Newberry City Manager announces resignation, City Commission asks staff to bring back Big Box ordinance at a future meeting

BY DAVID LIGHTMAN

NEWBERRY, Fla. – At their January 27 Regular Meeting, the Newberry City Commission heard an update on a proposed Big Box ordinance, honored their Employee of the Year, approved the final plat for the Avalon Woods development, and extended the terms of three Planning and Zoning Board members. City Manager Mike New announced his resignation.

Big Box Ordinance

Director of Community Development Stacey Hectus gave a presentation on the work staff has been doing to finalize the Big Box Ordinance that was first proposed approximately one year ago. Hectus said, “I’m going to just give you a brief verbal update on where we are on the Large Scale Retail; we’re now calling it [that] instead of the Big Box… Our thought was, let’s present to the City Commission this option of enhancing our overlay districts to include the Large Scale Retail within the overlay district section of our code, and so that’s where we are tonight.”

Mayor Jordan Marlowe asked, “Why did staff shoot down the special exception idea?… In special exceptions, we can say, ‘Show the Commission renderings. Show the Commission what it looks like.’ And then they have the opportunity.”

Hectus answered, “No, it’s still in there. It’s going to still be considered a special exception within our overlay district.” Hectus said they are considering different tiers for different sizes of buildings, and the landscaping and aesthetic requirements would be higher for the larger-tier businesses. 

Commissioner Rick Coleman said, “I want it to be as tough as it can.” 

Marlowe said that as an additional requirement, “It’s got to fill a need that we don’t already have.” He mentioned Bass Pro as an example of a business that is needed because Newberry doesn’t have a fishing store already.

Commissioner Mark Clark asked how long it will take to finish everything, and Hectus said the ordinance could probably be ready for its first reading by late March or early April. 

City Attorney Scott Walker cautioned against saying, “You can’t have a Publix because we’ve got a Hitchcock’s.” Walker said, “Aesthetics [requirements], things like that, yeah, absolutely you can do that.”

Commissioner Monty Farnsworth said, “We need to make it look good, and the aesthetics are important, but I don’t want to put so many restrictions on them that we stop businesses from coming here. I think that as far as enhancing our growth and making it more friendly towards all the subdivisions and ranches and everything else that we have approved, that we need to have something for these people to be able to go and do their shopping and stuff.”

Hectus said, “I will bring a combined ordinance back.”

Employee of the Year

City Manager Mike New said, “Each year… we recognize employees for excellence in their contributions to the City, and it culminates with an Employee of the Year award.” New said they had about 12 or 14 nominations, much more than in a typical year, and the leadership teams jointly selected Tyler Huggins as their 2024 Employee of the Year.  

The City also recognizes employees after five and 10 years of service. James Albright – Recreation, Anthony Briner – Fire Department, and Sierra Nyberg – Finance & Administration were recognized for five years of service. New recognized himself for his 10 years of service.

Newberry Blues and Barbeque Festival

Chris Mack, President of Newberry Main Street, spoke about the upcoming 2^nd annual Newberry Blues and Barbeque Festival, to be held in the Newberry Historic District on Saturday, February 22, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mack said, “It happens to be our biggest festival of the year. I think last year we estimated about 13,000 people came to the City of Newberry on Saturday.” Mack said they needed to find some barbeque judges, and he was able to find enough volunteers in the room.  

Avalon Woods

Attorney Walker introduced a resolution approving the final plat for the Avalon Woods development, consisting of 89 lots on 12.26 acres. Uma Sarmistha of the Department of Community Development said the recommended action was to approve the final plat. 

Commissioner Tim Marden made a motion to approve the resolution, and Commissioner Farnsworth seconded the motion. 

Coleman asked about the density of 89 lots on 12.26 acres. Developer Dave McDaniel spoke at the podium and said, “The lot sizes range from 60-feet-by-120-feet on the large size, we have a 50-by-110, and then we have 40-by-110. I don’t know about the average, but in the end of the day, as we have been doing since we started, [the goal is] providing the housing for the average guy who’s not been able to buy a home in the rest of Alachua County because they have such strict restrictions and make it hell on developers.”

The motion to approve the plat passed unanimously.

Planning and Zoning Board appointments

Hectus returned to the podium to discuss the Planning and Zoning Board. She said, “It was brought to my attention in November that three of our existing Planning and Zoning Board members,… their terms had expired in April.” Hectus said they asked the three board members if they would agree to have their terms extended through April 2026, and they agreed.

Attorney Walker read a resolution to extend the terms of the three board members (Jordan Marlowe, Donald Long, and Katherine Thomas) through April 30, 2026. Commissioner Tony Mazon made a motion to approve the resolution. Commissioner Marden seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously.

City Manager Mike New resigns

City Manager New returned to the podium and said, “The Commission is aware I’ve submitted my resignation, and this is the first meeting since I submitted that resignation, and I believe there’s some work to be done in terms of direction for staff, which could be things like, ‘Go kind of survey and see what the going rate for salary is. And work on the job description because we may want to tweak it here, and kind of see what the market is for City Managers.’.. If the Commission wishes to appoint someone in the interim, they may direct the staff and the City Attorney to work together to develop a contract for an interim City Manager. And so we thought that it might be a discussion item for tonight, as I’d said in an earlier email today. If the Commission is not prepared to have those conversations, we’ll make it an item for discussion at the next City Commission meeting.”

Mayor Marlowe said, “I was a little confused. I thought you just wanted to have the opportunity to talk to the public and say that for yourself. And I know the Commission would certainly love the opportunity to tell you how much we appreciate you and what you’ve done. We understand your decision and those kind of things. And we certainly respect it. But we also respect the 10 years you’ve given to the City of Newberry, and I’m sure that we will plan a more appropriate moment to express that gratitude… I think we probably do need an interim contract… draft, for the next Commission meeting.”

Newberry Veterans Memorial fully funded

During Commission Comments, Clark said a single sponsor from the North Central Florida Community Foundation donated the final $90,000 that was needed to complete the Newberry Veterans Memorial.  

Marlowe asks residents to slow down on CR 337

Marlowe spoke about a dangerous road that the County has failed to repair: “I live on 337. I know we just had a crash on 337. 337 is not engineered to any current standard. It’s not a legal road. The County knows it’s not a legal road. The County knows it’s in disrepair, and the County knows that we’ve had more fatalities on those two curves per capita than any other road in Alachua County. And I’m making a plea to Alachua County. I know that they are planning on addressing half of it somewhere in 2030 to 2031. I don’t know if that’s when they’ll start engineering or if that’s when they plan to start construction, but 337 is a deadly road until that time, ladies and gentlemen. I just ask you to know its curves are 45 mph, and I think that those are curves [need to be] probably 40. The sides of the road are broken. There’s big potholes. It’s not banked. There’s lots of farm equipment. It’s still a very agricultural area of Newberry. So if you’re on 337, if there’s any poor conditions, take it at 30. It’s a few seconds longer, and you’ll get home alive, and your family would appreciate that.”