Alachua County Commission stays the course on road paving, moves forward with updates to the tree code, asks staff to draw voting districts that mirror the county’s demographics

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the April 22 Alachua County Commission meeting, the board decided against paving some road segments that were not included in their 10-year plan, moved forward with a major update to their tree code, and asked staff to look at drawing new County Commission districts that mirror the overall county demographics.

Collector road segments

In a discussion about collector road segments that are currently not included in the 10-year road plan, Assistant Public Works Director Brian Kauffman said the consultants were asked to optimize the available funds by evaluating road segments and making a priority list; however, 41 collector roads, representing 65 road segments, were not included “in their entirety” in the plan. The cost to repair 27 contiguous road segments that are not in the plan would be an additional $91 million on top of the $250 million that is planned for road improvements through 2032. 

Click here to see the plan for paving roads.

Kauffman said the estimate for the major rehabilitation of CR 234 came in $1.5 million under budget, and some Commissioners had suggested using that money to pave additional segments of that road, but staff recommends “that we kind of stick with the plan.”

Some upcoming projects, such as NE/NW 53rd Street, signal construction at Parker Road and SW 24th Avenue, and the Parker Road extension, have come in $1.5 million over budget, so “we have places we need that money.” 

Kauffman said claims for car damage have dropped dramatically on NW 23rd Avenue, which was just paved, but CR 235 is still generating claims: “We strive to keep those potholes filled so we can reduce any damage, but they can open up overnight – one good rain and heavy truck traffic, and boom, they’re right out there.”

Motion and vote

Commissioner Mary Alford made a motion to continue with the plan they approved in March 2023, and there were several seconds to the motion. The motion passed 4-0, with Chair Chuck Chestnut absent and Vice Chair Cornell acting as Chair.

Tree code updates

The board also heard an update to the tree code that extends protection of heritage live oaks from the current 60-inch diameter threshold down to 45 inches, as long as the tree’s quality is rated as a 4 or above. The new regulations would apply both to development plan applications and tree removal permits for residential lots. Homeowners who want to remove a landmark live oak (a diameter at breast height of 45 inches and rated 4 or above) must demonstrate that development or construction activity cannot occur in any other location on the site and that removal is unavoidable; the removal must be approved by the Alachua County Commission. The current regulation requires a permit if a homeowner wants to remove a heritage live oak with a diameter of at least 60 inches, so the new regulation both decreases the diameter and requires County Commission approval. 

Development Review Manager Christine Berish told the board this would require homeowners to “bring your reasons to the board. A lot of times, people just want to remove [a tree] because they’re scared of it; a lot of times, it isn’t some necessary thing – it’s just this ‘don’t like it.’ But, you know, those conversations will come here [to the Commission], and we’ll make recommendations based on their information.”

Berish said the County will charge the current tree permit fee of $90 for this process, but it might increase after they see how much staff time it takes. She said that in 2024, eight trees between 46 and 61 inches in diameter were removed through the tree removal permit process; three were for new home construction, one was for a disabled veteran who needed an accessible path around his home, four were causing damage to a home, and one was for a livestock operation.

Under the proposed regulations for residential lots, heritage trees within 10 feet of an existing structure, such as a building or pool, can be removed if they’re causing damage to the structure, but Berish said that would not apply to a driveway: “We get a lot of requests to take trees out for cracked driveways, so that would not – it would be your structures and things that can’t be repaired as easily.” A replacement tree is required for each heritage tree that is removed.

Click here for the full presentation on the amendments to the Unified Land Development Code. 

Motion

Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler made a motion to advertise a public hearing on the changes, and Alford seconded the motion. 

During public comment, several people expressed concerns that the regulations would make it difficult to build affordable housing because they add costs. After public comment, Commissioner Anna Prizzia said, “I feel like it’s a false dichotomy when developers show up and we’re talking about trees, to say, ‘Affordable housing, affordable housing, protect affordable housing,’ because at the end of the day, those two things are not opposites, and they are not meant to compete against each other. Protecting environmental quality and protecting shade and open space for people who live in affordable communities is just as important as for rich people who live in fancy communities. And so we have to find ways that we can do both.”

Wheeler asked the developers to build more smaller homes: “Not everybody needs a three, four-bedroom home… We need homes that are modest, not flamboyant… But the trees, we feel like, are going to be an amenity that everybody should be able to enjoy, not just the folks that can afford the $300,000 to $500,000 homes in the community because people don’t need to live in a desert land where there’s no green cover and protection.”

Both Alford and Cornell supported reducing mitigation costs for removing trees when building affordable housing.

The motion to advertise a public hearing on the changes passed 4-0 with Chestnut absent, and the updates are likely to be considered at the Commission’s second meeting in June. 

Prizzia: “We need housing that’s affordable, dispersed across our community, and the more we can integrate varieties of housing into neighborhoods, the better off we’re going to be.”

After more developers spoke about affordable housing during the general public comment period, Prizzia said, “Let’s get more units built, and let’s get more units in diversified places across our community – because the other thing is, we’re really frustrated with the concentration of affordable housing in one place. We need the people who work at Bass Pro Shops to also be able to afford to live at Celebration Pointe. We need… the nurses at the hospital to also be able to work next to Spring Hill, not just the people who are the doctors and the lawyers, right? So we need housing that’s affordable, dispersed across our community, and the more we can integrate varieties of housing into neighborhoods, the better off we’re going to be.”

Prizzia continued, “This is getting a little political, so just forgive me, but the number one way that you can fix issues around some of that affordability is by electing the kind of people who care about affordability in our community and and in our country and who are going to think differently about the way that we treat our workers, the way that we treat our supply chains, the way that we treat our partners for those supply chains, whether they be here in our country or internationally… And so it is going to take those people who are willing to say, ‘You know what, we need affordable housing, and so I’m willing to not make as much percentage.’… I think if we can bring the subsidies and we can bring the incentives and we can bring the deregulation where it’s appropriate, and you all can bring the people who are willing to maybe have a little bit more of a modest profit on a project,… we can meet in the middle and come up with some really, really awesome projects and be kind of a showpiece for the rest of our state about how we can do this.”

Letter to Rep. Cammack to restore funding for local foods purchasing programs

During Commission Comment, Prizzia made a motion to send a letter to Rep. Kat Cammack, asking her to consider restoring funding for the local foods purchasing program and the local foods school lunch program. She said, “Both of them were cut as a result of the freezes at the federal government, and both of them were helping both our food bank and our school district and our local farmers, providing fresh, healthy, nutritious food to our communities, and right now they’re all frozen and people have had to cut employees and cut contracts with local farmers to buy produce for those who are most vulnerable in our community.” She said the letter would ask Rep. Cammack to support restoration of those funding programs in the Farm Bill. The motion passed 4-0, with Chestnut absent.

Redrawing County Commission districts to mirror the county’s demographics

Cornell said he wanted staff to look at redrawing County Commission districts to “balance the districts by population and by demographics for each of the five districts… [and] bring us back some maps in the next 60 to 90 days.”

Growth Management Director Jeff Hays said staff has been working with the Supervisor of Elections, based on earlier direction from the Commission, and they’ll come back at the second meeting in May with proposals. However, he said they had mainly been working on reducing the number of precincts split between different districts, “not focusing on the demographic and population element… That would potentially result in much more significant changes in districts.”

Cornell: “You know, right now we have a pie, and it’s cut in the five places, and I think we should change all that and line it up with demographics and population.”

Cornell responded, “Which I’m fine with. You know, right now we have a pie, and it’s cut in the five places, and I think we should change all that and line it up with demographics and population.”

Prizzia said she was more concerned with the split precincts.

Motion

Cornell passed the gavel to Prizzia so he could make the motion: “Ask staff to bring back redistricting, aligning the precincts to the best of our ability with the Supervisor of Elections, and also making sure that the population and the demographics mirror the population and the populations are equal and that the demographics mirror the demographics of Alachua County as best we can, in each of the five districts.”

Assistant County Manager Missy Daniels said that would be “nearly impossible – and as soon as you do it and get this adopted, precincts are going to change… They always change.”

Hays said there are “statutory constraints… We would have to be able to defend any new districts that we draw if they are significantly different.”

Prizzia said she didn’t think “the pie needs to be completely redrawn, but… if boundaries are shifted,… you’ll see a better balance of demographics and population.”

County Attorney Sylvia Torres said she didn’t know whether staff could bring back multiple maps that “are consistent with the statutory requirement of a balanced population and still look at those other things.”

Cornell: “Under the map I’m thinking of, Jeff, every one of us would have individuals that are on the eastern side of the county in that district.”

Cornell said, “Under the map I’m thinking of, Jeff, every one of us would have individuals that are on the eastern side of the county in that district.”

Hays said there may be some case law in terms of drawing districts, “specifically allowing certain demographic groups to be able to have the ability to elect a member of a certain demographic group.”

Cornell said, “We’re at-large, though. We’re at-large.”

Alford suggested using a best practices document from the Florida Association of Counties, but Cornell said, “I’m specifically talking about mirroring in every district the demographics of Alachua County, since we’re at-large, in case there ever is a case where we move back to single-member, we will now mirror the county’s demographics… And there are a number of demographics that currently aren’t represented because they don’t vote. Hispanic is at the top of my list.”

Cornell continued, “We had 70% of our population that said we want at-large voting. We’re going to have that at the next election. But if there’s ever a case where that doesn’t happen again, let’s get the districts drawn correctly, so that it’s correct. That’s my only point.”

The motion passed 4-0, with Chestnut absent.