Sandy Clay

Sandy Clay is an approved 442-home community on about 120 acres of unincorporated Marion County, near Belleview. All 442 are single-family detached houses, built in three phases. The county commission approved the rezoning in June 2025 and gave final approval to the master plan in July 2026, both unanimously. Nothing is built, no builder has been assigned, and nothing is for sale.

It is a soil type, and that is exactly the problem with it. Sandy clay is a standard soil texture classification, so searching the name mostly returns soil science and gardening results. It is also almost certainly not the name this community will be sold under. Sandy Clay is the name of the limited liability company that owns the land, and the county's own records already carry a second version, Sandy Clay Residential. A production builder taking this over will very likely rebrand it. We track the property by its approval and its location as well as its name, so a rename does not lose you.

Yes, and it took two separate board actions to get there. The county commission approved the rezoning to a Planned Unit Development in June 2025, on the condition that a final master plan come back to the Board for approval. That final master plan was approved in July 2026. The county's own development review record states plainly that the item was approved by the Board of County Commissioners on that date. There is no further discretionary approval outstanding.

No, and this is worth correcting because two local outlets got it wrong. Both reported the June 2025 vote as four to one with one commissioner dissenting. The county's own minutes record the vote as five to nothing, on both the land use amendment and the rezoning. When published minutes and press coverage disagree, the minutes are the record. The final master plan vote in July 2026 was also unanimous.

Not quite, and we would rather be precise than let you assume. The approved master plan itself carries a note stating that the project has not been granted concurrency approval, that final approval to develop the property has not been obtained, and that concurrency review has been deferred to later development review stages. Concurrency is the test of whether roads, schools, water and sewer can actually absorb the project. Deferring it is standard practice in this county, but it means the last word has not been said. A preliminary plat and an improvement plan are in county review.

The lot mix is the most concrete thing on the record: 239 lots at 40 feet wide by 120 deep, and 203 lots at 50 by 120. That is a production-housing pattern with two product widths, and it is a fairly typical modern Florida configuration. Overall density is about 3.7 homes per acre. Roughly 24.5 acres of the site is open space and about 27 acres is stormwater retention. Beyond lot geometry, nothing: no floor plans, no square footages, no elevations and no pricing exist, because no builder has been assigned.

The county attached a hard trigger, which is genuinely useful. The amenities must be completed and operational by the 150th certificate of occupancy, meaning by the time the 150th home is finished. The approved amenity list includes a clubhouse, pool, playground, dog parks, pickleball and a gazebo. Buyers in new communities routinely spend years next to a fenced-off future pool, so a condition tying the amenity to a home count rather than to the developer's convenience is a real protection, and it is in the approval rather than a brochure.

Several conditions that will shape how the place actually looks. Front setbacks must be staggered with two to five foot variations, so the street does not read as a single flat wall of identical facades. The rear fascia of homes must contrast in color and texture, which matters because rear elevations are what your neighbors see. One ornamental or shade tree per lot. Type C landscape buffers on all four sides. Two turn lanes at the developer's expense: an eastbound left onto the primary entrance and a northbound right at the secondary. All internal roads are private.

At SE 92nd Loop and SE 110th Street Road, in unincorporated Marion County south of Ocala and adjoining Belleview. We are deliberately not telling you which corner, because three separate sources describe it as the northeast corner, the southeast corner, and simply the intersection. Rather than pick one, we will say it sits at that intersection and leave the precision to the plat. There are no street addresses or platted lots yet.

No. It is unincorporated Marion County. That matters to your tax bill, because unincorporated property pays no city millage. It does not mean the city is uninvolved, though: water and sewer for this community come from the City of Belleview. So you would have city utilities and county services, which is a common arrangement here and a frequent source of confusion.

Both are real and both are in the record. The traffic study puts the community at roughly 3,960 daily vehicle trips, and projects that SE 92nd Place Road will operate at Level of Service F at buildout, which is the bottom of the scale. On schools, Emerald Shores Elementary was reported at 101 percent of capacity. The county's own staff report noted seven nearby developments totalling roughly 3,353 units, so the cumulative picture matters more than this project alone. Attendance zones are assigned by physical address, which does not exist here yet.

One that is worth understanding. The master plan states the project sits within the primary and secondary Silver Springs Springs Protection Zone. That is the regulatory overlay protecting the aquifer feeding Silver Springs, and it imposes stricter standards on wastewater and stormwater than apply elsewhere in the county. The site is inside the Urban Growth Boundary, which is the opposite of several other communities we track, and it is in Flood Zone X, an area of reduced flood hazard.

Very little. Among all the notified property owners, only two filed objections. The concerns raised were traffic, buffering, safety, dust and air quality from nearby sand mining, and cumulative impact from the other approvals in the area. Both board votes were unanimous.

Join the interest list on this page. We read Marion County's commission records directly, which is how the correct vote count, the concurrency caveat and the amenity deadline ended up here rather than in a press summary.