Plans to build houses and commercial spaces atop a cave system of the Floridan Aquifer are moving forward in the City of Alachua despite action by Alachua County and opposition from some of its residents.
Alachua County Commissioners voted to intervene in the five-part development proposal Oct. 1, 2024. Here’s what’s happened since:
The Suwannee River Water Management District approved all five parts of the proposal’s plans to manage its environmental footprint
Each section of the development required its own "environmental resource permit”: a plan outlining how the developer will avoid polluting, flooding or otherwise harming nearby waterways and wetlands.
The agency granted the Tara Forest West permit, the last and largest of the five, on June 10, 2025.
Environmental protection department staff from Alachua County repeatedly expressed concern about the permits, citing sinkhole concerns.
“This is a very highly active, sensitive karst area,” county environmental engineer Mary Szoka told the Suwannee River Water Management District’s governing board in May. A sinkhole opened next to the proposed development in 2021, she said, as crews worked to build an artificial wetland to treat runoff from I-75.
If a sinkhole were to form on Tara property, “we’re prepared to deal with that,” responded Jay Brown, president of the civil engineering firm that designed the site’s plans.
A County-contracted firm suggested further studies
Consultants scoped out the site with ground penetrating radar and bored holes into its layered soils. But an independent firm that reviewed those studies said there’s still uncertainty underground.
Alachua County staff hired the firm, Geohazards Engineering and Technology, at the direction of the county commission.
It concluded the testing didn’t “adequately assess” the site’s sinkhole activity or potential for runoff to trickle into the aquifer and recommended further studies.
The developer isn’t open to that recommendation. The city hasn’t declared a stance.
County staff shared Geohazard’s report with the Tara development team, led by Sayed Moukhtara, and Alachua city staff.
The developer’s representatives weren’t convinced, Szoka said. “They have argued against the need for these studies.”
Moukhtara did not respond to WUFT’s inquiry. A spokesperson for JBPro, the firm that drafted Tara stormwater plans, declined to comment on the Geohazards report but wrote,“we are closely following the development review process for each of the authorities having jurisdiction over the project.”
City staff has been more receptive.
After five resignations, one firing and a few new hires, the staff team working on the Tara approval process looks different than it did when Alachua County first intervened.
“They've responded that they would like to meet and get up to speed with the situation,” said Stephen Hofstetter, environmental protection director for Alachua County. He aims to meet with city planning staff and attorneys in October.
Since the developer doesn’t seem willing to do another study voluntarily, Szoka said, “our intention is for the city to hopefully require it.”
She pointed to studies done for the neighboring artificial wetland as good models. Contractors’ findings led them to redesign the project and move it farther North than planned, Szoka said, “so it is not outside of the realm of reasonability to request these additional studies.”
The largest portion of the project awaits the city’s stamp of approval (but won’t require a vote, thanks to a new state law)
When commissioners voted to approve a preliminary plat for 523-home Tara Forest West last summer, they expected to vote again when the project’s final plat was ready.
But a state law passed during the 2025 legislative session transferred that authority to staff, meaning Tara Forest West won’t come before the commission again.
“There’s still an approval required, but it can be administrative,” Hofstetter said.
That decision, and its conditions, are up to Interim City Manager Rodolfo Valladres.
Hofstetter said the county will continue to intervene “with any application that comes forward to the city,” in the Mill Creek Sink area.
