Black Diamond Ranch - Florida New Homes

The developers of the Black Diamond Ranch, a private community in Citrus County, Florida, hope to add 1,005 new homes on 600 acres of land to the community. Existing community residents have expressed concern about losing the specific lifestyle that they feel they bought to the area. They feel that the addition of so many homes will result in a less exclusive community and crowding, specifically on the golf course.

Developers counter that the new homes are necessary to keep the neighborhood thriving. The new homes will help reduce membership fees, which have double since the year 2000, and fund improvements to the community club. Developers also say that a crowded golf course will not be a problem as the number of golf course memberships will actually be decrease from 750 to 650. Associate and social memberships will be added to the club to increase finances without overcrowding. A $3.5 million addition to the club fitness center and a $1 million golf maintenance facility are among other changes.

The proposed housing additions to this gated community will consist of villas, townhomes, cluster homes, estates, and mansions ranging from $200,000 to $1.5 million. These houses will add to the value of existing housing, developers say.

The changes proposed for Black Diamond Ranch are being made by LandMar, a developer of private, golf course communities that is currently negotiating the purchase of Black Diamond Ranch. LandMar evidences the success of large, gated communities by looking at their own projects. Grand Haven is a successful private community in Flagler County with 1,901 homes and Osprey Cove is a 972 private community in St. Marys, Georgia. Both communities feature championship golf courses and neither suffers from overcrowding.

The founders of Black Diamond Ranch, who wanted someone who will properly finish developing the community, chose LandMar as a successor because of their success with private communities in the past.

Club members meet in April to vote on the proposed changes to their community. Without their vote of approval, Black Diamond Ranch will not see any changes.