Silva: City Commission should listen to the public on zoning changes
Letter to the editor
After its summer break, the Gainesville City Commission has a loaded agenda on Thursday, morning to night, with the millage rate and a zoning ordinance toward the end of the meeting.
A version of the contentious city-wide upzoning proposals of years past is up for votes on Thursday evening. The last time the main proposal came up, in January, some commission members insulted and walked out on constituents who brought questions, experience, and research to the discussion. Disrespect from the dais has been a sad trend in recent years, but maybe this week’s calls for unity will influence friendlier interactions now.
Advocates have promoted upzoning of residential neighborhoods since July 2018 in the name of “missing middle housing” and “affordable housing” (and supposed racial equity), but the blanket upzoning they want gives away City leverage for nothing in return. That happened in 2020 when 4-3 votes did away with single-family zoning by allowing two rental units plus a house of any size, all of them up to three stories and for any amount of rent, on any residential property in the city except those in homeowners associations. State law removed another item from Gainesville development-deregulation proponents’ to-do list last year by banning local occupancy limits.
“EZ” (“exclusionary zoning”) and “IZ” (“inclusionary zoning”) were key aspects of a New York consultant’s assignment in 2020. The EZ proposal of 2022 was contested by City boards, the County Commission, 1000 Friends of Florida, 4,000+ petitioners, and many speakers at public hearings. It passed anyway but was soon rescinded by a new commission. The EZ proposal up for votes on Thursday popped up right away and is not that different; it cuts minimum lot sizes and building setbacks and allows configurations of houses grouped together on properties in residential neighborhoods throughout Gainesville. Like earlier renditions, the proposal lacks data and analysis (and even had a false claim that small houses are currently illegal), and it requires no income, infrastructure, compatibility, or other criteria. Such random upzoning defeats the purpose of zoning to organize growth with some predictability.
However noble or progressive the wording, these proposals in this city, without guardrails, potentially add to speculative development and concentration of ownership for investor profits. Insisting that zoning is the problem ignores the bigger economic forces and upheavals and the City spending spree and utility bills that have made housing more expensive.
The supply-and-demand rationale for upzoning doesn’t hold up either. The previous mayor said, “Gainesville has an overabundance of affordable housing” (Gainesville Sun, July 2017), and the current mayor said he wants 10 times more houses a year demolished by Gainesville code enforcement (commission meeting, August 2023). The city has vacant (14% of residential units in 2022) and underused properties and an ongoing building boom of expensive apartments. The Shimberg Center for Housing Studies found that across Florida, “the state added hundreds of thousands of rental units between 2012 and 2021 but lost units renting for $1,000 or less (2021 $).” It said Florida gained a net 600,000 units above $1,000/month rent and lost 277,000 under $1,000, all adjusted to 2021 dollars. That was before inflation and interest spiked. The math in Gainesville rents skews higher, as well, with the thousands of new units.
The “IZ” item on Thursday’s commission agenda is pitched as a way to reduce rents on some units by granting density bonuses to developers of 10 units or more. Gainesville has offered bonuses for various benefits over the years but had few takers, and housing specialists have long advised that IZ is kind of a wash overall.
While the City government plugs along to enact IZ, the state government in 2023 initiated its Live Local Act, which some cities and counties are scrambling to opt out of. Live Local preempts local zoning and ensures local tax breaks for apartment developments with a proportion of units for tenants with 120% of the area median income (AMI), that is, it preempts commercial and much-needed industrial zoning and makes local taxpayers subsidize market-rate apartments.
For decades already, Gainesville City government has granted tax incentives of millions of dollars for market-rate developments including student apartment complexes, and it plans more in the near future. City Plan Board members have raised concerns about Live Local, but so far it hasn’t had much discussion here. The legislature made some adjustments to Live Local this year, and still cities and counties are opting out to protect their tax bases and their commercial and industrial zoning from further losses.
In short, the Gainesville City Commission would do the City a favor by letting go of theoretical notions propped up by consultants and instead reopening actual public participation in decision-making based on real-world conditions and priceless local experience.
Tana Silva, Gainesville
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Sounds reasonable residents will be here long after students do their schooling and go. But reasonable requests and ideas seem far fetched within most municipal commissions anymore.
All these ridiculous attempts to turn Gville into some pathetic mini copy of NYC and SanFran will just end up pushing more people out of the city and costing the taxpayer, just like the biomass disaster did. It’s all about making a political name for themselves and not what is best for the actual taxpayers being suffocated by the bad policies of the CC that never make things better
The city commission has failed to disclose the plan by one of them to turn all our residential neighborhoods into rent-by-the- room profit centers for landlords. This is the next step in a costly series of plans promoted by a few commissioners that have increased costs and made life more costly and dangerous for students and residents. Tana has once again done the city commission’s job by informing the public with the details of the deal.
The landlord profit support act, a liberal do-whatever-you-want- anywhere plan called “EZ” could pass tomorrow night if one political operative and influencer who was elected by a handful of votes is able to get 3 votes. The absurd theory proposed is that it will lower rent. This rivals the promise that a tree incinerator will not increase utility rates.
Mr. Eastman and the landlord industry have been trying for years to transform residential neigborhoods into rooms-for-rent, providing them with the final say over every tiny back yard, every structure and total control over numbers of tenants in every residential neighborhood within the wide city limits and its suburbs. Not the first attempt made by this political operative to support the interests of Gainesville’s politicially influential landlords and overcome citizen resistance, just the worst one.
And tomorrow is the last chance for residents to save their homes and hoods before it passes with support from his well trained group of jr. attendees and friendly real estate promoters. If passed this will be the final, fatal blunder of a city that could insist on losing its way. Speak up or give up.
Hopefully this bill is finally killed off. Like a zombie in bad B grade movie it’s unbelievable that it keeps coming getting on the agenda, especially after the last election and overwhelming citizen response from all neighborhoods and races.
The City wants more development within the city limits, and wants it to happen as soon as possible. We know why, to increase tax revenues and GRU income.
But the same leaders turn around and pander to Antifa and BLM fans, which ruined Dem cities nationwide. Why are they so ignorant — is it their crazed, big money lawyer-donors?
👹👿🤡👺💩ACLUSPLCDNC
Yeah, Antifa and BLM demonstrations are paralyzing the city.
??WTH
Jax, I believe he’s referring to dem run cities that were destroyed by the lie perpetrated by the George Floyd incident.
Listen to the (unwashed) people. Are you kidding? Liberals are elites who only ‘serve’ their virtuous causes because they think (I know that’s hard to believe) we don’t know any better.
First, after Pegeen Hanrahan was elected mayor in 2005, we saw the so-called renewable biomass/tree burner incinerator members of the Gainesville City Commission, turn our flagship utility/GRU into a self-serving political tool, under the GUISE of being leaders in the state for so-called saving the world from global warming on the backs of GRU customers, leaving our utility sitting on a mountain of unsustainable debt.
Now, they seem to be determined to destroy our neighborhoods next.
Hmmm…big surprise that commission doesn’t listen to experts and their constituents, but to the high paid consultants that know what the commissioners wish to hear! Don’t hear them talk about the stress on infrastructure this will cause. Roadways are in disrepair and they will have heavier loads. Water/wastewater facilities will ne overwhelmed. Tree canopy will be non existent on a 1/12th acre which will raise utility rates on these so- called homes and increase neighborhood temperatures. Where will these people work as commissioners restrict commercial and industrial development here (mixed use tower commercial property was a fail)? Will this commission continue to vote on unproven and idiotic ideas to swell their coffers? Big question is…how can neighborhoods defect from the city and this lunacy?!? Maybe some doing it will open their eyes, especially when their tax base erodes.