Alachua County Commission expresses concern at City of Alachua’s Mill Creek developments, directs staff to scrutinize plans and strengthen regulations
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At an October 1 special meeting, the Alachua County Commission passed a multi-part motion aimed at persuading the City of Alachua to restrict development in the Mill Creek Sink area and indicated that they may challenge any developments that are approved.
Presentation about the proposed Tara developments
After a presentation from staff about why it’s important to protect springs and groundwater, Water Resources Program Manager Stacie Greco showed a map of the Mill Creek Watershed, which is “part of an ancient drainage system connected to Hornsby Spring and the Santa Fe River.” The watershed includes about 8,700 feet of mapped cave systems, and the Mill Creek Sink property, about nine acres, is owned by the National Speleological Society.
The City of Alachua has a $2 million water quality improvement project behind Sonny’s to reduce nitrogen loading to the Santa Fe River Basin and remove other pollutants. A second phase of the project was planned by Alachua County, but County staff were not able to negotiate an agreement to purchase the land.
Environmental Protection Department Director Steve Hofstetter said the current concerns are with a group of projects lumped together as “the Tara developments,” along with a proposed golf course (Tomoka Hills)
Hofstetter said development concerns include an increased chance of sinkholes, which “open up direct conduits to our aquifer” and high water use and nitrogen run-off from manicured landscapes.
Greco said the focus should be on low-impact development, creating conservation areas, and monitoring wells. She said that the City of Alachua utility, for example, could put in a restriction prohibiting permanent landscape irrigation.
Hofstetter said County staff recommended that the board direct staff to:
- Attend all future City of Alachua meetings and hearings related to projects in the Mill Creek watershed;
- Meet with City of Alachua staff to discuss concerns with existing applications;
- Meet with developer representatives when appropriate;
- Provide updates to the County Commission;
- Evaluate the effectiveness of their Stormwater Code to identify opportunities for improvement;
- Continue assessing properties in the watershed for acquisition;
- Improve collaboration with municipalities to involve staff earlier in project development, including possible formal agreements regarding developments.
Prizzia: Tara Forest West is “going to be a disaster”
Commissioner Anna Prizzia asked Hofstetter how much can be changed in the Tara Forest West project, since they’re already at the final plat stage, and when he said any changes were probably limited to modifications of the stormwater ponds, she said, “That’s crazy, over a cave system. That’s going to be a disaster for all the people involved, including the homeowners who are going to end up buying those homes. So my question is: how do we change that?” Hofstetter said, “I don’t know how much we can do in changing that design at this point.”
County Attorney Sylvia Torres said the City of Alachua’s review is “limited at that point because [they] have already approved the development as… consistent with their Code already.”
Prizzia responded, “They’ve got a development over the largest cave system in our county. Basically, they’re getting ready to build something that’s going to cause sinkholes if they build it as it stands. How did this get all the way through to [final] plat without us having some kind of input into the design? Like, I’m just so confused.”
Hofstetter said the Stormwater Code requires developers to submit an affidavit certifying that they’ve met the stormwater requirements, but that happens after the final plat, so that hasn’t happened yet. Prizzia said they should change their Code to require the affidavits at the preliminary plat stage.
County’s Stormwater Code is concerned with pollutants, not sinkholes
Commissioner Ken Cornell clarified with staff that if the County determines that the development doesn’t meet the Stormwater Code, they could seek an enforcement action. However, Hofstetter said the Code is concerned with reducing pollutants and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, not sinkholes.
Cornell: “If not to protect this, then what are we protecting?”
Cornell said, “Well, if it’s our responsibility to make sure water quality is maintained and if something [happens, like a sinkhole], I intend to use whatever authority I have to make sure that whoever’s responsible pays for it… The people… here today… elected us to protect the water quality, and the Charter gave us that authority and responsibility… This, to me, is one of the most sensitive places in Alachua County, and if not to protect this, then what are we protecting?”
Cornell asked Hofstetter if the County could make the developer stop because they’re not implementing low-impact development, and Greco said that’s “the ideal world” and as long as the developer meets performance standards on reducing nutrients, the development meets the County’s Code. Cornell said, “We need to adjust our code,” and Prizzia said something similar at the same time. Cornell continued, “We need to have the ability to say, ‘Stop. You can’t go any farther.’… So I’m ready for that to come back to us as soon as possible.” He added that he wasn’t in favor of continuing to allow self-certification, and he favored hiring staff as necessary to certify that developments meet the County’s Code.
Cornell said he wished representatives from the City of Alachua were at the meeting because “I would like them to be sitting on the same side of the table with us, not on opposing sides… I want those that are elected… to protect the water.”
Can the County require a municipality to prohibit permanent irrigation?
Cornell asked if the County can require municipalities to do things like prohibit permanent irrigation, and Greco said, “I mean, these are pretty extreme steps… These are my suggestions… Unfortunately, we don’t have this authority there.”
Chair Mary Alford asked whether the County could challenge a City’s Comprehensive Plan if they thought it wasn’t in the best interests of the County, and Torres said that would typically happen during adoption of a Comprehensive Plan amendment. Torres said it was most likely too late to challenge the City of Alachua’s Comprehensive Plan unless the City doesn’t apply the provisions in its own Comprehensive Plan.
Chestnut: “All we’re asking is for them to be a partner with us and to make things better for the county.”
Commissioner Chuck Chestnut asked, “How did this get by us? We knew about the Walmart [that was previously proposed]. Why didn’t we know about Tara?… Did we just drop the ball on it, just to say that we’ll just leave it up to the City of Alachua and hoping that the City of Alachua would do the right thing?… What else do we need to do to make sure that this does not happen again?… What frustrates me the most out of all of this, is that, you know, everybody don’t think or feel the same way we do, but we would at least think that the protection of our water quality would mean a whole lot to us, and our environment, but that’s not the case to all… It doesn’t appear, to most developers, that that’s not important. It’s about the dollar, it’s about the development, about making money and moving on to their next project… If it’s our goal as a County to protect those qualities, then I want something that’s stern in terms of policies or directions that make sure that those policies aren’t affected in the future… It’s just frustrating to me to go through another relationship with the City of Alachua, and they have done something, and we’re chastising them for it, and all of that stuff, and then it creates those relationships, even with the small municipalities, that we’re the big guy and we’re trying to control everything, but all we’re asking is for them to be a partner with us and to make things better for the county.”
Prizzia said there would be “no correcting this once it goes awry… Because once it’s done, we’re all responsible because it’s all of our drinking water, and we’re all going to be paying the price of it.”
Prizzia: “It always comes back to Tara projects being the projects that we use as examples of what not to do in this community.”
Prizzia continued, “Honestly, the biggest part of this being problematic is the approach the developer’s taking. And this developer always takes this approach. And I try really hard not to attack any individual, but the approach that this developer takes to development, in my opinion, is… totally without any kind of consideration to the environment, to the people that are next door to it, to the people who are going to live in the homes, that are going to buy these things. It’s just not thinking about the overall big picture. It’s about maximizing profit. It’s irresponsible… and it’s so frustrating because again and again and again, it always comes back to Tara projects being the projects that we use as examples of what not to do in this community. And I just wish that this developer would hear us and work with us to come up with better solutions, and instead of having their legacy be destroying our communities and creating problems for us, being someone who could have their legacy be protecting the most important parts of our natural resources and the communities that matter the most because they live here in this community. It just blows my mind. Sorry, I just had to say that.”
Prizzia: “I feel like the City of Alachua and the developers of Tara and their engineers have us over a barrel right now”
Referring to the property for the proposed Tara Phoenicia development, Prizzia said, “Ask them if they want to sell it. I want to buy it. I’m so frustrated – this is bizarre to me. I feel like Alachua County has voted again and again to ask us to protect our natural resources and environment, and I feel like the City of Alachua and the developers of Tara and their engineers have us over a barrel right now, and it’s really disgusting and unfortunate that this is the position that we’re in, and I’m frustrated that somehow we didn’t know better. Because I know we have amazing staff and we have an amazing team who wrote an amazing Code for us and wrote an amazing Comp Plan for us, and put us in a position – and I just am blown away that we’re even in this situation right now, and I’m sorry that I’m ranting, but I’m just very frustrated.”
Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler agreed that the County should try to buy the land: “There’s a lot of property, a large acreage here, it’s not like he’s going to be losing a lot if we can negotiate to get that land, that property. It would certainly be an effort, you know, on his part, to work with us and to show the community that he does care about where he is developing, and that he understands the importance of this to the rest of us… It’s a lot of land that he’s taken right there. It’s a lot of land in all of Alachua County that he’s developed, and I think that in good faith or as a gesture of goodwill, it would be really nice to have him honor our concerns with this.”
Prizzia: “In an ideal world, our Cities in Alachua County would care as much about the quality of our water as we do”
Prizzia said, “In an ideal world, our Cities in Alachua County would care as much about the quality of our water as we do; they have to serve those same citizens. They have to provide for the health and well-being of their residents too…. They should care as much as we do, and I believe that they do. I think that perhaps this… just wasn’t on the radar when these were starting to happen, and now that it is, and now that they realize that they have these assets, I would hope that they too would be asking their staff, ‘How do we fix our Comprehensive Plan and our Code so that we are protecting our water resources for the community?’ I really, really hope that they’re asking the same questions that we’re asking right now and that they’re frustrated that this is happening in their backyard. Because if they aren’t, then we have a bigger problem and we have a bigger conversation to have when we have our next joint meeting, because we need our municipalities to care as much about this as we do.”
Cornell made a seven-part motion to direct staff to:
- Attend all future City of Alachua meetings and hearings related to projects in the Mill Creek watershed, meet with City of Alachua staff to discuss concerns with existing applications, meet with developer representatives when appropriate, and provide updates to the County Commission;
- Bring back recommendations to strengthen the Stormwater Code immediately;
- Bring back recommendations to eliminate the current self-certification process in the Stormwater Code;
- Bring back recommendations to avoid being in this situation again, possibly including formal Interlocal Agreements to improve collaboration with both the state and municipalities;
- Authorize a Chair letter to the City of Alachua to discuss holding off on any approvals for Tara April and Tara Phoenicia or anything in the Mill Creek watershed;
- Ask the developer if they’re willing to sell the Tara Phoenicia property to the County;
- Bring back potential requirements for the Comprehensive Plan and Code to require low-impact “prevention and avoidance” measures in development.
County Manager Michele Lieberman asked that the language in the last one be changed to “review and bring back options” instead of “require.”
Public comment
During public comment, Kali Blount said, “Let me tell you about karst. They’re building a sinkhole city!” and recommended that the Water Management District should place some monitoring wells. Jay Rosenbeck, chair of the Alachua County Environmental Protection Advisory Committee, said the committee supports low-impact development to “eliminate or minimize threats to critical Alachua County natural resources.” He said the committee voted unanimously to express “the strongest possible support” for efforts to minimize damage if the City of Alachua approves the Tara Forest West development. He continued, “EPAC considers the potential consequences of degradation of these resources by this development unacceptable, therefore we endorse the use of all possible data-based legal and political tools and arguments to protect these invaluable resources.”
Sarah Younger, Chair of the Sierra Club Conservation Committee, urged the County Commission to research what can be done and “take action as far as you can. I know the City of Alachua will not necessarily be as cooperative as you might think, right away, but I think in time, they’ll come to see the reasonableness of this because it is a reasonable sentiment.”
Dennis Price, a geologist, said, “I would stay off that slope. To me, that’s a very sensitive part of this whole thing.” He also suggested questioning the Water Management District about the water use permit.
Joanne Tremblay, president of Our Santa Fe River, said the development would impact “the way the water flows, and there can only be disaster because whatever we design is always less perfect than what Mother Nature has in store.”
A woman who lives north of the proposed projects said she was concerned about the springs and the wildlife and added, “The amount of density that is being proposed is more than I think that our neighborhood and our subdivision can handle.”
High Springs Mayor Katherine Weitz thanked the board for gathering information on the projects. She mentioned a planned “nine-hole executive golf course” planned “across the way… I’m having a hard time with that one. My understanding is the state of Florida requires any new golf course development to irrigate with reused water. Do we think it is an environmentally responsible approach to be introducing reused water directly adjacent to wetlands that are there actively right now?” She said a number of sinkholes have opened in High Springs although “ground penetrating radar didn’t predict that would happen… We have no opportunity to get this right a second time. We have to get on top of it before it impacts our drinking water.”
Another resident of a neighboring subdivision said the plans were “pretty far down the road” before neighbors received notice of proposed density changes. He added that once a sinkhole develops on a property, “you’ve just totally eliminated any asset that homeowner has; he can’t sell his property – nobody’s going to insure it.”
David Moritz quoted a speaker he’d heard at a conference: “There are some places in Florida we just shouldn’t be developing” and added, “and I think around Mill Creek Sink is one of them.”
George Papadi, who is also on EPAC, said he is concerned about particulates like tire wear particles and the chemicals that leach from them; he added that he didn’t believe standard filtration techniques would be adequate to prevent them and added, “The sheer quantity of tire particles is such that the Pew Research Foundation came out with a research project report recently that asserts that about 78% of plastics in the ocean are a result of tire wear particles.”
Fred Stratton, chair of the National Speleological Society’s Cave Diving Section, said Florida is an epicenter of cave diver training. He asked the board to consider the “economic impact of coming to see dirty, nasty, polluted water – or the opposite, what you’re all striving for… clean, beautiful, clear water that’s worth playing in and drinking from.”
The Conservation Chair of the National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section said the society creates cave maps to inform better management decisions and he hoped the County would take the maps seriously.
Jacob Fletcher, president of the Florida Speleological Society, said the “teeth” would be in legislative policy and particularly treating karst areas differently. He said the City of Alachua is planning on building up the area around the I-75 exit, “which is right in the middle of where you guys have deemed as karst sensitive.”
A woman said “the Tara developer guy” is “everywhere… How can you hold him to impeccability, to integrity, because if this Tara guy just takes over Alachua County, there’s not going to be anything left but just rename it Tara, you know?”
A High Springs resident said, “We’re going to have to become adversarial because the City of Alachua is not necessarily looking to collaborate.” He encouraged the County to “take whatever measures are necessary to challenge the developments within the Mill Creek watershed.”
More pieces added to the motion
When the discussion came back to the board, Prizzia asked to add the following to the motion:
- Allow staff to seek any professional guidance they need;
- Look at any proposed City of Alachua Comprehensive Plan amendments to make sure the City is providing data and analysis to support the changes.
Cornell suggested asking the City to not allow the proposed Community Commercial land use in the Mill Creek basin: “We don’t have any objection against the density, but we are asking that you amend your Comp Plan amendment to say ‘except in the Mill Creek,’ right?”
Prizzia asked about the proposed golf course, and Hofstetter said he believes a golf course is allowed “by right” in the City of Alachua, so the developer doesn’t need City Commission approval to build one.
Cornell added five more parts to his motion and numbered them 10 through 14; it was unclear what parts 8 and 9 were, and the entire motion was not repeated before the vote:
- Direct staff to obtain the necessary experts to determine if the stormwater plan will work;
- Ask staff to review the Community Commercial Comp Plan amendments and the Tomoka Hills Comp Plan amendment (mentioned by a member of the public) to engage about excluding sensitive karst areas and specifically the Mill Creek area from the amendments;
- Send a Chair letter to the Water Management District, expressing their concerns;
- Ask staff to review the Comp Plans for the municipalities around the county, identify where there might be some conflicts with sensitive environmental areas, and try to be proactive in a discussion with those cities about those areas;
- Ask staff to move money from reserves to legal resources to fund a potential challenge to the development.
Lieberman said they would also need additional funds to hire consultants as specified in the motion, and Cornell said he expected budget amendments would be needed in the future to implement the motion.
The motion passed unanimously.
So the City of Alachua spent 2 million to help alleviate pollutants entering the aquifer, but the County didn’t do their part. I am confused why no one is mad at the county for not doing what they said they would do
Perhaps you should actually read the article. Most of the comments by commissioners included self criticism for the county being caught flat footed on the project.
Smoke & mirrors? The county is stupid if they meddle in this project! This development will create a financial boon in property taxes for the city, county , and the State that will fund government essential services!
Let them improve the property because they can prove a
Necessary need . Say WELCOME
Big taxpayer revenue producer that pays for our government jobs!
Bull, you ignore the glaring environmental issue completely.
“Pot, meet Kettle.”
Bunch of hypocrites.
Agreed. Somehow I don’t think lil Kenny worried so much about the environment when he constructed his enclave.
It’s amazing wild spaces public places $$ allegedly funded a huge parcel of last close to his large house on Lake Santa Fe.
Simon (AC BOCC) didn’t say go! In this case, the AC BOCC has their nose bent out of shape because they aren’t getting their usual payoff when a private citizen sells/develops their land!
AC disapproves of just about anything they don’t personally approve (and get their share of the pie from)! Alachua went through the development process for how long and the AC Staff was asleep at the wheel? Or were they?
AC BOCC should have invited themselves to meetings when this project was in its infancy stages! Not everyone wants to come kiss their ring (a$$)! They were too busy piling up unnecessary property tax funds to notice!
Since I-75 was built nearby, ecological science has come up with retention ponds, to mitigate drainage contaminants. Why doesn’t the BOCC trust the science?
Answer: it’s an election year.
“UF study: Stormwater ponds do little to prevent pollution in nearby lakes and ponds”
https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/news/2022/03/31/uf-study-stormwater-ponds-do-little-to-prevent-pollution-in-nearby-lakes-and-ponds/#:~:text=These%20ponds%20are%20supposed%20to,about%2050%25%20and%20sometimes%20less.
Then we should reroute 75 and 441 immediately — using FEMA funds.
FEMA is bankrupt for various “reasons”.
The GOP controlled House failed to replenish disaster funding in their little “continuing resolution” yearly melodrama.
Kenny is getting portly. He should lay off the carbs.
Hey, preach it to Kat and Donald, Stan.
Karst geology above the Florida aquifer – where we all get our drinking water – means this type of development is not local in impact, but regional. Starting in 1972, Florida under Gov Ruben Askew – who also ushered in our then national model “Government in the Sunshine” transparency laws, since weakened to almost non-existence in Tallahassee – instituted state level review of Developments of Regional Impact for just such instances. Guess what?
“2018 Legislative Change Eliminates Developments of Regional Impact Review
Effective April 9, 2018, the statutory provisions in Chapter 380, Florida Statutes, related to developments of regional impact (DRI) were amended to eliminate the review process regarding changes to existing DRIs. See Chapter 2018-158, Laws of Florida. This change is in addition to statutory changes in 2015 and 2016 that eliminated the DRI review process for new proposed developments that exceed the DRI thresholds and are not exempt from review. Amendments to development orders for existing DRIs will now be considered by the local governments that issued the development orders, without state and regional review, pursuant to their local development review procedures.
Over the last 20+ years, the water management districts – the last remaining state authority over anything like this – have been weakened to the point where any active heads, including in the legal department, have been fired and members chosen who are members of the business community. That explains how this project got through the SWMD without red flags.
Elections have consequences and 20+ years of Republican politicians aligned with business – even though Republican voters are not necessarily insensitive to the state’s fragile environmental systems – has left us in this wild west of development interests. The hell with pollutants, traffic, and sprawl. They’ve also trashed our Government in the Sunshine and Florida is no longer a national model for transparency, with the Governor hiding even his travel records, while agencies will fight you over public documents. Surely this kind of old school politics is not what Florida voters want, Republicans or Democrats.
Ha ha ha. Just like the GNV, AC and SBAC Democrats and Obama, Biden-Harris corrupt Democrats and their henchmen.
If you’re so worried about the aquifer, you’re a little late. Thousands of homes and commercial sprawl have been built over the westside aquifer since Plum Creek eastside plan was rejected. You were one of those vocal opponents, too.
I wasn’t on here then and had mixed feelings about Plum Creek which I only expressed to my friends, so I think you’re probably be high.
Apparently you think there is some switch for water quality which once on stops further pollution. You probably got that from your wrong assertion about how great retention ponds are.
Want to try again, or are you – hopefully – done?
I am waiting for the Alachua County Commission that was so unhappy about Governor Desantis interfering with their crazy COVID emergency orders to start ranting about home rule! The City of Alachua has a development approval process, and once a development t is compliant it is against the law to deny it. Property rights exist. ACBOCC has no business here. If you don’t like it then buy it yourself, but not with our tax money. Free market wins.
Glenn, our water does not belong to the city of Alachua to do with it as it wants. Well, maybe it does under our current weakened environmental safeguards, but that is not a “win” for anyone but the developer. You sure that’s the side of this you want to be on?
Developers have rights….
Every liberal wants affordable housing, then when someone can build to alleviate the inventory it’s a problem?
Your water you f idiot?
Cripes this board is filled with zombies.
Why is Alachua County the ONLY County around here that is concerned about this so called water crisis?
These people on the commission must be Mensa. Other all of you are freaking nuts!
Besides for it being in Alachua County, and therefore on their radar, I think that is a question for the commissioners in Columbia and Gilchrist counties. Hopefully, just because they’re Republicans, they are not as stupid and cavalier about our water, springs , and our Santa Fe River as most of the commenters on this board. We know the state politicians are.
I got this filter thing from Walmart where I can drink from a puddle… I’m good!
Jazz: how did that biomass plant at gRU work out to save the planet? That was bad both environmentally and economically….GRU was ruined with liberal Marxist stupidity…
The private sector know what it’s doing… mind your own biz.
Put your face diaper 😷 on and go to Publix is giving out free boosters! We don’t want you making people sick cause your a spreader…do it to protect me‼️
Thanks!😃
Another one who doesn’t care about his water.
Glen: well stated. Boom!💥
Prizzia, in an “ideal world”, we wouldn’t have a bunch of liberal tree huggers running our county, but rather a mixed group of commissioners representing all of the citizens, not their own pet projects.
Typical of comments here, your vendetta against the county commission is irrelevant to the issue here, and – unless you’re the developer or otherwise would make money off the project and thus in a very small minority of county residents – also irrelevant to your own personal interests and that of most county residents, as well as residents of neighboring counties.
I don’t believe the City of Alachua commissioners are “liberals” but their actions are the ones possibly “ruining our county”.
Roger. Drive from I-75 to Jonesville along Newberry Road. Observe the total massive unplanned anything goes SPRAWL in that area.
Then ask yourself: “If all this was permitted by a BOCC who are anti business, anti growth, bunch of liberal tree huggers, then how much different could this sprawl possibly be if the BOCC was five pro sprawl zero gumment regulation Republicans?”
I say NONE.
I wonder how many of the city meetings on this matter Prizzia found the time to attend. Its in her district. She’s being paid rather well to know what’s going in it and represent is matters to the commission. She should have gotten the commission involved with the negotiations to purchase the property long ago.
I predict she loses her reelection bid.
I’m 50/50 on Alford. I know it’s crazy to say, but I miss Byerly. At least he had brains. While I didn’t agree with much of what he affirmed, I understood where he was coming from.
Steve: This is in Wheeler’s district. Prizzia’s district is Newberry, Springs County territory, who are trying to out sprawl development Alachua.
You’re absolutely right on the district geography. I stand corrected.
Pizzaria said: ” How did this get all the way through to [final] plat without us having some kind of input into the design?”
Simple. You BOCC are far too busy shoveling county tax money to Celebration Pointe for the upcoming major disaster called the World Masters to pay attention to running a good county. You are too busy allowing your out of control county manager to backroom wheel and deal with UF for a wrong location for the new animal shelter. Your staff is a private army too beholden to the county manager to do their job protecting the county citizens. Unless you replace your county manager, Alachua County is doomed to becoming a backward third world county. Your Republican county manager is a tool of the developers like the Tara guy. She works for the Republicans, not you. She undermines everything the BOCC does. You are too blind to see it and stupid enough to allow it to keep happening. Sad.
The County Manager takes direction from the Commission. She’s not making these decisions in a vacuum.
I will agree her full throated support of Celebration Pointe is a huge problem.
In my opinion the county manager needs to resister with the county as a lobbyist for Celebration Pointe. She spends more of her time making him money than she spends looking out for the well being of the other 280,000 citizens of the county.
We have private property rights…the developers know what they are doing…they hire experts, engineers, scientists, environmental consultants… they want to build good projects, not boondoggles…it’s good for the economy creating jobs and employment …we have a housing shortage…they have complied with government regulations…let them build their project! Time is money.
The planet is fine. Mother Nature
Corrects all in the end.
Mother nature will be fine, it’s the survival of humans and many other species – all replaceable, including us – that is in question. Among other things, we need uncontaminated water, if you haven’t heard. Assuming we maintain that standard, next up is protecting our springs and rivers which are a major source of bot attraction here for tourism and for our local recreation.
But hey, if you think developers have “Sherman and his family’s personal interests” on their list of necessary guidelines before turning a profit, I guess you don’t have any cause for concern. It would probably be the 1st time a company caused pollution under capitalism.
I for one am against the development and I’m not a tree hugging lib. Enough is enough.
Couple things. How old is that map? Walmart backed out of that Alachua project long ago. And who is the developer no one seems to want to mention by name?
Tara. Apparently very active here and just completed site work on 39th Ave just east of 34th St
Yeah, maybe the Mill Creek Sink moved.
Developer Sayed Moukhtara has multiple projects. Loves to use a separate LLC for each. Tara is his name.
Sunbiz public records in Florida:
Officer/RA Name Entity Name Entity Number
MOUKHTARA, SAYED S.M. MAAPS, INC. K66168
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ESTATES LLC L19000042563
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ESTATES LLC L19000042563
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA FOREST, LLC L19000063160
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA FOREST, LLC L19000063160
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA BAYWOOD, LLC L19000240411
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ST. AUGUSTINE, LLC L19000257848
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA LANE, LLC L19000276376
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA LANE, LLC L19000276376
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA LANE, LLC L19000276376
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA GREENS 2, LLC L20000118269
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA GREENS 2, LLC L20000118269
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ESMERALDA, LLC L20000362090
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ESMERALDA, LLC L20000362090
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA SERENA, LLC L21000236906
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA VISTA, LLC L21000236916
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA PROJECT, LLC L21000236931
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA PROJECT, LLC L21000236931
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA MEADOWS, LLC L21000236973
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA MEADOWS, LLC L21000236973
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA LUNA, LLC L21000236985
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA GAYA, LLC L21000237012
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA CROSSING, LLC L21000237093
MOUKHTARA, SAYED ALACHUA VERDE, LLC L21000509175
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ACQUISITION, LLC L22000003336
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ACQUISITION, LLC L22000003336
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA ACQUISITION, LLC L22000003336
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA LARGA LLC L22000191730
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA LARGA LLC L22000191730
MOUKHTARA, SAYED MOUKHTARA TRADING COMPANY, U.S.A. L84656
MOUKHTARA, SAYED TARA PHILLY LLC M19000005206
MOUKHTARA, SAYED ABBINGTON OAKS HOMEOWNER’S ASSOCIATION, INC. N07000009421
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Give this man an award!
Creating homes when we need to house the un-homed.
Creates jobs
Generates HUGE property taxes ($ millions & Millions $)for local government & schools, & library, etc.😃‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
They need to erect a statue of him
In the county for his genius & helping humanity..
And, it’s the American dream!
We all want to take care of the planet!
He needs to sue the county if they
Delay his project and he will win!!!
All I want to know is when are we getting a Costco…. And where is it going?
Me thinks that would be a great project for East Gainesville. Maybe it would spur some real development that would benefit the community. I’m still waiting for the Olive Garden and Golden Coral over there.
Costco has previously said on the record Alachua and adjacent counties don’t meet its demographics.
Besides the ecological impact, WHO is going to pay for the needed water, sewer, power, police, fire and schools of over 1000 new homes and thousands of new people ?
Big projects like Oakleaf in Orange Park and others were required to have a large bond to pay for all of this and the price added to the new homes.
This development will cost the taxpayers of Alachua MILLIONS in infrastructure costs and it will be decades before the new house’s taxes are more than the costs.
Meanwhile like everywhere he goes, the developer rides into the sunset with millions in profit and too bad about the communities he effected.