HELLO TO A NEW ARENA!

Happy New Year to all our Friends and Neighbors:

To help launch the New Year, my family recently purchased a brand new, 150' x 250' horse arena with loading shoot, roping return and a new 60' round pen, specifically (and exclusively) for installation at the newly renamed Mara Brandman Horse Arena.

For decades, the Arena has stood as a symbol of our rural, equestrian roots and the promise to protect those roots, despite changing times. Under Mara Brandman's leadership, the Orange Park Acres community united around this promise and common purpose, which inspired my family to purchase the Arena – so that it would endure to serve the current and future needs of our local equestrian community.

With that said, I am delivering this message to you, so you have the facts straight from the source. Below is the receipt from Red River Portable Arenas in Coleman, Texas for the purchase of the new arena and round pen, a purchase which has been carefully researched and underway for the past weeks.

Once it is installed, the new arena will allow for a wider variety of activities to be conducted at the Arena, including riding lessons, regular horse exercise, and equestrian competitions (i.e., Gymkhanas, Western and English horse shows, and cattle sorting). The new arena and round pen are currently scheduled to be delivered toward the end of January at which time a host of new items will be installed at the Arena site including underground water and electrical lines, soil and road base, decomposed granite, arena railing, sand, and more.

We also will get back on schedule with some of the site efficiency projects we were trying to conduct before the Orange Park Association Board submitted its first offer as part of the failed negotiations for the old, recently removed Arena facilities. These projects include the removal of tree stumps and logs, new directional and use procedure signage, creation of additional parking spaces, installation of hitching posts, weed abatement, and fencing.

Many of you already know that we halted the on–site rehabilitation and maintenance work over the holidays because we did not know what items would stay and what would be removed by the Association Board as we negotiated various offers for the on–site Arena property. In fact, we thought we had reached agreement with the Board when we learned they were ripping–out everything on–site, including the judges booth which we paid to have rebuilt just a few years ago. Below are links to many of the correspondences between the attorneys conducting the arena property negotiations.

So, here we are today – with good news for the New Year. Leilani and I look forward to the community coming together to celebrate the Arena's Grand Re–Opening soon under the wise stewardship of a new Orange Park Acres–based non–profit organization, which truly is dedicated to retaining the equestrian lifestyle right here, in Orange Park Acres. Thank you. Happy New Year. And, May God Bless You.

John Martin

Orange Park Acres Resident and Donor of the Mara Brandman Horse Arena

Red River Portable Arena Receipt (Click to read)

Arena License Agreement Termination Correspondence (Click to read)

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Ridgeline Equestrian Estates Approved!

The Orange City Council has voted overwhelmingly to approve the plan for Ridgeline Equestrian Estates! The benefits from the approved 39, one-acre equestrian estate sites at Ridgeline Equestrian Estates include:

• New, multi-purpose trails open to the public
• New Ride-In Only equestrian arena for the community
• New open space/passive park open to the public
• 65% drop in traffic from the previous commercial recreation land use
• Preservation of Handy Creek and hundreds of new trees
• Storm water run-off system improvements

Plus, the vote allows the Mara Brandman Horse Arena (formerly the Sully-Miller Equestrian Arena), which is zoned for one-acre estates, to be donated to the City of Orange and then operated/maintained by a non-profit organization completely devoted to equestrianism and trails at no expense to taxpayers.

Attending the unveiling of the signage rendering for the future Mara Brandman Horse Arena sign were, left to right: Jed and Jordan Brandman, Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche, Michael and Pam Brandman, Elliot Forrester, and Joshua Brandman.

UPDATE: Despite an effort to collect enough signatures to overturn the City Council’s approvals of Ridgeline, the Orange Registrar of Voters has certified that the effort was unsuccessful. Therefore, the Ridgeline Equestrian Estates Development Agreement (which legally binds us to providing the public amenities and benefits listed above) and Zone Change to one-acre estates, remains intact.

We will continue to post project updates to our website as they become available.

Thank you for your support!