Alachua County Commission approves Jonesville rezoning request, apologizes to neighbors for history of racist land use policy
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the February 24 Alachua County Commission meeting, the board heard a presentation on the Gun Violence Alliance Strategic Plan and approved a rezoning request for a parcel in Jonesville after apologizing for the “history of the culture of racist land use policy… in our county.”
Chair Ken Cornell and Commissioner Mary Alford were absent for this meeting, so Vice Chair Anna Prizzia chaired the meeting.
Gun Violence Alliance Strategic Plan
After hearing a presentation about the Gun Violence Alliance Strategic Plan (click here to read our article about the Strategic Plan), Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler made a motion to authorize staff to continue planning and collaborative efforts toward prioritization of the strategies outlined in the Plan. The motion passed unanimously.
Authorizing ASO to issue citations when responding to complaints about animals
After a brief discussion, the board unanimously authorized the Sheriff’s Office to issue citations when they respond to complaints about animals.
Jonesville rezoning request
The next agenda item was a rezoning request for a 5-acre property on SW 143rd Street, south of SW 9th Lane, changing the zoning from two residences per acre to four residences per acre, or from 10 to 20 units on the parcel. The parcel is within the urban cluster, and other properties in the area are currently under development. The report from County staff found that the rezoning was consistent with the underlying land use and compatible with the zoning pattern of the surrounding area and recommended approval of the request. The applicant said his family had no immediate plans to develop the parcel, so he did not have any specifics to offer regarding a potential site plan.
Wheeler said, “I know they’ve really been fighting hard to keep that area rural up there, because they’re historically black farm areas… But I also know that we have to have a legal reason to deny [the request].”
Principal Planner Chris Dawson pointed out that the property is only about a quarter of a mile from the Jonesville Activity Center, portions of Tioga are close to the property, and all of the surrounding parcels already have the zoning that the property owner was requesting.
Several neighbors objected to the rezoning, saying that increasing the number of possible units from 10 to 20 is “just not for the good of the area.” Wheeler said one of the neighbors was, in her experience, “very calm, easy, calm, cool, and collected, but she’s not today. I’ve never seen her like this.” The woman said, “Yes, I am very emotional about it. I was born on the property that I’m in now… I gave 48 years of dedication to the Alachua County public school system, and I am a graduate of the University of Florida.” She said her family had farmed the land for many years. Wheeler said, “I understand your dilemma.”
Commissioner Anna Prizzia: “It’s very frustrating to me, and it’s a reality of the history of the culture of racist land use policy in our country, in our county, and I’m really sorry that I don’t really see a way out of this rezoning, because it meets all of our criteria in all of our categories… because you all are inside our urban cluster.”
Prizzia said to the neighbors, “There’s an unfortunate reality right now, and that unfortunate reality is that for a very long time in our country’s history, there was a process of slowly divesting black families from their land. And those things happened for numerous reasons, and in many, many ways, and slowly but surely, the little land that was afforded to black families has been chipped away at, and somehow in our zoning and land use over time, we drew a line in the sand [to designate the urban cluster],… and your property unfortunately fell inside that line… It’s very frustrating to me, and it’s a reality of the history of the culture of racist land use policy in our country, in our county, and I’m really sorry that I don’t really see a way out of this rezoning, because it meets all of our criteria in all of our categories… because you all are inside our urban cluster… I believe that this board has left no recourse but to approve the rezoning. But I sincerely want to apologize to both of you and to your families and to the property surrounding for whatever part history, or this county’s government, played in eroding the historic land uses in that property.”
Commissioner Charles Chestnut: “It’s just one of those situations that we’re in, that our hands are tied. And to be honest, I don’t really support it, but, you know, I have no reason at this point.”
Commissioner Charles Chestnut told the neighbors that the applicant would have the right to sue the County if the board denied the application without a good reason, “but I get the frustration that you feel… because you guys have been there for a very, very long time… It’s just one of those situations that we’re in, that our hands are tied. And to be honest, I don’t really support it, but, you know, I have no reason at this point.”
Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler: “I know you’re looking for a motion, but I really want to vote against it.”
Since Prizzia was chairing the meeting and there were only three Commissioners there, the motion had to be made by either Chestnut or Wheeler unless Prizzia decided to pass the gavel. Wheeler said, “I know you’re looking for a motion, but I really want to vote against it… If there were five of us here, we could have a more robust discussion.”
Commissioner Prizzia to the applicant: “You have three Commissioners up here that you’re basically forcing into a rezoning.”
Prizzia said to the applicant, “The reality is,… I do not see a basis for denial [of the application]. I wish that I did…. You have three Commissioners up here that you’re basically forcing into a rezoning… I just think it’s important to note that as you move forward in the development process, to recognize that it’s important to be a good neighbor… and think about that as you think about the ways in which you’ll lay out the development… So, yeah, I do need a motion on the floor.”
Chestnut made a motion to approve the application, and Wheeler looked at his expression and said, “I know.” Chestnut said, “I feel the same way, but…,” and Wheeler said, “Okay, I second the motion.”
The motion passed 3-0, and Prizzia said, “My apologies to the families.” Wheeler said that although she is not running for re-election, she will be in the audience when a future development proposal comes to the Commission.
How are they divesting black people from their land?
It’s the continued pattern that has occurred in our county. Without access to legal system many black property titles became insnared in the system and lost for a multitude of reasons.
Rutledge is one over by Buchholz.
Here’s a clear look at the Rutledge community in Gainesville / Alachua County, Florida — especially in the context of Black land, history, and neighborhood change:
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📍 What and Where Is Rutledge?
• Rutledge is an unincorporated community in central Alachua County, just west of Gainesville’s city limits. It was established during Reconstruction after the Civil War as a community where formerly enslaved people and their families settled and built homes, churches, schools, and farms.
• Historically it was a rural Black settlement located about five miles west of Gainesville, growing around community institutions. Over time, as Gainesville expanded, the area around it became more integrated into broader land-use planning.
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🧠 Historical Roots
➤ Founded by Freed People
The community is part of the legacy of Black landholding that emerged right after slavery ended — land purchased or worked by formerly enslaved families looking to build autonomous lives, roots, and institutions.
➤ Black Institutions Still Central
Two longstanding Black churches — First Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church and Greater Liberty Hill United Methodist Church — trace their roots to the 19th century in Rutledge.
• The Liberty Hill Schoolhouse, built in 1892 to serve Black children, still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was part of the local school system for the community’s children until 1952.
These institutions are important because they anchor both history and land continuity in a place that often gets overlooked.
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🏘️ Land and Community Changes
➤ Historically Black, Now Facing Pressure
Rutledge was historically a self-defined Black community with ties to farming, family landownership, and shared institutions.
As with many Black rural communities, patterns such as heirs’ property issues, lack of formal wills, and generational transfer without clear title have made parcels vulnerable to loss, abandonment, or sale over generations.[heirs’ property is broadly a major factor in Black land loss in the Gainesville area]
While there isn’t widely…broader patterns in Alachua County show:
• Black families losing land through heirs’ property complications, tax deed sales, and development pressure…
• Local government, including Gainesville, acknowledging higher concentrations of heirs’ property in historically Black neighborhoods and trying to assist residents with title clearing.
➤ Community Planning & Outreach
Back in 2006, Alachua County consulted Rutledge residents as part of planning for improvements in the neighborhood, highlighting its recognized status as a historically Black community with community identity and development needs.
This kind of community engagement — while not about land condemnation — shows that local officials see Rutledge as a living neighborhood with unique development and preservation concerns.
Wonder if all the “woke” people would be willing to cede their properties back to those adversely affected?
Seems a logical solution rather than everyone providing compensation such as reparations.
Democrats run the States and Cities they control like mini Fiefdoms and use Marxist Race politics to run cover for systemic mismanagement/ embezzlement of public funds.
What? Want to flesh that out Slice?
I’d like to apologize for the locally elected leaders’ idiocy.
Oh wait a second, I don’t need to apologize for that — I didn’t have anything to do with it.
Maybe if we still had slavery, housing would be much cheaper and farmland would still be farmed. The crazies don’t understand their self-conflict, they want things both ways. Rural parcels can’t be farmed when the farm kids are told to go to college, to go away; farmers can’t pay labor and still make a living, so they must split up rural parcels and convert them to residential and sold for their retirements (another idea).
Then today they blame “racism” instead of PROGRESS, which they used at the time.
Make up your minds, crazies 👿👹👺🤡💩
When will the Democrat politicians stop fighting the Civil War that they lost 160 years go and start moving forward, away from all their”raci$m” and bias? As far as this action is concerned, the BOCC is not taking anyones land and the upset lady could buy it if the owner (whoever they are) wants to sell.
“my hands are tied, there’s nothing I can do, it’s the past’s fault” says racist commissioner Prizzia as she votes to continue racist policies.
Certainly not her fault. Nope
There is no legal reason to block it. So too bad. Its not the county’s right or public’s right to tell the landowner what to do with t h eir property, period. If the people/county complaining had the money tgey shoukd have bought it a long time ago. Unfortunely people still want to live in the past and rehash issues that are not issues today. Start living in the now.
This is not the county’s fault, it is basic economics. The area west of Jonesville was predominantly black owned farm land. There are virtually no farms left in the county and lands value for development – especially in the Jonesville area – is far more than it is for agriculture (zero). Hopefully those in that area received or are receiving top dollar for it, but there’s nothing the county can or should do about it.
The time to make this right was long ago.
That being said we have plenty of small and some large farms in Alachua County.
The Farnsworths owned most of that land. I rented form them way back when, when 241 was known as ‘Farnsworth Road’…..BTW, they were white.
West of 241 was – and some of it still is – black. The church where the those lynched in Newberry is there and still active. The incident which resulted in that lynching involved a black man living there.
In 1973 I looked at some property owned by a black family there.
PS And their neighbors were also black.
And prior to that Seminole. So who misappropriated it from whom?
More democrat race baiting slander.
TIL that black farmers are NIMBY’s.
Enough of this woke race baiting nonsense.
They are and have been trying to Divest Farmers in General regardless of Color, pretending this is racist defeats any chance of ending purge of farm land. One day there will be nothing but Lab Grown Food from Corporations if we Don’t protect Farm Land