormwater, and that a formal approval process take place if the course is ever opened up for general play.
Tuesday's public meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the James A. Lewis City Commission Chambers at 15100 NW 142nd Terrace in Alachua. If approved by the Planning and Zoning Board, the application would then move to the Alachua City Commission for final approval.
