Gainesville City Commission approves 14-story building on University Avenue and purchase of smart trash/recycling bins

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the July 17 Gainesville City Commission meeting, Commissioners approved a 14-story apartment building on West University Avenue with only 13 parking spaces, allowed developers to provide surface parking if they set aside affordable units, and approved the sole-source purchase of Bigbelly trash and recycling bins.

Bigbelly bins pulled from consent agenda

During adoption of the agenda, Commissioner Ed Book asked to pull the purchase of 75 Bigbelly trash and recycling bins from the consent agenda because citizens had questions, including a letter from Jo Beaty that was published in Alachua Chronicle. Mayor Harvey Ward said he was “comfortable with putting that at the end of the agenda,” and the vote to adopt the agenda with that change was unanimous.

Rezoning request for 14-story apartment building on W. University Avenue

In the afternoon session, the Commission considered a rezoning request for a parcel at 1542 West University Avenue to increase residential density to a maximum of 240 units and increase the maximum stories to 14.

The developer plans to have 240 units with 750 bedrooms; 24 units will be at 80% AMI (area median income), and 72 units will be at 120% AMI. Staff said the project met Future Land Use change review criteria, rezoning criteria, and Planned Development rezoning criteria. The plan includes only 13 parking spaces for the whole building, but it must have at least one bike parking space per three bedrooms and one scooter parking space per six bedrooms. The developer is required to provide an RTS bus shelter on University Avenue.

During public comment, speakers objected to the height of the building, the lack of parking, the lack of compatibility with surrounding buildings, and the impact of so many additional residents on existing residents in the area. Others supported it because it brings “much-needed housing” close to campus that will attract people who don’t have a car, and it will reduce sprawl.

In response to a question from Book, a City Planner said that under the Live Local Act, the maximum building height without a zoning change would be 12 stories. Book said he was concerned that the development is inconsistent with the City’s Comprehensive Plan, specifically transportation choice and “impacts on both the transect area and incrementally down the streets”; he also said he had concerns about pedestrian safety.

Commissioner Casey Willits objected to comments about the effects a large number of new student residents will have on the area: “We call that demographics ‘Gators’… We call them friends and neighbors and students.” He said the Comprehensive Plan “does not say that every single parcel has to have transportation choice. It’s that we must provide a city that has lots of different places where people can live with lots of different opportunities for different forms of transport.”

Willits: “I also know that it is a Gainesville and an urban myth that every single student brings a car. It’s just not the truth… It’s a stubborn lie.”

Willits said he was also worried about parking, but “I also know that it is a Gainesville and an urban myth that every single student brings a car. It’s just not the truth… It’s a stubborn lie… I think we look at all of this through our lens of being, frankly, most of us, upper middle class and rising, and we think, ‘Oh, I could have never survived that. I could never have walked my kids to a parking garage.’… This is not a perfect thing, but I think it fits in with our Comp Plan on a bunch of different levels.” He said this project will offer affordable housing instead of the luxury apartments that would probably be built if they limited the height or required a parking garage.

Willits: “The people who live in this will be Gainesville’s environmental stewards. They’re going to be pioneers in this city… These people are going to be our heroes who live in this building.”

Willits also argued that putting that many people on a 0.66-acre lot is efficient, and “the people who live in this will be Gainesville’s environmental stewards. They’re going to be pioneers in this city, and they will do what many of us are unwilling to do, which is reduce the miles we drive… [and] reduce the amount of impervious surface and run-off that we create in our lives. These people are going to be our heroes who live in this building.”

Commissioner Bryan Eastman acknowledged that there is a “culture clash” right across from the university, “where you have a very old neighborhood [with] a lot of older professors… We have to balance out all of these different things… This is on University Avenue. This is across from the main job center of the North Central Florida area, the place where people come from all over to come into there. So that’s clearly the place that you would want to put more housing.” He said that instead of “stopping density from going where it makes sense,” the City should enforce its current regulations. 

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker was concerned about the Comprehensive Plan’s requirement that the development have no “undue adverse impact” on neighboring properties. 

Ward: “This is not as new and different as it might seem to be.”

Ward said he appreciated the “good, valid arguments” from the public, but nothing has been built on the property since the Burger King burned down about 30 years ago: “I don’t feel like an empty former Burger King space is the highest and best use of the property, but we don’t seem to be able to figure it out in this community.” He said the dormitories across the street are not as tall, but they have higher density than this building will have: “This is not as new and different as it might seem to be.”

Ward: “We’ve really got to stop talking about students as if they were not humans, because they are… We’ve got to find a better way to talk about this, y’all, it is off-putting to me.”

He concluded, “We’ve really got to come to grips with the fact that people very often come to school at the University of Florida or Santa Fe College… Other people come to the city of Gainesville to make a living off the fact that there are students here, and we’ve really got to stop talking about students as if they were not humans, because they are… We’ve got to find a better way to talk about this, y’all, it is off-putting to me. And I think if you put yourself in their shoes, you would find it off-putting to you, as well.”

Motion

Eastman made a motion to approve the zoning change on second reading, and Willits seconded the motion. The motion passed 4-3, with Book, Duncan-Walker, and Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut in dissent.

Second motion

After the vote, Eastman made a motion to direct staff to work with the Plan Board “to review current residential density limits in urban transect districts” and bring back recommendations “that reflect market demand and support increased housing options.” Willits seconded the motion.

After some discussion about what that meant, Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons said he thought the intent was for the City to look at the transect zones and the base densities and raise those densities, and Eastman said, “Well said.”

Chestnut suggested bringing the issue back at a General Policy Meeting, and Eastman changed his motion to add that. Chestnut also asked if staff could bring the Commission a “refresher” on the Live Local Act. 

The motion passed unanimously.

Exemption from parking structure requirements in exchange for affordable housing

The Commission also considered providing an exemption from parking structure requirements (i.e., to allow surface parking instead of requiring parking garages) in exchange for affordable housing. The amendment to the City’s Land Development code would permit surface parking for developments outside transect zones with 200+ parking spaces if the development sets aside at least 10% of units as affordable at 80% of AMI. 

Commissioner James Ingle said it was “a good trade-off that made developers whole while they were trying to get some affordable housing into developments that are spread all over the area, instead of just concentrated in one area. I think this really accomplishes a lot of the goals that we’ve got for affordable housing.” 

Ingle made a motion to approve the staff recommendation, and Eastman seconded the motion.

After public comment, Duncan-Walker made a second motion to approve the ordinance, and Willits seconded her motion.

The motion passed unanimously.

Business tax increase

The Commission increased business taxes by 5%, which will raise an additional $43,000. Willits made the motion, and there were multiple seconds. The motion passed unanimously.

Bigbelly trash/recycling bins

After that vote, Ward said, “If there’s no objection, let’s go ahead and hear the garbage can item that we moved from consent so that we don’t have to hear it at the end of the evening.”

Jarod Lloyd, Operations Manager of Public Works, said the staff recommendation was for the City Commission to approve the sole-source purchase of 75 Bigbelly receptacles and smart software for $589,518; he said the bins will replace the City’s traditional open-top garbage cans and that each unit has two bins, one for trash and one for recycling. The City currently has 44 of these, and Lloyd said, “They’ve proven to be reliable; they’ve got very low maintenance costs. They also keep pests, birds, rats, varmints out of the open tops.” He said the bins compact the garbage by a rate of five times their size, decreasing the number of pickups that have to be made. He said the City’s traditional garbage cans are 10 to 20 years old and need to be replaced, anyway. He said the new bins would replace “every single open-top” except the RTS bins and that the traditional bins need to be replaced, anyway, at $900 per unit.

Lloyd said the cans report how full they are, allowing staff to target pickups “instead of running around the City, looking at half-full or empty garbage cans.”

Book and Duncan-Walker asked about the data collected by the units, with Duncan-Walker saying people had expressed concerns that ICE could have access to surveillance data collected by the trash cans. The response was that the units don’t collect any personal identifiable information: “We don’t know who’s walking up to them. We don’t know who’s putting trash in them. We don’t know who’s hanging out around them. It’s just data about how much trash is in them, how many times a unit cycled, is the solar power working right, is the battery working right?”

The contract for the software costs about $115 per year per unit, and the initial price includes the first five years. The money for the bins will come from the Solid Waste Fund. 

Willits made a motion to approve the purchase.

During public comment, Angela Casteel said she felt like moving the item up from the end of the meeting was “to keep certain people from commenting,” and Ward interrupted her, “Hold on, hold on, let’s be real clear. I assumed you were probably here for this, and I was trying to keep you from having to sit here until 11:00 tonight. That is my intent.”

Casteel said she knew of other people who had been planning to come to the evening session to speak on that topic and ask questions; she asked the Commission to postpone the purchase because of their budget constraints.

Ward responded, “This is in the Solid Waste fund, which cannot be used for General Fund purposes… The items will be more expensive, more than likely, if we wait, and the money exists in the Solid Waste Fund budget.”

The motion passed unanimously.