Driving through the bluegrass pastures along Newtown Pike south toward downtown Lexington, one can easily notice the destination ahead. That big blue structure is, oddly enough, referred to as the “Big Blue Building” and stands 410 feet tall just a few furlongs from Rupp Arena. The 31-story Lexington Financial Center presents a skyline visible from close to 20 miles away and seems to be at odds with the city’s reputation as a college town and horse farm community.
A block away stands the 333-foot Kincaid Towers and less than a half-mile from it are the 23-story tall Blanding Tower and Kirwan Tower of the University of Kentucky. With a population around 330,000, Lexington is much more than just a sleepy horse town with a picturesque landscape; it owns somewhat of a big-city vibe downtown and has the skyline to prove it.
It’s possible that looking today at Lexington, one may be looking at the Ocala future. A nearby large state university and a thriving equine industry that has rightfully earned its moniker of “The Horse Capital of the World” place Ocala and Lexington in very similar social, economic and industrial spheres. For that matter, Ocala’s metro population of over 430,000 is not that far behind Lexington’s.
With Ocala’s population growing at the nation’s fastest rate, it’s only a matter of time before the Ocala Metropolitan area (Marion County, basically) passes Lexington. Then what? Will downtown Ocala be seen from 20 miles away as demands for space encourage vertical growth?
If that is ever going to happen, city building codes will first have to change. Currently, codes limit buildings to just eight stories and that is just fine with those who wish to hang on to that old Ocala look.
“Some people can make arguments that going to eight stories you can lose the downtown charm that we have,” said Aubrey Hale, Planning Director for the City of Ocala. “Ocala is kind of eclectic in its architecture that we have currently, so when we wrote the form-based code it was written to adapt to what Ocala is and not try to prescribe something completely different.”
Although metro Ocala’s population is over 430,000, the city’s population is still just over 70,000 and rising quickly. It’s rare for a city this size to have any buildings over 10 stories tall, but how long is Ocala from having a population of 100,000 where it isn’t so rare? The city’s population growth rate lags significantly behind the metro area’s growth rate, so whereas it may take 10-15 years for Ocala’s population to reach 100,000, the metro population could easily go over half a million within five years.
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By comparison Eau Claire, Wisconsin’s population is nearly the exact number as Ocala’s and its tallest building stands at 133 feet tall (the Sacred Heart Hospital), 25 feet taller than the Hilton Ocala and 40 feet taller than the Hotel Marion currently under renovation downtown.
Kalamazoo, Michigan is one of the rare cities near the same size as Ocala population-wise that boasts tall structures. In Kalamazoo, at least 10 buildings rise above 100 feet while six stand at least 10 stories tall, including the Skyrise Apartments & Condominiums which touches 230 feet with 23 floors.
In Ocala’s history, growth is not new, but lately seems to have taken off at an exponential rate. The prospects of this growth frighten many who live here because it is a small town and they wish to avoid the hassles that come with large cities. With population growth comes either congestion or sprawl, the latter an appalling notion to anyone who wishes to see the natural beauty of its horse country remain intact forever. With congestion, however, comes tight spaces and expensive real estate which encourages the vertical growth so far dormant.
So, where one may wretch at the thought of a pronounced skyline altering the look or charm of downtown Ocala, it could actually be a growing skyline that saves the beautiful surrounding country from the grotesque urban sprawl that could ultimately kill the golden goose. In Lexington, there may be a blueprint.
In 1958, Lexington turned to a political solution by implementing the Urban Service Boundary, which limits where urban development can occur, essentially drawing a line around horse farms to ensure they remain unmolested by expansion. It is similar to local efforts from groups such as Horse Farms Forever and the Farmland Preservation Area that was established 20 years ago. In creating its boundary, Lexington facilitated denser growth within this border, resulting in the several high-rise buildings in the downtown area.
“It’s kind of an incremental type approach that we end up seeing before you just go ahead and put up a 12-story building and here’s a 3-story building next to it,” Hale said. “Once you get over a certain threshold, there’s also other code requirements that come in – fire needs, servicing, and all that stuff starts to happen. So, it’s hard for us to really control when we’re going to start seeing those skyscraper type buildings.”
For real vertical growth to happen in downtown Ocala, the codes must first be altered, but for that to happen there must be demand. For now, no one has stepped forward with any plans to build a structure taller than the current codes allow.
“The reason we didn’t go higher than eight stories (for the code) is that there wasn’t a demand, at this point,” Hale explained. “If there is (demand for a structure taller than eight stories), then we could amend our code to address that. Until somebody comes knocking on our door that they need more height to make a project feasible, I don’t think we’re willing to entertain anything at this point.”
Hale is quick to mention the updates to 2050 Vision which is a long-term growth plan for the city of Ocala. Recently, the private consulting firm Urban3 was brought in to assess Ocala’s growth and 2050 Vision, and although Urban3 did not state any needs for high-rise structures, there was some encouragement for the notion of long-lasting structures under which high-rise buildings come under.
Urban3’s analysis demonstrated how a typical Wal Mart is a 30–40-year building before major renovations are needed or a tear-down and build-up takes place. By contrast, a mixed-use building, of which a downtown high-rise would be, is pre-cast as a 100-plus-year structure, “so I think there’s benefits to do that when you promote the more mixed-use type of approach versus the single-use facility.”
So looking 10 years ahead, it seems obvious that Ocala’s population will have continued to explode to the point where infrastructure will have taken on several facelifts, but what about vertical growth? Will Ocala’s downtown look any different in terms of its skyline or will things remain status quo?
“For the most part, I can’t say otherwise,” Hale said. “I think we have enough room within the next 10-15 years before we have to start approaching that question.”
So, if anyone is thinking a downtown observation deck that can provide the best view of Marion County’s prized horse country may be in the offing soon – might want to think again. Ocala looks to keep a low profile while its reputation scrapes the sky instead.