Alachua County Commission approves land purchase, finalizes approval of Accessory Dwelling Units in rural clusters, discusses complaints about the Florence Construction & Demolition Landfill

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On January 9, in addition to deferring a ceasefire resolution, the Alachua County Commission purchased 161 acres of land, directed staff to move forward with an interlocal agreement with the City of Hawthorne for codes enforcement, approved a preliminary development plan for a sanctuary for Christ Community Church, approved an ordinance that allows Accessory Dwelling Units in rural clusters, and discussed complaints about the Florence Landfill.

Lochloosa Connector-Rimes Acquisition

Andi Christman presented a proposed contract to purchase 161 acres adjoining the Lochloosa Wildlife Conservation Area for $1.45 million from Lessie Rimes. The money will come from Wild Spaces Public Places. St. Johns River Water Management District will provide 20% of the purchase price and some acquisition-related costs and will also assume management responsibility for the property. 

The motion to purchase the property passed 4-0, with Commissioner Chuck Chestnut absent for the whole meeting.

Interlocal agreement with Hawthorne for codes enforcement

Assistant County Manager Missy Daniels said that when this item was placed on the agenda, the intent was to assist the smaller municipalities with codes enforcement, but since then, the other cities have backed out, leaving only Hawthorne. She said she would be happy to reach out to the other cities again if the board directed her to do that. She said an interlocal agreement for codes enforcement would require Hawthorne to adopt the same codes as the County for any codes they want the County to enforce.

Commissioner Anna Prizzia made a motion to explore an interlocal agreement to provide Hawthorne with codes enforcement support with existing staff and reach out to the other small cities to see if there’s interest in the possibility of expanding staff and creating opportunities for others to opt in. Hawthorne will pay a fee for the service. The motion passed 4-0.

Christ Community Church sanctuary

Christ Community Church submitted a preliminary development plan to construct a 19,000-square-foot sanctuary on SW 122nd Street. Staff recommended approval, and Commissioner Ken Cornell made a motion to approve the petition. The motion passed 4-0.

Accessory Dwelling Units in Rural Clusters

An ordinance allowing Accessory Dwelling Units in rural clusters (see map below) came before the board for final adoption; the details, such as the maximum size of the units, will come before the board at a later time. Cornell made a motion to approve the ordinance, and it passed 4-0.

Florence Landfill

During Manager Comment, Acting Manager Carl Smart brought up the Florence landfill, which has generated a large number of letters and public comment from neighbors of the landfill because the landfill’s Special Use Permit is set to expire on January 22, 2024. He said the landfill can request five-year extensions from both the County and the State, and the business has already submitted an application to the County. Smart said the application is under review by County staff and will come before the board for a hearing. The landfill is eligible for a four-year extension from the State and has notified the County that it plans to use that extension as an interim measure to address some concerns that County staff has with their renewal application. 

Smart said the results of water quality testing should be available by the first week of February but added that approval of the State’s extension is “basically automatic” unless there are “substantial violations of the permit.” He asked the board to postpone any meetings on the landfill permit until the water quality data is received and analyzed.

County Attorney Sylvia Torres said she believed the State would need to say that the landfill is not in compliance with its permit before the County could deny the extension, but her office is still trying to figure out the details.

Cornell said he would like to have a hearing on the permit as soon as possible and that he wanted the County to consider the permit expired on January 23 “unless they prove to us otherwise.”

Prizzia agreed that she also believed the permit should be considered expired after January 22, but Torres explained that state statutes hold that “they get these extensions of our local permits unless… and then it goes on, it says that it doesn’t apply if there’s some sort of enforcement action going on at the time that they added an extension.”

Environmental Protection Department Director Steve Hofstetter said the County is waiting to hear from the State whether the State considers some violations of secondary drinking water standards to be a “substantial violation of the permit.” He clarified that secondary drinking water standards are “based on esthetic, flavor, taste, they’re not considered significant health concerns.”

Prizzia said she supported delaying the hearing about the landfill until the County has the drinking water data.

Alford said that even secondary drinking water issues could make the landfill “incompatible with… an urban environment because we’re directly affecting people’s property values and quality of life in ways that are above and beyond looking at the facility, hearing the facility, smelling the facility; they’re also having to taste it every time they drink a glass of water… I do feel like we don’t need to have this there… This isn’t the place for a landfill.”

Hofstetter reiterated that the County would need to show “significant non-compliance with the conditions of the permit that’s being extended [by the State]” and that the County would need an enforcement mechanism for those issues.

“What we’re telling you is that our permit will not expire on that date… It expires four years after the 22nd.” – County Attorney Sylvia Torres

Prizzia asked for further clarification about what it will mean if the County’s permit expires on January 22, and Torres said, “What we’re telling you is that our permit will not expire on that date… It expires four years after the 22nd.” She added that there is a provision that would allow the County to revoke the special use permit at any time “if we found that it was in material non-compliance.”

Prizzia said she would “like to see this not be adversarial, too, because this family has really contributed a lot to goals that we’ve had for the community. So I just hope that we can work together… There were decisions that have been made in the past that now are impacting a local neighborhood and a community of people and their lives, but there’s also a local business person who’s been operating in good faith, to the best of our knowledge, for a long time and been supportive of a lot of different community initiatives and things like that… We just really need that data and information to be able to make a good decision.”

“I just don’t want to pick up the newspaper twelve or fifteen years from now and know that there’s a cancer cluster formed in southeast Alachua County that was due to contaminants in the groundwater.” – Chair Mary Alford

Chair Mary Alford said, “I just don’t want to pick up the newspaper twelve or fifteen years from now and know that there’s a cancer cluster formed in southeast Alachua County that was due to contaminants in the groundwater… And that’s why I’ve asked questions about more expensive and more extensive testing because… I think we have a moral imperative to know what’s there and how that could impact folks.”

Publix in Newberry, potential grocery store on the east side

During commissioner comment, Prizzia said she had attended the groundbreaking for the new Publix in Newberry, and “one of the things that resonated with me is that one of the very first motions… I made on this dais was regarding a grocery store in East Gainesville, which still has not come to fruition, though there is funding set aside in our CRA partnership with the City to support the idea of a grocery store and food hub… And so I took it upon myself to talk to the folks there from Publix and just sort of ask them about the process and how it ended up in Newberry. And I intend to reach back out to them and continue that conversation and find out if there’s any way that we might do something in Hawthorne, the same way that they’re doing in Newberry.”

Renaming Kirby Smith for Charles Chestnut III

Alford said, “I don’t know if anybody has heard about the effort to consider renaming Kirby Smith [the school district administration building] for Charles Chestnut III. As you know, there’s been a real push to rename Kirby Smith… The name’s associated with our history but also with the Civil War and some negative history.” The board agreed that Alford could write a letter to the School Board, supporting the change.

Dual-naming road for Gainesville Garden Club

Alford said she’d also received a request to rename NW 14th Avenue to Gainesville Garden Club Avenue, but board members were not in favor of dual-naming roads for organizations. Torres said the County’s naming policy allows for dual-naming roads after service members who died in action, and they have a provision for dedicating a road when there’s been an accident. Torres added, “We did talk about naming buildings about living people, back when the City’s RTS building was named, and then something happened with that with the City.” She reminded the board that the Kate Barnes boat launch was dedicated during her lifetime and that there is a Celebration Pointe Avenue and “Bass Pro something or other” in Celebration Pointe. She said she would send around the policy to see if the board wants to amend it.

Torres added that it was up to the board whether to grant the Garden Club’s request, and Alford said she didn’t see support for it.