Jeremy Ragsdale, owner of Outer Marker Properties, a development and management company for assisted living facilities, said the bid was withdrawn because the property value was appraised significantly lower than it had been contracted for.

"We do want to be in that market," said Ragsdale. "We are working through another contract on a parcel nearby." He said the facility itself would still be the same but in a different location.

Marshall Walker of the county's planning and zoning division echoed these sentiments at Tuesday's BOC meeting, saying that the division was working with the developer to find a different location.

The second reading at the Board of Commissioners of the ordinance amendment that would have changed the zoning from Neighborhood Commercial to Civic Institutional was denied, after the developer bid withdrawal. The CID zoning would reportedly have been more restrictive to any other potential developers in the future. The zoning change had been approved by the planning commission and at the first read of the ordinance amendment.

After a zoning denial, rezoning on a property is frozen for at least six months, according to Walker.

In other BOC business:
The board decided to open up the contract for federal lobbying for bids instead of approving the $114,000 a year contract for Holland & Knight, who had been lobbying for the county for about 10 years.