Brooksville Ridge Cave

[Sharon Faulkner]

Although this article does not mention the name of the cave, some of you may remember reading about this issue in late 2004 or in 2005. The cave, Brooksville Ridge Cave, is located on the property in question.
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Partner pulls out of World Woods

By DAN DeWITT, Times Staff Writer
Published March 9, 2006

BROOKSVILLE - Kitson & Partners LLC has pulled out of a deal to develop a resort and subdivision around World Woods Golf Club, making it the second developer to abandon plans for the property in the past year.

Don Lacey, vice president of Coastal Engineering Associates of Brooksville, confirmed that Kitson of West Palm Beach had withdrawn its offer to buy and develop the land.

"It's true," said Lacey, who helped develop plans for the project: 1,680 resort and residential units on land surrounding the golf club's two acclaimed courses.

Officials from both World Woods and Kitson were unavailable to comment Wednesday.

World Woods originally had the right only to build a 660-unit resort next to the courses, which were constructed in the early 1990s.

WCI Communities Inc. of Lee County first pushed for a change to the county's comprehensive plan that would allow the larger development in late 2004. The company later withdrew, partly because of uncertainty about a cave on the property that its discoverers claimed is one of the most spectacular in the Southeast.

That issue has since been largely resolved, with World Woods producing a map showing the cave covers about 4 acres - far less than the explorers claimed. It also indicated the cave has few formations, which the cavers vehemently disputed.

Any new development company would have to make plans to protect the cave, said Jerry Greif, the county's chief planner; it would also have to go through a process required for approval of any subdivision with more than 1,000 houses, called a "development of regional impact."

But the county and state have approved the change to the comprehensive plan, meaning the property has cleared the largest potential obstacle for development.

"The stage is set," Greif said.

Kitson had promised to honor WCI's original promise to protect the cave and to donate land for a school and contribute to construction costs.

Last year, the company made news when it made a deal with the state to sell about three-fourths of the 92,000-acre Babcock Ranch in Lee and Charlotte counties for $350-million. The company, which operates about 25 golf communities across the state, plans to develop the remaining 18,000 acres of ranch land with a city that has a projected population of 50,000.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at 352 754-6116 or [e-mail]

www.sptimes.com/2006/03/09/Hernando/Partner_pulls_out_of_.shtml

[Sharon Faulkner]

Third buyer moves to woo World Woods
After two companies drop plans to develop the golf club, MPI Managers Inc. steps in.
By DAN DEWITT
Published September 6, 2006

An Illinois investment group has signed a contract to buy the land around World Woods Golf Club after two Florida companies pulled out of deals to develop the property.

The partners in the new firm, MPI Managers Inc., include Tony Pasquinelli, one of the founders of the 50-year-old Paquinelli Construction Co., based in suburban Chicago. "World Woods Corp. is very high on MPI, as they are extremely experienced and have been very cooperative," said Stan Cooke, a World Woods vice president.

Pasquinelli Construction has built houses through much of the Midwest and Southeast but has never done business in Florida, he said. He and his partners were drawn to the property for the same reasons as the two previous developers:

The Florida real estate market will regain its strength as large numbers of baby boomers begin to retire here; and because of the Suncoast Parkway, World Woods is now within convenient driving distance of Tampa International Airport. "We've done the drive. I think it's sufficiently close. That whole area is picking up," Pasquinelli said. Other partners include Mosher Enterprises of Naperville and Melvin Isenstein, a Chicago-area real estate investor, Pasquinelli said

Though MPI is convinced of the value of the property, it has not decided when development will begin or what shape it will take. "I'm using a planner out of Jacksonville, and we're waiting for his report," Pasquinelli said. Though his construction company is the 34th-largest residential builder in the United States, he said, he has not decided whether it will build homes on this site. "This is a development group, not a builder," he said of MPI.

The county changed its comprehensive plan last year at the request of one prospective developer, WCI Communities Inc., of Lee County. MPI will probably stay within the limits of this change, which allows 1,680 houses and resort units on the 1,170 acres owned by World Woods, Pasquinelli said.

WCI pulled out its contract with World Woods in early 2005 and was replaced by Kitson & Partners LLC of West Palm Beach.

Kitson then abandoned the project partly because of its commitment to develop the remaining portion of 92,000-acre Babcock Ranch, about three-quarters of which the company sold to the state as conservation land. "K&P was faced with a business decision of putting their human resources toward Babcock Ranch with 40,000-plus home sites or World Woods development entailing approximately 1,760 home sites," Cooke said. "Babcock Ranch won out."

Pasquinelli will adhere to another agreement WCI made with the county: to preserve a cave on the property. The explorers who discovered this cave in 2002 say it is at least 4,000 feet long and contains some of the most spectacular formations in the Southeast.

World Woods said a professional mapping company found the cave was smaller than originally thought and had few notable formations.

When MPI does decide to go forward with development, it will face a time-consuming review process. That is especially true because it qualifies for the stricter scrutiny of developments larger than 1,000 units, called developments of regional impact. "Many additional hurdles need to be addressed before development will begin," Cooke said.


www.sptimes.com/2006/09/06/Citrus/Third_buyer_moves_to_.shtml

[Sharon Faulkner]

Brooksville Ridge Cave is once again making news as development nears. This unique Florida cave was the subject of an article in the May 2003 issue of the NSS News if anyone wants to read more about the cave. The article includes several images of formations found in the cave, many a rarity in Florida's cave systems.

Lets hope the decision isn't made to permanently seal the entrance.

Sharon
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Developer's plan looks to avert impact requirements
By Dan Dewitt
January 23, 2007

The Illinois investment group planning to develop World Woods Corp. property in northern Hernando County is seeking to avoid the requirements of a development of regional impact - a change from the plans of a previous developer. The developer has also submitted a report that calls for sealing the entrance to an environmentally significant cave on the property. "Didn't they promise to protect it?" said Robert Brooks, who helped discover the cave in 2002.

Stan Cooke, a vice president for World Woods, said the entrance to the cave was uncovered only a few decades ago, when a mining company dug a test pit. "If it were put back in that state, as far as I'm concerned, there couldn't be a better preservation," he said. Don Lacey, of Coastal Engineering Associates of Brooksville, said the report on the cave was part of a hydrology report conducted by the Colinas Group of Winter Park and has not been included in any plan for the property. In fact, the developer, MPI Managers Inc., has not submitted its plans to the county, said Lacey, who did provide a preview of the proposal.

The Colinas report states that, besides being excavated by a mining company, the steep-sided pit and the cave opening represent a hazard, the report said. To promote safety and protect the cave, the report said, developers "should consider filling the pit ... containing the cave entrance and returning the immediate area to its natural condition."

Dawn Velsor, the county's environmental planner, said she had discouraged this idea in a meeting with the developer last week. Sealing the cave "probably is not going to do anything good or bad for the cave," said Lee Florea, of Tampa, who has a doctorate degree in geology and previously mapped the underground corridor. But he also said it would end future scientific study of the cave, which he previously said contained some of the most spectacular formations in the Southeast. The entrance is currently covered with a locked gate.

Brooks also reported that the World Woods land had been cleared of underbrush. The clearing of the land did not violate county law, partly because no large trees were removed, said Vic Heisler, the zoning/ landscape inspector for the county Development Department. The state Division of Forestry, however, is concerned that the clearing extended into about 2 acres of a tract it owns next to the World Woods property, said Winnie Schreiber, manager of the Withlacoochee Forestry Center. Several species of endangered or exotic plants have been found nearby, though it is not clear whether any were damaged by the clearing, she said. Though the brush clearing on state land "is a trespass," she said, she did not know what, if any, action the state would take.



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