Hundreds of Pine Ridge homeowners packed the county’s Planning and Development Commission (PDC) meeting Thursday to oppose a developer’s request to build 85 one-acre estate homes in their neighborhood.

Over five hours later, they left disappointed.

The PDC voted 6-1 to recommend approval. The application now goes before county commissioners on Sept. 12 for final approval.

“I think this was a well-thought out plan,” planning member David Bramblett said. “The developer went over and above what is required by (county) code.”

Pine Ridge Reserve would occupy 102 acres on the closed 221-acre golf course property, so the developer needed an amendment to the development master plan to allow residential use.

Access to the privately gated community would be off Pine Ridge and Elkcam boulevards. There would be a community clubhouse and small recreation area.

“I find the project is compatible with the surrounding area,” PDC Chairwoman Stacey Worthington said. “The golf course is no longer in business.”

Planning member Robert Bass said the developer has come up with a game plan that fits the area.

“I think it’s probably the best that you’re going to get on this parcel at this particular time,” Bass said.

Carole Scragg cast the lone dissenting vote, saying the size of the proposed lots is not compatible with the rest of Pine Ridge.

Residents have just over a month-and-a-half to regroup and prepare for the County Commission meeting.

“We have a lot to digest after this meeting,” said Mark Svestka, chairman of the Pine Ridge Roads Committee.

Homeowners, many wearing black “Save Pine Ridge Golf Course Property” shirts, objected to the project, saying it would create traffic congestion, ruin the roads, destroy animal habitat, erase the natural golf course views and drop property values.

They wanted the current land use to remain unchanged so they could enjoy the open space of the golf course, even if it is closed.

“This was my dream – to live on a golf course in Florida,” resident Vic DiMantova said.

If this development proceeds, “I’ll be looking at someone’s backyard,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

Resident Mike Rausch said there is a high probability the developer plans to expand on this request and build more homes down the road.

“Who purchases 221 acres of land for 85 homes?” Rausch asked.

“In my opinion, this is a sham.”

Chuck Pigeon, project manager with Pigeon-Ardurra LLC, said about 50 percent of the property would remain open space and would include trails and paths.

The traffic impact, he said, “would actually be equal or less on Elkcam” than the previous golf course use.

“This would be a deed-restricted community,” Pigeon said.

James Dicks, president of Dix Developments, said the golf course will continue to become overgrown and be an eyesore, reducing property values.

The planned residential community would increase values, he said.

“They’re going to be high-end homes,” Dicks said.

Michael D. Bates is a staff writer with the Citrus County Chronicle and can be reached at mbates@

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Student athletes are often seen as some of the hardest working ones in a room, especially if they feel they have something to prove, like Pine Ridge High School senior Jordan Buchanan. After what could have been the end of the road for him in football, he turned it into an opportunity.

What You Need To Know

“Summer going into my junior year was probably one of the hardest times I’ve faced in my life,” Buchanan said after he broke his arm during tackle drills at spring practice. “Doctors told me that a couple of days later that I was most likely going to miss my entire junior season, if not, more than that.”

At the time, Jordan had only played four games his sophomore year because of the pandemic and was looking forward to playing his Junior year, but wound up sitting out the whole season.

“I did what I could for my team, I’d be at practice, cheer them on the field, I was there in whatever way I could be,” he said.

It was that push, that responsibility of being a team leader that not only showed the team who he was, but to himself.

“Seeing that those guys looked up to me, even when I wasn’t on the team, that motivated me a lot because it showed me how much they cared for me and that they relied on me and I needed to do everything I could for them,” he said.

Since being a part of the team, there have been five coaches in total for Pine Ridge football, giving him a leader mentality.

“I had to really rely on myself, because a lot of the time I didn’t have a coach, a lot of it was pushing myself and teaching myself what to do,” he said. “Especially during my year off I really had to remind myself of all the hard work I had done years prior and one year in the grand scheme of things wasn’t so bad, but I had to work even harder.”

Jordan says the minute he was cleared to play, he went to work. Drills, the weight room, you name it.

“I really self-assessed myself and knew what I needed to work on having a successful senior year,” he said.

Jordan led the team in tackles on offense and was the second leading receiver as a tight end. While he balled out his senior year, Buchanan has been a stellar student, with a 4.26 GPA. He had multiple scholarship offers, but the young man loves to work and challenge himself.

“I’m going to be a walk on at UCF,” he said.

While it can seem scary, Buchanan says he’s a person that never gives up nor backs down from a challenge.

“With all that I’ve been through, I can get through anything, since I broke my arm, it’s only been up,” he said. “I know the expectations I’m going to have to meet going into that and I’m not nervous about it, I’m just ready for it."

Clarence McMackin is worried the state will take his home near Pine Ridge by eminent domain because it may be in the way of the Suncoast Parkway expansion to County Road 486.

“They’re going to take my house to build it,” he said.

McMackin was one of scores of people who attended Thursday’s open house at the Florida National Guard Armory in Crystal River to learn more about the parkway extension projects.

Construction tentatively starts in April 2023 on extending the toll road another three miles, from its current terminus at State Road 44 to County Road 486, about 1,500 feet east of the Pine Ridge entrance.

From there, the toll road will eventually wind its way to U.S. 19.

“I’m going to fight it,” McMackin said after he and his wife talked with an FDOT official and viewed the maps at the open house.

McMaskin said he’s got 17 gopher tortoises on his five-acre property that need to be protected.

He also feels sorry for the business owners in Crystal River who will no longer have people driving by their shops and restaurants because of the bypass.

“All those mom-and-pop shops will shrivel up because there will no longer be tourists,” he said.

Diana Frick and her neighbors attended Thursday’s event to find out how it will affect access to their homes off Gum Street in Crystal River.

“We’re concerned that if they work on this project they will block Gum Street,” she said. We will not be able to get out of our subdivision. Will they put in a temporary road?”

Otherwise, Frick said, she has no problems with the parkway extension.

Steve Krukowski of Pine Ridge said he moved here for the rural tranquility and doesn’t want to see it destroyed by a major toll road going through his area.

“(County commissioners) want growth but we don’t,” he said.

FDOT spokesman Kerry French said the purpose of the open house was to get resident feedback on the road designs.

“We will take it back to FDOT and answer all questions and concerns they might have,” he said.

A man was arrested Tuesday after an investigation that deputies say identified him as responsible for a 2021 DUI crash on Pine Ridge Road that hospitalized him and two other people in Collier County.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a four-vehicle crash was reported on Pine Ridge Road just west of Napa Boulevard at around 6 p.m. on June 3, 2021. Michael Alberto Restrepo, now 36, was driving a 2005 Buick Century west in the inside lefthand lane of Pine Ridge Road approaching the I-75 overpass. A 2018 Volkswagen Jetta was directly in front of the Buick, a 2019 Nissan Rogue was in front of the Volkswagen and a 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 was directly in front of the Nissan, all traveling in the same direction.

The three vehicles in front of Restrepo’s Buick were slowing for traffic, going at around 5 mph as they approached a red light at the I-75 junction, but Restrepo was traveling at 45 mph or faster and failed to slow down. He rear-ended the Volkswagen, sending it forward to hit the Nissan, which spun counterclockwise and hit the Dodge. FHP says the resting place of the Dodge, facing the wrong way like the Nissan, shows that the driver tried to avoid the crash before being struck.

Restrepo and the man driving the Volkswagen were both med-flighted to Lee Memorial Hospital due to the seriousness of their injuries. The man driving the Nissan was transported to Physician’s Regional Hospital on Pine Ridge Road by his mother who arrived at the scene after the crash. The Ram’s driver declined medical attention.

After the crash had been cleared just before 8 p.m., troopers went to Lee Memorial Hospital to make contact with Restrepo and the Volkswagen driver. A social worker and a doctor said Restrepo had a blood alcohol level of .213. During the follow-up investigation, Lee Memorial medical records were obtained for the Volkswagen driver, who sustained a traumatic brain injury, multiple rib fractures, a subarachnoid hemorrhage, an L3 vertebral fracture, and a tiny right pneumothorax (collapsed lung). He was not discharged from Lee Memorial Hospital until two weeks after the collision.

Based on the lack of skid marks at the scene of the crash and the information provided by medical staff, troopers believed that Restrepo was impaired when he crashed. A subpoena for medical records was requested through Collier County, but it was denied, and Restrepo was issued a citation for careless driving and adjudicated guilty by Judge Michael J. Brown on March 30, 2022.

A follow-up investigation began once FHP learned additional evidence would be needed to seek medical blood. A witness who had spoken to troopers at the scene provided a sworn written statement that Restrepo was the only occupant in the vehicle that was being driven fast and recklessly. She said she stopped to help out and made contact with Restrepo, who was stuck inside the car and yelling for help. The witness said she smelled alcohol coming from the driver’s side window.

Based on the new information, a second request for medical records was approved by Collier County, and they showed Restrepo had a BAC of .213.

Restrepo was arrested on Tuesday and faces charges of DUI, DUI with serious bodily injury, and four counts of DUI – property damage.

An apartment complex that will become Palm Beach County’s largest workforce housing community is set to open in January, injecting a new supply of mid-range rental options into the region’s increasingly costly real estate market.

Resia Pine Ridge, off Southern Boulevard west of West Palm Beach, will feature 288 apartments, all of them participants in the county government’s workforce housing program.

Being in the county program means rents are capped at a percentage of the region’s median family income. Depending on a tenant’s income level, rents in most of the complex’s one-bedroom apartments will be limited this year to between $1,725 and $2,415 a month, while maximum rents in two-bedroom units could range from $2,070 to $2,898.

The county’s 16-year-old workforce housing program aims to provide affordable living options for middle-class residents by requiring that new housing developments either set aside a certain number of homes as workforce units or pay an opt-out fee.

For years the number of participating units was small, but the program has grown in recent years to a little more than 1,000 apartments countywide. The opening of Resia Pine Ridge, which will be by far the largest site, offers a significant boost to the number of apartments at a time of rising concern about housing affordability.

“It’s great that it’s coming to fruition at this time and is going to be available, because we’re certainly going to need it,” said Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss, whose district includes the new complex.

For subscribers:Tenants in county's largest workforce housing site overcharged by hundreds for years

More on workforce housing:While pushing housing tax, housing council group dismissed options that cost builders

Post investigation:Breaks for developers: County caved repeatedly on housing for workers. Now it’s a crisis.

Resia Pine Ridge, located off Southern Boulevard east of Jog Road, features four buildings of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. The community's amenities include a clubhouse, pool, playground, fitness center, basketball court and dog park.

The property is owned and managed by Resia, a Miami-based company that says it gears its rental communities toward middle-class families and young professionals.

“Our goal is to help residents balance their immediate need for quality rental housing with their long-term goals for financial health and stability,” Ernesto Lopez, the company president, said in a statement. “We believe both are possible.”

An opening date has not yet been set, but Resia’s marketing director said tenants can began signing leases in early January. The company is accepting pre-lease reservations now and says it has seen considerable interest.

“Resia is 100% workforce housing, even if we don’t have the requirement,” marketing director Denise Cruz said. “That’s by choice. We are catering to the audience that would be qualified. This is the mission of the company.”

Resia Pine Ridge will be the company’s fourth community in Palm Beach County, according to its website. The others are Resia Mangonia Lake in West Palm Beach, and Resia Banyan Ridge near Haverhill and Resia Lake Worth in suburban Lake Worth Beach. Resia also has two apartment communities in the Treasure Coast.

To qualify for workforce housing, prospective tenants have to demonstrate that their income meets eligibility requirements. The maximum family income to qualify is $126,420, though it is much lower for some units required to offer lower rents.

It is rare for an apartment complex to consist only of workforce housing units, but Resia agreed to do so in exchange for county commissioners rezoning the property to allow nearly double the number of apartments to be built.

In October 2020, commissioners voted to rezone the land, raising the maximum number of units permitted from 149 to 288, county records show.

Weiss said that Resia Pine Ridge is one of several projects approved by county commissioners before the recent spike in rents that is now bearing fruit. He said he is hearing fewer complaints of skyrocketing rents from constituents in his district now than a year ago, but he added that rents do not appear to be dropping either.

“At the time we didn’t realize what was coming," he said, "but we knew it was important that we have workforce housing in the county."

Andrew Marra is an investigative reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached via email at AMarra@pbpost.com, or on Twitter: @AMarranara.