Letter: Rezoning challenges are linked to County’s approval of projects in the western urban cluster
Letter to the editor
The current state of the Alachua County school system has been in the making for a long time, and the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) was overly malleable and was not paying attention.
I know without a doubt that decades of being chummy with the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) have left the school board in a bad way. The BoCC’s comprehensive plan has been antithetical to the mission of SBAC.
Instead of being vigilant and sounding the alarm when it was obvious that the BoCC was not judiciously implementing their urban sprawl-preventing plan, SBAC was singing Kumbaya.
The County’s plan, which incentivizes all new development and growth to occur within the boundaries of designated east and west “URBAN CLUSTERS,” quickly became one-sided. Instead of giving developers an ultimatum on which urban cluster the board would sign off on, they began rubber-stamping all projects for the western urban cluster. Since Alachua County is the greatest county in the state, it should have been easy to keep the two urban clusters balanced; either developers build in the board-designated area, or they don’t build at all.
There is a lot to be said about the effects of the County’s comprehensive plan, but that’s not why I’m writing this letter.
When I saw this quote, it put a bad taste in my mouth.
Chair Thomas Vu on Williams Elementary: “Kids deserve to go to school on a place that isn’t a dump site… My position on that is not changing at all, and I would rather see them go into a new facility next door [at Lincoln],… and I would love to see Lincoln Middle School itself rebuilt.”
Chairman Vu, I believe you mean well, and I appreciate your willingness to serve on the county school board. I was victimized by SBAC rezoning years ago, and I can relate to the level of anxiety that is surrounding this issue.
The discussions SBAC is having with the community are serious. There should be no place in these rezoning discussions for anyone to resort to virtue signaling and yasabossin.
Chairman Vu, it is taboo for government officials to speak about dumps in SE Gainesville/unincorporated area unless you are advocating for dump closure. SBAC is viewed by many in the community as being complicit, along with the BoCC and Gainesville City Commission, since between the three of you, there has been little willingness to join the fight to close the hazardous Florence construction and demolition landfill that is located near three public schools.
Chairman Vu, you are concerned about the wrong dump. The garbage dump you’re referring to that used to be near Williams was closed 57 years ago. The dump was smelly, but it didn’t take a lot of hazardous materials. Back in those days, the hazardous materials dump was located off South Main Street, where the Corrine Brown Transit Facility (RTS facility) currently sits.
Chairman Vu, I don’t know if you are any good at math, but see if you can work this problem:
If you have two schools, one is (3/5 miles) from the hazardous dusty landfill and the other (2/3 miles) from the hazardous dusty landfill, which school is closest to the big dusty landfill? The answer is Lincoln, not Williams.
Chairman Vu, moving elementary school kids closer to the dust from a hazardous landfill is not what kids deserve.
Chairman Vu, I say all this because when I first read your quote about kids and the dump, the first thing that came to my mind was Chairman Vu is either woefully uninformed about SE Gainesville/unincorporated area, or he is trying to make me out to be a bigger fool than God made me.
Chairman Vu, the Alachua County voters approved a half-cent sales tax for school facility improvements in November 2018, estimated to generate $25M annually. Are you suggesting that Lincoln will continue to not see any improvements unless it converts to K-8? Or is it a coincidence that all the schools slated to be closed never benefited from the $200M you’ve collected from the tax so far?
The best thing SBAC can do right now is come clean and admit that the school board, for many years, hasn’t been as vigilant as it should have been as the County was rolling out its new comprehensive plan to reshape communities. SBAC shouldn’t have to take all the arrows for the rezoning fiasco, given that the majority of the public know full well there is a direct causal nexus between County policy and this rezoning dilemma the school board is trying to figure out.
Anthony Johnson, eastern unincorporated area of Alachua County
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“The best thing SBAC can do right now is come clean and admit that the school board, for many years, hasn’t been as vigilant as it should have been as the County was rolling out its new comprehensive plan to reshape communities. SBAC shouldn’t have to take all the arrows for the rezoning fiasco, given that the majority of the public know full well there is a direct causal nexus between County policy and this rezoning dilemma the school board is trying to figure out. ”
Now there’s an understatement. See who was elected last and don’t repeat the mistake of voting them back in.
Interesting way of looking at the rezoning situation.
I’ve lived in the western urban cluster almost eight years and didn’t know there was an eastern urban cluster.
I did some cursory checking and confirmed it.
My kids school is overcrowded, my community is overbuilt. I agree with the idea of giving developers an ultimatum where to build to balance out the population. I don’t think that would solve all the school board problems but it probably would be a big help.
Having kicked the rezoning can down the road for years is only a symptom; the SBAC is the root. Purging them is the first step forward in dismantling their destructive policies and their racially divisive ideologies.
I should have added there’s a Certain board member who’s been instrumental in directing those efforts. My understanding is they’ll be running for another position that could potentially cause more divisive decisions—be vigilant.
Ridiculous.
The SBAC doesn’t write or enforce the Comp Plan, and local governments have been neutered in their ability to plan growth by the state legislature.
🤔 Did I say that?
Yes
Where? Please be specific.
Comp plan or no comp plan, the shift of Gainesville’s commercial and population center from Main Street toward the Interstate has been happening for lifetime of most SBAC board members. The SBAC has no excuse for not managing its resources in line basic demographic trends.
Wakeup Steve, this has nothing to do with: “Gainesville’s commercial and population center from Main Street toward the Interstate”
This letter discusses the implementation of the eastern and western urban clusters that the county has included in its comprehensive plan in the ’90s.
The goal was to manage urban sprawl in a controlled manner outside the Gainesville city limits, specifically in the unincorporated areas. The plan was executed poorly, causing population shifts westward and creating an imbalance in school resources.
Population would not materially shift population eastward in Alachua County even if land was free. Any sizable eastern “urban” cluster is a fantasy of County management.
The comp plan didn’t cause anything. The shift westward would be happening whether or not there a comp plan exists and regardless of any ability of the county to manage or mismanage growth.
Given the existence of I-75, local government can only marginally effect the cost and speed of the shift. Ocala and Lake City both see the same shift toward the interstate corridor.
I wish more development happened in the eastern county and less out west, too. But local politicians in all sectors opposed it. Plus their “progressive” donors preferred building sprawl around and west of I-75, which was routed where there’s few wetlands, making for easier highways (and widening) for decades since.
Plus, GRU laid water, gutters sewer lines in the future “Urban Cluster” designated for growth so plenty of then-future customers’ bills would pay for that infrastructure.
Alas, the Urban Cluster plan also includes the Gainesville Eastside up to Newnan’s Lake. The county recently approved a subdivision plan there.
In light of the private property rights of landowners, said taxpayers, developers and bank lenders merely follow where customers see good schools are located. Fortunately the eastside includes PKY, the EHS IB program, charter schools and St. Patrick’s to attract homebuyers. Public schools aren’t the only ones attracting homebuyers.
The city, GRU, county tax revenues are treated like a business, serving their customers. So, change the perception customers have of the eastern county and more will come, so schools stay open.