Alachua County Commission selects Cornell as Chair, adopts Climate Action Plan, decides against new Commissioner districts

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the November 4 Alachua County Commission meeting, the board named Commissioner Ken Cornell as its chair for the upcoming year, with Anna Prizzia as Vice Chair. The board also adopted its Climate Action Plan and decided against changing the maps for Commissioner districts.

New Chair and Vice Chair

During his remarks while receiving a plaque recognizing his past year of chairing the board, Charles “Chuck” Chestnut IV said, “While I am stepping down as Chair, I will, of course, continue to serve as a County Commissioner, and I look forward to working with the incoming Chair, Ken Cornell, in his new role, in which I have full confidence in his ability to lead this board and our County forward.”

Clerk of the Court J.K. “Jess” Irby, who was chairing the organizational meeting, said, “It sounds like Commissioner Chestnut has given a hint of who he’s going to vote for.” He asked for nominations, and Commissioner Anna Prizzia nominated Cornell; the nomination was seconded by Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler. The vote was unanimous.

Commissioner Mary Alford nominated Prizzia as Vice Chair, with multiple seconds, and that vote was also unanimous.

After thanking his fellow Commissioners for their work, Cornell said, “I just wanted to say to the public, this coming legislative session, there are going to be so many changes that we are anticipating, much of which will affect how this board is funded, how the different services are funded, and so I look forward to working with my colleagues, each of us, to see how that impacts this local community, and I know that this board will continue to serve its citizens as best they can, no matter what Tallahassee does.”

2027 World Masters and new Human Resources Director

During announcements, Public Information Officer Andrew Caplan announced that the County won its bid to host the 2027 World Masters competition, and he introduced Susy Swain as the new Human Resources Director.

Climate Action Plan

The board approved its Climate Action Plan, with 184 action items. Click here for our full article on the Climate Action Plan. 

Click here to read the approved Climate Action Plan.

Resiliency Specialist Jennison Kipp said staff still plans to add a Circular Economy chapter. Next steps include the County’s Climate Festival on November 15, annual updates to the written document, and a substantive update to the plan and its dashboard, every five years.

Alford made a motion to accept the Climate Action Plan, and there were multiple seconds. 

Prizzia said she appreciated the work “to actually make climate action a priority and to continue pushing forward on the importance of this as… the crisis inflection point and time to start really taking seriously the actions we need to mitigate and adapt around what’s happening with our climate.”

Cornell pointed out that the document will allow the County to apply for state funds, mainly to help with flooding issues: “So whether you’re on the right, the middle, or the left, this makes a lot of sense financially.”

In response to a comment from Tamara Robbins about the impact of having large events at the County’s Sports and Events Center, Prizzia asked to amend the motion to ask staff to bring back ways to offset the impacts of events like the World Masters, and Alford agreed. 

The motion passed unanimously.

Living Spaces and Thriving Places Program

During a presentation on the Alachua County Living Spaces and Thriving Places Program (click here to see the full presentation), Housing and Strategic Development Program Manager Ralston Reodica said staff had conducted community feedback meetings on the best uses of infrastructure surtax (IST) funds, and the responses were mixed: as an example, one group favored 99% for rental assistance and 1% for home ownership, and one group recommended 60% for home ownership and 40% for rental assistance. 

The County’s Rental Development Capital Stack Fund, funded by IST, can be used for up to 10% of a project’s total development costs, and staff recommended funding two projects:

• Royal Park II, Banyan Development ($2.8 million for 41 units of workforce housing or $3.2 million for 52 units)
• Oakview II, JE Properties ($3.3 million for 81 units). 

Half of both projects’ units would be workforce housing; the numbers shown are the workforce units.

A proposed Homeownership Impact Fund Program could provide purchase assistance for eligible homebuyers (30-60% of Area Median Income) and up to 80% AMI for essential workers, along with a developer subsidy for homes constructed for families at or below 80% AMI. Funds can also be used for land acquisition for affordable housing.

Staff’s recommendation was to approve the Rental Development Program, approve the Homeownership Impact Fund Program at no more than 40% of the total available funds, and approve funding for the two workforce housing projects. 

Rental housing vs. home ownership

Prizzia said she believes IST funds should be used “to build new units of affordable housing [and] rental housing,” not to aid homeownership, although she acknowledged that home ownership is important. She said, however, that affordable rental housing can create opportunities for the tenants to build equity and “learn about what home ownership means.” She said she thought the County should focus on the rental housing market, including buying land to “drive the building of affordable housing” in “our activity centers,… so that not just the doctors and lawyers that work there, but also the people who need to open up the cafes and work in the retail markets could also live, work, and play in those areas.”

Prizzia said she hoped the board would “listen to the community and direct that not more than 10% of this is spent on down payment assistance” and also focus on purchasing land for affordable housing. She also said she was “okay with us not doing down payment assistance with this money at all… I don’t really think that’s the purpose of this money.”

Chestnut said he supports home ownership, but he agreed with limiting down payment assistance to 10-15% of funds. 

Motion

Prizzia made a motion to approve the Rental Development Program, approve the Homeownership Impact Fund Program at no more than 10% of available funds, approve the funding for the workforce projects, and ask staff to bring back a model for a Land Trust and property opportunities so the County can move forward with projects of its own to promote rental and home ownership opportunities in affordable housing. Alford seconded the motion.

Joseph Eddy, the developer of the Oakview project, said he appreciated the funds, but he was still short of the funds he needed to start the project. Prizzia asked if the County could be more flexible with the current cap of 10% of the total development costs, “because what I don’t want is to sit there and spin our wheels, giving him 10%, and he’s still spinning his wheels for another five years and can’t start the project.”

Prizzia amended her motion to ask staff to look at purchasing some of the Oakview land to help make that project possible, and Alford agreed. The motion passed unanimously.

Poultry regulations on residential parcels

The board took up a proposal to regulate poultry on single-family parcels of less than 5 acres. Staff recommended a limit of 10 hens or ducks on lots under 5 acres in the urban cluster, a limit of 10 birds (any poultry) on properties under an acre outside the urban cluster, and 15 per acre on properties between 1 and 5 acres outside the urban cluster. The poultry must be raised for personal use unless the resident has a 4H/FFA activity exception, and roosters and drakes are prohibited in residential zoning districts. The urban cluster is outlined in black in the map below.

Alford made a motion to approve staff’s recommendation, and Chestnut seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

New district maps for County Commissioners

During a discussion of the first reading of new district maps for County Commissioners, Alford apologized to Cornell, who had initiated the effort to draw new maps, and said she had heard from “multiple” people who said they would have preferred Map 4 (Map 8 was adopted with some changes) “because Map 4 created an East Gainesville district, and this one kind of dilutes that effect.” She said she couldn’t support the proposed map.

Since the previous discussion on district maps, an appellate court ruled in the County’s favor in a lawsuit, resulting in a change from single-member to at-large districts.

Prizzia said she also heard from several people, and they said they were unaware that new maps were being adopted. She said, “I think that, given the situation we’re in, that probably our best bet is to keep our districts the same for now and consider looking at a more robust process for redistricting in the future… We’re all at-large now, so I think it gives us more time to actually have a robust conversation.”

Prizzia made a motion to keep the existing maps, and there were multiple seconds. 

After public comment, Prizzia said she still wants to look at adopting new districts because “I think we need districts that better represent our community… Doing it at the last minute, maybe, wasn’t the best alternative, and given that we’re at-large now, it doesn’t seem like it’s as pressing.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Emergency food assistance

During Manager Comments, Assistant County Manager Missy Daniels said she couldn’t recommend covering the cost of providing SNAP benefits for eligible county residents because the cost is so high (between $3 million and $6 million a month, depending on whether the federal government pays 50%). 

Prizzia said that although they couldn’t fill the entire gap, “that doesn’t mean we do nothing, right?… A combination of strategies is important… Spinning up an emergency response is important… I think a long-term approach is our food hub efforts, and our efforts around trying to get a retail grocery that’s affordable in East Gainesville. But I think a mid-term approach is a farmers’ market, a local food economy piece, and the very short-term is — how can we supplement the funding needs of Bread of the Mighty to purchase food for their emergency assistance program?” She said the family resource centers are also feeding people. 

Prizzia made a motion to give $100,000 to Bread of the Mighty immediately to buy staple food products and “$100,000 to the farmers’ markets that are able to set up a fresh food voucher program for SNAP-eligible recipients and our family resource centers that are providing fresh fruits and vegetables to people, to purchase local fresh fruits and vegetables that they can then get out to the community” to supplement the shelf-stable items they already provide. Her motion also included writing a letter to the City of Gainesville and the Children’s Trust of Alachua County, asking the City to match the County’s donation to Bread of the Mighty and CTAC to match the County’s donations to the family resource centers. Chestnut seconded the motion.

Assistant County Manager Tommy Crosby said the County has “quite a bit of money we set aside for food” from the ARPA Revenue Recovery funds. He said they have “quite a bit more than $200,000 in there.” He said there were other avenues they could also pursue, including gift cards that would allow families to purchase food. 

Prizzia amended her motion to also ask staff to bring recommendations on additional food assistance opportunities as soon as possible. The motion passed unanimously.