Gainesville City Commission discusses cooling centers at parks, food waste, new ad hoc committees, and increasing neighborhood parking fees

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the July 23 Gainesville Policy Committee (GPC) meeting, the Gainesville City Commission discussed providing cooling centers at City parks, adding ad hoc subcommittees on solid waste and environmental resiliency, changing the structure of the neighborhood parking permit system so that owners and renters pay the same fees, and updating the City’s codes in response to a letter from Florida Carry about the City’s gun laws.

Agenda items

After hearing a presentation on the new CivicPlus software for agenda management and selecting the Hope @ Debra Heights Affordable Rental Housing Project as the recipient of a loan from ConnectFree funds, Commissioners made several motions during Commission Comment.

Cooling centers at City parks

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker said she had received a phone call from two people “who [were] asking about cooling at Depot Park. Apparently, there have been people that have been going into the restrooms in different parks, and especially recently when we’ve had temperatures of 100 degrees — people are really hot in our facilities. So I’m curious if staff is aware or has fielded any complaints. If so, do we have any ideas about how we can address that? Because I know that I would be concerned for any type of liability issue… if somebody goes into our bathroom and faints, collapses, [or] has an episode because it’s too hot.” She said the most recent feedback was about Depot Park, “but it made me think about everywhere else.”

Interim City Manager Andrew Persons said he had not received any complaints, “but we can certainly get some more information and bring it back. I know last year, during the summertime, the Commission had a little bit of discussion, and I know it’s been part of Dr. Zhu’s presentation about cooling centers and which facilities we have where folks can come in… I think Cone Park Library is a cooling center, some of our community centers, but we can bring that back.”

Enforcement of the City’s Zero Waste ordinance

Commissioner Bryan Eastman asked for an update on enforcement of the City’s Zero Waste ordinance, and Interim Chief Operating Officer Brian Singleton said the City has been “in education mode” since the ordinance was adopted, but as of July 1, “notices have started going out about violations, and businesses and [apartment] complexes have been working with the haulers to come into alignment with our ordinances.” He said staff would be bringing back some changes to the ordinances in the next few months. He added, “We also got some direction to come back to you before the end of the calendar year to discuss food waste a little bit more, so we can definitely give an update on enforcement and the Zero Waste ordinance at that time.”

Mayor Harvey Ward suggested placing “a waste/food waste general update” on the agenda of a GPC meeting in the fall, and he also suggested focusing the August 26 GPC meeting on affordable housing.

Commissioner Casey Willits asked staff to bring back pages 7 through 12 of Alachua County’s Climate Vulnerability Assessment when they bring back information about cooling centers. Those pages describe the projected effects of climate change, based on models from World Weather Attribution and other organizations.

Ad hoc subcommittees

Moving to the topic of Zero Waste, Willits recalled that the City Commission used to have subcommittees and said, “I suspect we should have kept a committee so that some Commissioners could hear [updates] a little bit more frequently and get the word out. I’m not going to advocate right now that we need to go back to that full committee system.” He also said that staff could bring updates more often to GPC meetings.

Ward said, “Without going to a full-fledged committee system, we can certainly create an ad hoc committee.” He later asked the Clerk to put an item on the August 6 agenda to “discuss a couple of ad hoc committees,… a solid waste committee and an environmental resiliency committee.”

City Commissioner Casey Willits: “If there is stuff around climate or about resiliency or about energy efficiency, water, stormwater… maybe that’s something where a committee [could contribute] in the future.”

Willits said he thinks the Joint Water and Climate Policy Board “is not cutting it about what we can do in the City to continue moving forward. I love our updates from Dr. Zhu, but I feel we are not — it’s harder because we don’t control GRU. But if there is stuff around climate or about resiliency or about energy efficiency, water, stormwater… maybe that’s something where a committee [could contribute] in the future.” He said the Joint Water and Climate Policy Board hears presentations, but he couldn’t remember the last time a policy recommendation resulted from that board. 

Neighborhood parking decals

Willits brought up neighborhood parking permits and said that 83% of the permits go to renters, 13% go to fraternity/sorority members, and 4% go to owner-occupied housing; he said the rate for renters is nearly double the rate for owners, and “I really want to equalize these in a revenue-neutral way, because to me, it’s not about the money. It’s about controlling parking, some sense of order, and protecting enough spaces so that those neighborhoods continue to function.”

Motion

Willits made a motion to direct staff to bring back “a revenue-neutral equalization between the permits that are sold to homesteaded property applicants versus non-homesteaded applicants – i.e., renters — in the neighborhood parking permit system.” Eastman seconded the motion.

When Commissioner Ed Book asked Willits to provide more information, Willits said, “By revenue-neutral, I mean that homestead would pay more, renters would pay less.”

Singleton said that because the fees are in Appendix A, any changes would require a change to the ordinance. He added that staff had recently been discussing on-street parking because “we are well below market when it comes to our neighborhood parking decal program versus the adjacent property owners and the university, so we were going to bring back an item to have that discussion with the Commission about adjusting more closely to the market.” He said that because the decals have already been sold for the next calendar year, any changes would not be implemented immediately.

The motion passed unanimously.

Response to Florida Carry regarding the City’s firearms laws

City Attorney Daniel Nee said the City had received a letter from Florida Carry similar to the one sent to Alachua County, “regarding their allegation that there was some preempted matters in our code regarding [firearms].” He asked Commissioners to give him direction to look into it and, “if it’s necessary that we suggest some amendments,” start the process of amending the Land Development Code, which has to go through the Plan Board.

Motion

Eastman made a motion to allow the City Attorney to look at the City’s laws “as they pertain to open carry” and bring back any recommended amendments. Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut seconded the motion, and the motion passed unanimously. 

Ward said, “I will certainly have lots to say about that when we get there, but not today.”