There’s a quiet collision brewing in DeSoto County, one that pits industrial progress against rural life—and an 87-year-old homeowner named Forest Reynolds is standing in the middle of it.
The company Ozer Properties LLC wants to rezone 42.286 acres on S.W. Wood Street from agricultural (A10) to industrial heavy (IH). That means replacing pastureland with industrial buildings for Universal Hardscape, a paver manufacturer. Sounds straightforward on paper. But for Reynolds and her financial advisor Tim Turner, it’s the difference between keeping their 84-acre cattle farm intact or watching industrial operations move in right next door.
Here’s where it gets real: Reynolds and Turner aren’t worried about abstract concerns. They’re thinking about water. Their property sits downhill from the proposed industrial site, meaning when water flows off the new facility, it flows directly onto their land. The project team says raw materials like sand, stone, and gravel will be stored outside, while manufacturing happens indoors. But Turner isn’t reassured. “We don’t want [the project] with the chemicals coming down,” he said. “We have a water conservation on that farm.” It’s a legitimate environmental worry—one that the project team, despite weeks of back-and-forth with reporters, hasn’t fully addressed.
The original hearing was scheduled for April, then pushed to June 23. Now it’s been delayed again until September 22, 2026. The project’s attorneys say they want more time to consider community feedback, but that delay is telling in itself. It suggests the company knows it has a credibility problem. A community meeting on May 18 generated enough pushback that they’re reconsidering their approach.
What’s really at stake here isn’t just one farm. Reynolds spoke to the heart of it: “We’re about to lose what makes DeSoto so special.” Rural Florida thrives on agriculture, open space, and the quality of life that comes with it. Industrial zoning isn’t inherently bad, but the location matters. When you’re rezoning agricultural land sandwiched between active farms in a rural county, you’re making a choice about what that area becomes. And once you flip that switch from farmland to industrial, you can’t flip it back.
The September 22 hearing will tell us whether DeSoto County commissioners think economic development outweighs the concerns of residents who’ve built their lives there. Stay tuned.
