Alachua County Commission discusses solid waste facility sites, tree requirements for developments, P.K. Yonge admissions

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their June 11 meeting, the Alachua County Commission voted to place a Rural Collection Center in Newberry and a Hazardous Waste Facility at the County’s EcoLoop Facility. They also discussed elements of their code that will require the removal of 25 live oaks to build a cottage neighborhood, heard an update on the Florence Landfill, put a referendum for at-large districts on the November ballot, and approved a resolution asking the university to maintain P.K. Yonge’s current admission policies. A report on other business during this meeting can be found here.

Solid waste facilities 

Solid Waste Director Gus Olmos gave a presentation on potential sites for a Hazardous  Collection Facility and a Rural Collection Center. He reminded Commissioners that his department previously identified capacity issues at the Alachua/High Springs Rural Collection Center and at the Leveda Brown Environmental Park. Last October, the board directed staff to negotiate with the City of Newberry to build both new facilities at the Newberry Environmental Park.

Olmos said different options had been discussed in the past, but the County and the City of Newberry are now looking at a straight sale per acre of the Newberry property at $35,000 per acre. He said that while the two projects were being presented together, they do not need to be on the same site, and right now, “We have enough funding to purchase a property and build the Rural Collection Center in Newberry right now – no issues. We don’t have enough funding to do the same thing for the Hazardous Waste Facility. So to keep that project moving, we’re going to have to look at grants.”

Olmos said the Rural Collection Center needs to be in the western part of the county to relieve the capacity issues at the Alachua/High Springs facility and “Newberry is the perfect location for that facility,” but the Hazardous Waste Facility could be located at the County’s EcoLoop facility, and then the existing Hazardous Waste Facility could be repurposed as a bulk storage facility.

Olmos said the staff recommendation was to build the Rural Collection Center in Newberry and build the Hazardous Waste Collection Center at the EcoLoop facility.

Commissioner Ken Cornell made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation, and Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler seconded the motion. Commissioner Anna Prizzia said she also wanted to explore converting the existing facility to a bulk storage facility. The board had approved a lease with an organic waste composting company earlier in the meeting, and Prizzia said that if they approved everything in the motion, “we will just have solved organics and hazardous waste and bulk storage all in one meeting, which would be pretty fantastic.” Cornell agreed to add that to the motion. 

The board unanimously approved the motion, and Chair Mary Alford said, “This is a banner day! We are getting some seriously good work done today.”

Parker Road Cottage Neighborhood

The board heard a presentation on the Parker Road Cottage Neighborhood Preliminary Development Plan for 36 individual homes on a five-acre site south of the intersection of Newberry Road and 122nd Street. 

Cornell was “bummed out” that 25 live oaks, including several large live oaks just under the 60-inch limit for heritage trees, will be removed as part of the development. He said, “It makes me want to say, ‘Okay, let’s lower the threshold from 60 to 55, then,’ because if we’re not going to have our community working with us, then that’s where I get to.” He said he was also inclined to increase the required tree canopy: “It’s making me re-think those requirements.”

Prizzia agreed but said there can be conflicts between the board’s desire for more dense development and the desire to preserve trees. She said that as the board gets into Climate Action Planning, there may be some recommendations to reduce the size of trees that are protected.

Alford pointed out that the board had created the requirement for cottage homes to be individual houses and that fewer trees would be cut down if the units were attached. 

Prizzia: “There’s nothing I want more than to protect the trees in our county.”

Prizzia said, “There’s nothing I want more than to protect the trees in our county. However, you have to think about the fact that this is… where we want that denser development… So it’s devastating, and it’s terrible, and it’s sad, and it’s frustrating, but in some ways, building this dense development on this piece of property is saving potentially hundreds of trees in other areas… So it’s always a balancing act.”

Cornell: “Now I want to save every live oak”

Cornell said he agreed that more density is needed and cottages are a “more affordable type of housing…  All I’m saying is, when I see a spreadsheet of 25 live oaks, and two of them are within inches of our regulation…” and Alford said, “It hurts your feelings.” Cornell said, “It doesn’t hurt my feelings; it actually clarifies what’s going on out there… I’m ready for staff to give us recommendations, because I want to save live oaks. I wanted to save every live oak that’s greater than 60 inches. Now I want to save every live oak – I don’t know… I’m going to drive out to the site, I’m going to walk around it, and I’m going to make a decision.”

Trade-offs between stormwater basins and tree canopy

Prizzia and Cornell also discussed the County’s requirement for stormwater basins, which often requires cutting down more trees. Cornell asked if there was a way to “creatively do stormwater – that keeps the forest intact? And I want to make a statement… I don’t think it’s an either/or. I think we have too many smart people in this community. I don’t think it’s either we have more density or we lose trees. I don’t accept that argument… We have to be able to figure out how to keep our heritage oaks within our urban cluster and still have high density.”

Alford asked staff to schedule a meeting to talk about how their code makes trade-offs between trees, density, and stormwater mitigation.

Cornell asked the developer to work to save more trees between the preliminary and final plans, and the developer said they would need staff to have more flexibility with the County’s code about infringing on the drip lines of trees. Cornell said, “I’ll give staff all the leeway, they’re smarter than me.”

County Attorney Sylvia Torres said that staff can only apply the code as written, and the developer said they had already exceeded the 5% tree canopy in the code. 

Cornell said he was going to move to approve the Preliminary Development Plan and that he would be watching over the next two months to see what the Final Plan looks like, “and then from there, I cannot wait to have the climate change conversation.”

A few minutes later, however, there was discussion about whether a motion had been made, and Prizzia made a motion to approve the Preliminary Development Plan “and ask that staff work with the applicant to identify ways in which we could have protected more trees and provide input and feedback to the board with regard to ways we could change the code to increase tree protections within the urban services boundary.” Wheeler seconded the motion. The vote to approve the motion was unanimous.

Florence Landfill settlement

Senior Assistant County Attorney Corbin Hansen told the board that a settlement had been reached between a group of petitioners and the owners of the Florence Landfill. The settlement requires the landfill to close the facility in eight and a half years or when it reaches a height of 190 feet, which is five feet less than the original permit allowed. Hansen said the current height is “in the 150s.”

The owners of the landfill also agreed to pave the entrance road and use watering systems to mitigate some of the dust issues, and they provided assurances regarding odors. The landfill owners agreed to pay for water filters for some of the petitioners, and some of the petitioners will be connected to GRU water. The landfill owners also agreed to test the waters in Boulware Springs. 

Ballot referendum for at-large elections for County Commissioners

During the evening session, the board approved a ballot referendum to change elections for County Commissioners from single-member districts to at-large districts. Cornell made the motion to approve an ordinance that would place the referendum on the ballot. The second was inaudible.

Cornell said he had received emails favoring the change “from folks I’ve never heard of, never heard from, never had correspondence with. And that’s a unique thing. There seems to be a lot of interest in that.”

Six people spoke in favor of the motion, and then the board voted unanimously to approve it, resulting in applause that is not usually allowed in the chamber.

Blue Zones

During commission comment, Cornell said that during his annual check-up, his doctor at UF Health told him to watch the Netflix documentary, “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” Cornell said the documentary talks about “community health” and “making a healthy community”; he asked the other Commissioners to watch the documentary “and then there will be a time when we can have a discussion about it.”

P.K. Yonge

Cornell then asked the board to weigh in and oppose a proposal that would make admissions selective for grades 9-12 at P.K. Yonge. After some discussion, the board decided to adopt the same resolution the Gainesville City Commission recently approved, and Cornell read the resolution out loud. Alford said she would add a cover letter, as an alumna of P.K. Yonge. The motion passed unanimously.