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>> mayor: good afternoon, everybody. We're going to go ahead and come to order.

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we'll take care of some housekeeping things first before we get started with the formal presentation.

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first of all, we cannot block the doors, so, madam manager, if we can get some help from gpd, we cannot block the doors.

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also, as we're getting settled here, we do have live feed broadcast going on, both out in the hallway there's two tvs

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and audio. Y'all, if you could come to order just so we can get through our housekeeping stuff.

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okay. Ma'am, if we could come to order. So there are spaces out in the

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hallway. If you can -- if you like, you can go out there and listen and follow and participate.

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there's also plenty of room downstairs. We have a conference room down there.

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it's got plenty of comfortable seating -- ma'am, we do not allow signs in the auditorium. Ma'am, we do not allow signs or

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any signs of display inside the chamber. >> excuse me? >> mayor: we do not allow signs

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or any kind of display inside the chamber. Anything that is said in here you can hear out in the

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hallways, you can also watch on tv. And so you'll be able to come and go and participate that way.

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one of our commissioners chose to leave because she is worried about the number of people in chambers here.

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we do have an upswing in cases of covid so we want everybody to try to be as cautious and healthy as possible while

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they're in this public meeting and participating. I will also give you a run of the order today so all of you

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can be prepared for that. The first thing is we'll call our meeting to order and adopt our agenda.

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this is a workshop meaning that no formal action will be taken by the commission today. This is an informational meeting

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and an opportunity to hear from all of you. And then following the presentations we will hear

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public comment and then following public comment we will turn back to the commission for any follow-up questions and for

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the commissioners to share their views and thoughts. It is important for me to make sure that everybody is heard

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from and nobody is excluded. And so there have been sign-up cards delivered to the clerk. I understood we had some more

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printed up. We'll make sure that you're able to get your hands on one of those if you didn't turn one in

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already. Hand those to the clerk and then she will call everyone up in the order in which she received

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those comment cards. I also want to respectfully ask that we make sure this is an open and welcoming chamber and

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civic space. We want everyone to feel that their views and respected and heard.

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as our rules state and the rules adopted by the fuel commission, there's no cheering or jeering allowed.

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that means no clapping or shouting or booing. We respect everyone to respectfully listen to everyone

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else and make sure that everyone's views are accepted and greeted with the same level of decorum and decency and I

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know my colleagues that will the same in terms of how we participate in this commission. We do have an agenda to adopt.

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commissioner chestnut, did you want to speak before the adoption of the agenda. >> if the clerk could announce

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when the cards arrive. If you could make an announcement. >> mayor: we'll get our staff

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to -- there's room outside and people with circulate in and out if they so choose. When more cards come in, looks

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like they are, lauren has them over there, we can circulate them around and pass them back up to the clerk.

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I will tell you, and this is my responsibility but something the commission has asked me to do, we want to make sure that

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everybody gets a fair chance to speak. We'll see how many cards have been turned in when we get to

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public comment and make a determination about how long each speaker will get. We'll have to see how many

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people turned the cards in and then do some simple math at that point. Commissioner chestnut, was that

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the only -- okay. Very good. [off mic] >> mayor: okay.

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so eight more seats. And again it's nice and comfortable down there and you'll be able to follow along

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just as you would up here. Commissioner hayes-santos. >> I move that we adopt the agenda.

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>> second. >> mayor: motion and second that we call the meeting to order and adopt the agenda.

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all in favor say aye. [chorus of ayes] opposed? That motion passes with saco and

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duncan walker absent. >> mr. Mayor, I'm just in my office for safety but I was trying to vote aye.

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>> mayor: that was an aye as well. Okay. So we've got two closely-related

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items on our agenda. The second affordable housing workshop inclusionary zoning really is a follow-up from the

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workshops that we held, sort of a staff overview of the feedback that was received. But we'll start with the first,

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exclusionary zoning item, discuss amendment to the comprehensive plan and land development code.

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and it's really -- I need to make sure that when anybody is speaking, whether it's staff, members of the public or members

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of the commission that we're not interrupting. And I'm sure there will be conversations that you all want

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to have with one another as things come up. I just ask you to respectfully excuse yourself out into the

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hall where you can have your conversation at a reasonable level and not sort of disturb or interrupt the broader

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conversation. So with that, madam manager, I'll turn it over to you and you can introduce mr. Persons.

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>> yes, mr. Mayor, members of the commission, mr. Person and his staff person are here to talk about this item.

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but this item was presented to the commission prior to. We were asked to have some workshops in the community.

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we had three workshops but we had one dedicated primarily to eziz, the other two workshops clearly included the topic but

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beyond the one specific workshop that we had on exclusionary and inclusionary zoning there were some neighborhood workshops -- I

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think commissioner chestnut suggested it, the commission supported that. We've had three of those and

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we're scheduled to have more. We've reached out to all 80 of the neighborhood associations and many of them have asked even

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beyond today's meeting to have those meetings. So we're three in and potentially many more to go as

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requested by those neighborhood associations. But it has been an ongoing conversation and mr. Person is

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here to introduce the items. >> mayor: thank you, madam manager. Mr. Persons, welcome.

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>> andrew persons, director department of sustainability development. I'm having a strong deja vu

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sense. It's bringing back fond memories. The manager sort of took the

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words out of my mouth. Just stepping back a little bit, if you recall back in august of 2020 the commission heard a

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comprehensive presentation about equitable development. Out of that there was a multipart motion that the

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commission made. One aspect of that motion was directing staff to go out and find help to do both an analysis

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of our codes related to the desire to end exclusionary zoning practice in our code as well as do a feasibility

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analysis for adopting an inclusionary housing program which would essentially create a requirement for market rate

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development to set aside a percentage of units for affordable housing. The hrna advisers were selected

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by the commission. The report was delivered to the commission earlier this year, in january.

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at that meeting the commission directed staff to implement the recommendations from the report related to ending exclusionary

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zoning. That's what we're here in afternoon, to talk to you about that.

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juan castillo and my department has been at the forefront working with the code changes. In addition to the neighborhood

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and community workshops, the manager mentioned we've also had now three hearings with the city plan board where these items

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have been discussed. There are several items that you'll talk about today that are yet to be taken up by the plan

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board. But they have taken some action on a few of the items and mr. Castillo will talk about

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that a little bit. With that I'll turn it over to mr. Castillo to walk you through the code items and of course

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we're here for any questions. >> mayor: thank you, mr. Persons. Mr. Castillo, good to have you

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with us. >> thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners and mayor.

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for the record, my name is juan castillo, I'm a planner here with the department of sustainable department.

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as mr. Persons mentioned, I'll be going through the proposals currently for the exclusionary zoning item related to the

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recommendations from the hrna report. Next slide. >> mayor: mr. Mounts, could I

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ask you to -- yeah. You're kind of right in front of the presentation there. Thank you.

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>> so the next slide, I just wanted to give you a quick rundown as to our -- basically our itinerary.

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we're going to be discussing seven items before you today. They range between proposals for land use amendments to our

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comprehensive plan, our single-family land use, and amendments to our zoning, our zoning districts to allow for

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small-scale multifamily development, as well as amendment to our compatibility buffers, occupancy limits,

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bedroom limits within the university for the contact zone. We will be discussing the introduction of a new use which

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we are calling neighborhood residential, and also definitions and regulations associated with that use.

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so next slide, about three items down. >> mayor: I think too while we're sorting that out, if we

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can get a full screen, too, that would be helpful. >> so while that's kind of being worked on, so just kind of a

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little overview basically with our context with the city of gainesville. The current situation that we're

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running into of course as you know, we're trying to create flexibility for the development of more housing within the city

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of gainesville. We want more people to be able to have the ability to live within our city.

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so we are proposing to have regulations that will facilitate the development of more housing. And these proposals have taken

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the form of -- or have been inspired by some of the recommendations that the hrna report have given to us.

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and I'm just going to go ahead and kind of go through them real quickly from memory. But the first proposal before

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you is an amendment -- >> mayor: just pause a second. I think they've about got it sorted out there.

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I think they're trying to reshare the screen and then it should be okay. >> sure.

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>> mayor: like many people, I'm a visual person so the visual helps. >> I am likewise.

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background architecture. >> mayor: there we go. >> there we go. So we could go to the, let's

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see, three slides down, or over. One more. One more. Okay.

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so one of the proposals before you this evening is the amendment to our land use district are our land use for

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single-family -- or single-family land use. And just to kind of quickly go other.

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properties within the city of gainesville are regulated through different layers. One of those layers is land use.

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we have also the zoning district layers. So the land use is designed to, in essence, illustrate or

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regulate what type of zoning are allowed within a specific property. Right now in the city of

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gainesville we have a significant portion of the city that has a land use that will only allow for zoning that will

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only allow for single-family development. 62% of the city to be exact is designated as single-family land

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use. Again, within 63% of the city only a development of one house on a property can be developed.

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next slide. So this is just to illustrate what that kind of looks like in the city of gainesville right

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now. Large portions within the west-northwest part of gainesville, some portions on

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the east side of gainesville, and over to is south part of gainesville. But again, 63% of the city

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currently only allows for the development of one house on a large piece of property. And this is within the context

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of an environment where we're looking for opportunities to create more housing in the city in order to be able to, of

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course, house and give more options to people to find places to live. Next slide.

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and so the proposal today -- there's actually two recommendations that staff is bringing before you that we

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would like to get some discussion and some direction on. The first proposal is amending

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the single-family -- the existing single-family land use to be -- to incorporate language that would allow for small-scale

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multifamily development. And the small-scale multifamily is, basically it's a multifamily use that allows for two units

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minimum and four units maximum. Meaning two units that would allow for two families or one family in each unit and then

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four units that would allow for one family in each unit. In essence, you're creating a building that allows for a

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maximum of four families to live within it. In a similar space, a single-family space would -- the

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same space that a single-family house is designed to take. So the idea is to, again, allow for a small-scale,

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neighborhood-scale multifamily that doesn't add an extreme impact to the existing structure of our city but that would allow

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for the opportunity for more housing to be developed within the city of gainesville. Currently, again, single-family

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land use only allows for one family within, within one lot. The proposal before you today would amend the language to

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allow for developments between duplexes, triplexes and quadruplexes, but we would consider all of this

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neighborhood residential small-scale multifamily. And this is an example of what that language would look like.

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the density would not change, only allowed use, the land use would change. Next slide, please.

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[inaudible] -- residential would not change but it would allow for higher density to be [inaudible] and that density is

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50 units per acre. With the previous proposal the density would remain at 8 units per acre.

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with this proposal it will go up to 15. And just kind of moving forward, a lot of these items are

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intertwined with each other. If there's a question or a clarifying question that you may have, feel free to interrupt me

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and ask it. But some things, for example, our next item will be the definition of neighborhood

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residential that's intertwined with what the zoning is proposing and further development compatibility

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proposals down the line as well. Next slide, please. So the next item before you is the definition of small-scale

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multifamily. And mentioned earlier, one of the things that's being proposed is to incorporate a new use,

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which we are labeling as neighborhood residential multifamily when what this use entails is to provide a building

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that takes the same footprint as a single-family familiar or large-scale single-family home and within that same footprint

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allow for a maximum of four families to live with that footprint. Currently a single-family home

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allows one family to live within that footprint. The proposal now is to allow for four family to live within that

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same footprint. Next slide. So this is some of the examples that we looked at to kind of get

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an idea of what a small-scale, neighborhood-scale multifamily would look like. This section provides

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regulations that would regulate the way the proposal looks, the height of the proposal, as well as the location for parking and

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any type of orientation requirements. Next slide. So as I mentioned, the purpose

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of this is for the structure to look like a regular house, just like a single-family home, but the difference is that this

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single-family home allows now for four families to live within it. In order to do so we are

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proposing regulations that would require things like 30% glazing so that the units are not boxy-looking but they look like

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actual homes. Buildings that have a limit of two stories, off-street parking being limited to two parkings in

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the front and the rest of the park in the rear. A minimum of one high-quality tree to be preserved on the

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property. >> mayor: we can't have cheers or jeers so we're going to listen and be respectful.

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>> that was laughter. >> mayor: we're not going to have interruptions. If we do I'm going to need to

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adjourn the meeting until the order can be restored. We want everybody to be here and participate but we can't have a

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disruptive atmosphere. That's all I'm asking for each of us. Mr. Castillo, please continue.

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>> if a tree is not present, one will have to be provided or planted in the property associated with this type of

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development. And of course last, the orientation of the building is important.

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so there's regulation that basically allows for the main entrance of the structure to be on the first floor and the

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building being oriented to the street, to the more primary street for entrance to this unit.

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next slide. And this is just kind of an example as to the idea behind the neighborhood residential

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multifamily. Again, the idea is to have a buildable area or a similar footprint of a large home but

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instead of the large home serving only one family, it will serve four families. Next slide.

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so moving on to -- now that we have defined the use and basically the land use amendments, we're going to now

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turn our gears towards the zoning districts. Again, the idea behind this is to allow for provisions that

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would facilitate a diversity of housing and to make the creation of more housing easier. A lot of what I will be

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discussing here is design in order to facilitate the creation of more housing, not just with a small-scale multifamily but also

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with a regular house. And I'll explain what I mean by that here in a second. Next slide.

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so the first thing that you'll notice is that neighborhood, the use for small-scale multifamily will be -- is being proposed to

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be an allowed use in rsf-1 and rsf-4. And the second thing rsf-1 to rsf-4 is to consolidate the

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zones and make them one zone and there's a reason for that. Next slide. So a lot of the dimension

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standards, setback standards, densities within rsf-1 through rsf-4 can seem a bit convoluted, a bill confusing and arbitrary.

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and so staff was not able to find any type of reason as far as why there is a difference between -- a 10-foot setback

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between rsf-1 and rsf-3 that would involve any type of safety concern or some type of mitigation.

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and we know from looking at other zones, specifically rc, smaller setbacks is appropriate for development to occur.

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specifically single-family in this case, duplexes in rc, but we do know that regulations that are not as extensive as the ones

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found within rsf-1 to rsf-4 do provide the ability for housing to be developed as it is now. So the proposal before you this

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evening goes into details that include the amendment to the density, to basically adopt rsf-4 density and which is a

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density that would allow for the development of neighborhood-scale multifamily units, as well as adopt lot area

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requirements of rc which [inaudible]. Currently single-family zones require a lot of space.

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and by some estimates, when looking at specifically the cost of a house, it's estimated that about 20% of the cost of that

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house is associated with the cost of the land. So by virtue of having larger property, you're in essence

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making the house immediately that much more expensive. Also with the allowed use of a neighborhood-scale multifamily

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development, you're distributing the cost of the land between four units. So four families are being --

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the cost of the land is being distributed between four families that can either rent the unit or if they decide to

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create a condo for that unit, that can happen as well, as opposed to a single-family which is the price of that

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single-family home is reflective of the full cost of the property. On top of that is a larger

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property at that. Next slide, please. So this is just a visual presentation of the current

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situation and setbacks between rsf-1 and rsf-4. Also rc, but there's a reason why that's there.

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so in rsf-1 through rsf-4 you'll notice that the setbacks, the front setbacks at the bottom of the little yellow squares,

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they're all the same. So 20 feet basically throughout rsf-1 through rsf-4, 7.5 feet on the sides.

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where the difference comes in is the rear setback. So you have the difference of 15 or 5 feet between rsf-1 and 2

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and rsf-3 -- excuse me, rsf-1, rsf-2 and rsf-3, you have a difference of five feet there and then five feet more

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difference between rsf-3 and rsf-4. But that's pretty much, as far as the set back is concerned,

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the difference between the zones for single-family. So when we're looking at something that's existing that

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allows for the development of housing, we can see that in residential conservation zone, one of our oldest zones here in

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the city of gainesville, it has, for the most part, less setback requirements and, again, allows for the development of a house

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just fine. And so the proposal would again consolidate rsf-1 through rsf-4 to eliminate some of the

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redundancies associated with, again, separate zones which also shows arbitrary measurements in the rear of setbacks that have

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had no real basis as to what exactly they are mitigating. With the proposal before you, the intent of the setbacks --

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next slide, please. So the proposal of the setbacks would allow for the space of any type of like facility

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infrastructure that can be associated with a neighborhood-scale multifamily. So that would be the idea behind

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the requirement of a 5-feet setback on the sides, 10 feet in the front and 10 feet in the back.

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just to give, again, that space that buffer for any type of a facility requirements associated with the development.

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and also with the setbacks, just amending them in this way, it would create a larger space of buildable area that would again

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allow for a more flexible use of a property for the development of housing. Next slide.

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similarly with lot size requirements. So I mentioned earlier that currently within the city of

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gainesville you have property that is zoned rsf-1 through rsf-4 where you can only developed one property per lot.

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but the requirement is to have a large amount of space associated with this development. So in essence you have one

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house. What's allowed within the city right now is you have one house that requires a large piece of

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property in order for it to happen. Just to give you an example of current requirements within the

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city, rsf-1 requires 8500 square feet of space in order to develop one house, along with a requirement of 85 feet and a

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depth requirement of 90 feet. Rsf-2 requires 7500 square feet, a width requirement of 70 feet and 90 feet and so forth.

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so again looking at existing zoning that we have within the city, we know that rc has allowed for and is still

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allowing the development of single-family within a much smaller, much smaller requirement of space.

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much smaller requirement of land. And that's important, especially when we're talking about

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creating more housing. Because first of all, you can -- say if you're a homeowner or a property owner, were to decide

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to split their property, say rsf-1 into two properties. Right now they would not be able to do that because the

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requirement of our zoning says they have to have 8500 square feet. So they wouldn't be able to

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split the property in a space that we know can already support two houses. So say that this is passed.

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the requirement would drop down to 3,000 square feet. So all of the sudden that 8500 square feet piece of property

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can be divided into two properties and now you have two houses where you could only develop one before.

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and even if the neighborhood-scale multifamily use is not something that is agreed upon just by amending

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these lot sizes and lot setback requirements, we can already see the implications of creating more housing that way.

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and just to give you an idea, rsf-1 through rsf-3 would be able to, in essence, be split into two properties and be

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allowed for the development of a single-family unit, you know, following the example of rc. Wouldn't be able to do that with

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rsf-4, but that's still a significant portion of the city that could, in essence, double the allowed density.

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next slide, please. And so the proposal, the neighborhood residential new zone would adopt the land and

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requirement for rc. It would provide language within the zoning that would extend the width requirements to 70 feet if

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a development is proposing to add a neighborhood-scale multifamily to the property. So if a single-family home is

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being developed, they would need 35, at least 35 width of space. If a small-scale multifamily is being proposed, that would be

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extended to 70 feet. Again, that's just to provide more flexibility and more space in between the neighborhood

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residential single-family and existing single-family development. Next slide, please.

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and this is just a quick representation of the density allowed within current zoning, single-family zoning.

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right now rsf-1 through -- well, rsf-1 is for basically 3.5 units per acre. 4.6 units per acre would be

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allowed in rsf-2 or is allowed in rsf-2. 5.8 in rsf-3 and eight units in rsf-4.

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rc allows 12 units per acre but staff is proposing to keep it as eight units per acre which in essence -- it means that a unit,

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a small-scale multifamily unit would want to develop, they would need half an acre to do so.

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next slide, please. And that's just a representation. So in similar fashion, zoning

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within the city of gainesville that allow -- restrict development to one single house per lot takes up about 60 -- a

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little bit over 60% of the city. We're running into the same situation where a significant portion of our city is

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designated to only allow for the development of one house within a large piece of property. Next slide.

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so switching gears just a little bit, the next proposal and based on the recommendations from the hrna report is to remove the

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occupancy limit. Currently within the city of gainesville we have an occupancy limit which says that only one

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family with two unrelated people can live within a single-family development. We're proposing to premove that

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to allow for a more diverse, more flexibility of housing for people that may not be related. So say three roommates or four

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roommates that are not related but are still able to live together in the same house or in the same apartment area.

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next slide, please. And that's just basically a quick overview. This would affect rsf-1 through

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rsf-4 and rc zoning. Next slide, please. Following along, the next proposal before you is amending

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the bedroom limit within the university of florida context zone. Currently the regulations allows

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for a multiplier of 2.75 limiting how many bedrooms can go into a development within the university of florida contact

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zone which limits the amount of bedroom a multifamily development can produce. >> mayor: mr. Castillo, real

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quick before you get into this, there was a quick clarifying question back on occupancy limits if you would pause for

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that. >> sure. >> thank you, mayor. There's still a state health

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code occupancy limit. I don't know if mr. Persons has that. Just to clarify, you can't have

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a million people who live in the house. There are state limits that would then become the default.

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>> mr. Mayor, the florida building code sets minimum habitable space. Generally speaking we're talking

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about 250 square feet. When you include all of the required fixtures and livable area for an adult.

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for example, a thousand square foot house, you could only have four adults living there, is that correct?

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>> that is correct. >> so there's still -- it can't be extreme. >> right.

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>> thank you, mayor. >> mayor: thank you. Please continue. >> so within the university of

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florida contact zone we do have a regulation that limits the amount of bedrooms that a multifamily development can

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propose. And that regulation limits or poses a multiplier of 2.75. And that's multiplied based on

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the proposed density of the area. And so there's two proposals before you today.

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next slide, please. The first proposal is to amend the existing multiplier from 2. 75 and increase that to 3, which

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would again just increase the amounts of bedroom that a multifamily development can produce.

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and the second, that is literally the only amendment to the existing language as of now. The second option is to remove

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the bedroom limit all together and allow the market to dictate how much bedrooms the multifamily development would

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want, similar to what already happens outside the university of florida context zone. Next slide, please.

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moving on, now we are looking at the compatibility standards, amending the compatibility standards.

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and the idea behind this is to not just limit the development but also provide and limit any compatibility standards that may

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be seen onerous or at least increase the cost of development for a multifamily structure, which would then be passed on to

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the tenants or the potential buyers of a condo if the development were to be condo'd out.

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next slide, please. So this one, the primary -- there's two proposals -- not proposals.

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there's two main items being amended. The first one is a requirement for a masonry wall between a

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[inaudible]. This is done again to kind of recognize the fact that small-scale multifamily is

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designed to fit in within the landscape of a single-family neighborhood. A wall separating a small-scale

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multifamily and a house is not really something that's common or would be viewed as compatible in the sense of the looks of the

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area. And so that's one of the things that we feel is something that could be removed, especially

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since our code already has buffer regulations, which in the event of a multifamily or small-scale multifamily in this

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case would require a, more of a substantial vegetative buffer which involves the planting of trees and shrubs, et cetera.

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the second one involves the elimination of a requirement that in essence says for a development within a transect

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area that are proposing zero setback, if they can only do that if there's already an existing development that has

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zero setbacks already in existence. So this development will be limited to having a zero setback

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or the opportunity of having zero setback in the adjacent development has similar setbacks for -- within the transect area.

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so those are -- next slide, please. And that's what that would look like in the code.

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the rest of the amendments that you see highlighted in blue is recognizing the neighborhood residential use and

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incorporating that into the language so that that's more consistent with the rest of the proposed before you.

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next slide, please. This is showing you the elimination of the language that would require the masonry wall.

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next slide, please. So now we're moving into our lot split and minor subdivision regulations.

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currently within the land development code, a lot of what we're amending is primarily to just clarify some of the

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language. Lot splits of minor subdivisions have been a bit confusing as to where and how services and

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facilities are required when an applicant is submitting for a lot split or a minor subdivision.

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the language being amended currently just clarifies that as not requiring developers to have those facilities present or

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proposed but allowing those facilities to be developed when a proposed development goes on the property.

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and next slide, please. And again, just simplifying language so that it's obvious and more readily navigatable as

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to proposed lot split and what that would look like for an applicant. Next slide.

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this is just some of that language that I was discussing. Again, just clarifying some of the language so that it's

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obvious that a lot split -- or when a lot split is appropriate and how that will look. And just clarifying that lot

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split must meet certain standards which are detailed in the next slide. Next slide, please.

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but again, nothing outside of the box or too substantial here. Again, it's just clarifying language.

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next slide. Again here we're highlighting the fact that an applicant will have to have a prestaff meeting

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with us in order to discuss their proposed lot split or minor subdivision. Next slide.

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nothing too much here, just again clarifying language. Next slide. Clarifying language again.

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in this particular case we are just highlighting that the resulting block from a lot split has a -- cannot exceed a maximum

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block perimeter of 2,000 feet, but also providing regular violation that ties in with the existing zoning and allows the

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flexibility of providing whichever is lesser of the two for the lot perimeter associated with the lot split.

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next slide, please. This is a repeat. This is just basically saying what we just said in a more,

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just a broader view. Next slide, please. Yeah, again, clarifying language.

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this is just basically clarifying that the director of the department of sustainability development or the director of

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public works has the authority to provide the review and the approval of the lot split being submitted.

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next slide. And this will conclude my presentation. I'm sure you may have some

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questions, but we are here to answer any questions that you may have. >> mayor: all right.

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thank you, mr. Castillo, and mr. Persons, all of staff who put the work into getting this to us.

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it's very much appreciated. We will now go over to members of our public and hear from them.

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madam clerk, how many people, approximately, do we have signed up to speak at this point? [off mic]

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>> mayor: about 50? [off mic] >> mayor: if you don't have your card in right now, you'll still

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get an opportunity. There's not a cutoff. So if everybody is efficient and we have no space between

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speakers, that's about 2 and a half hours. So we'll go ahead and try to stick to three minutes.

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it seems that we have an amount of time. What I would ask you to do is be succinct and efficient with your

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comments and then please don't go over. Because everybody deserves the same chance and the same

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opportunity that nobody receives preference to anybody else. So, madam clerk, what I'll ask you to do is call out the next

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two names after the one that's up to speak. That way if anybody is outside or downstairs, they can make

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their way up here and they'll know that they're up and at the ready so right when the last person gets done with their

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comments, they can come right up. If you're new to public comment here at the city, there is a

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little black box with a red, yellow and green light on it. So when you start your comments, the green light will come on.

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mr. Gainey is demonstrating right there. When you have one minute remaining, a yellow light will

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come on. When the red light comes on your three minutes have expired and I'll invite the next person to

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come up and speak. Keep an eye on that. And then if you do go over your three-minute allotment, I will

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ask you to let the next person come up, that your time has concluded. With that -- and again, you are

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a both hand some and kind group and I see that and know that. But I would like to remind you to be respectful of one another,

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no cheers, no jeers, no laughing or booing, anything like that. We want everyone to feel welcome to give their comments without

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any intimidation. We're going to all politely listen to one another until everybody gets a chance to

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speak. And if you haven't turned in a card yet, that's fine. Turn it in to ms. Gainey and

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we'll get you in the queue. >> jennifer reeves followed by [inaudible] and teresa bright. >> mayor: and we do have a

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pretty good mic. You're welcome to keep your mask on. If you feel like taking it off,

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you can do that. We and the folks at home can hear you. >> so start now?

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I didn't think I would be first. First of all, thank you for being respectful and listening to us.

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I'm going to defer and let other people who can say what I want to say more succinctly like kurt johnson and gary gordon and

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others. I just hope -- so often it seems as though the commission may have already made up their mind

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about this issue. I get the distinct impression that some of you have made up your mind.

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I hope you will listen with respect to everyone who talks here who is interested in preserving balance in

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gainesville. I was born here, raised here, have visited other places. Always come back because I like

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the balance here. I like the option of knowing I worked my entire life to be able to keep my house in my

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neighborhood. And I choose to live there because I don't want to live with students or multi-- or

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apartments. So I hope that you all can go back to the planning stage. These are all great ideas.

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anecdotal create these ideas in a more balanced way rather than just wiping the slate clean of, you know, an option that some

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people want to have. The last thing I would like to say is I've been in leadership roles myself personally and

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professionally. And one of the hardest things to do is to be able to change your mind when you've been locked

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into something. When you think you've already got the answer. I hope that we have a group of

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leaders who can listen to this plea from most of us here for balance and maybe even change your mind if you thought you

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already had it made up. It's okay to lead by saying wait a minute, I want to listen to something and have other options

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and go back to the board and try again. It looked like there's a lot of residential housing, and I get

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that that it's 60-something percent. But I know also that there's plenty of empty apartment

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buildings right now that absentee landlords own and rent to students or stay empty. So again I hope you'll be

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leaders who are representing not just your own and still listen to us. Thank you.

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>> mayor: thank you. >> carrie parker warren followed by teresa bright followed by karma debose.

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>> thank you for the opportunity. I'm carrie parker warren and I'm representing azalea trail here

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in gainesville, the old hollywood community as it with us called at one time. At this point I would like to

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say we do -- in my community we do support affordable housing, we just don't want to support something that if you have

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chosen to make your decision today, you know which way you're going to vote. We ask that when the motion was

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made next week or in the future that we have one of our commissioners that will say it will be done equally.

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twenty-five percent on the east side, 25% on the west side, 25% south and 25% north. We ask that you do that.

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00:53:32,543 --> 00:53:38,515
in addition to putting that in your motion, whomever is responsible for doing so, we also want you to put in your

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00:53:38,515 --> 00:53:48,115
motion that you're going to promise us better policing, better advantages, better fire protection, better sidewalks,

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00:53:48,692 --> 00:53:58,692
better roads, traffic light near our schools and just make our communities better. This vision will not affect the

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00:54:03,707 --> 00:54:12,707
city equally. What we need to do also is to move forward rather than backwards.

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00:54:14,184 --> 00:54:19,490
we need to move forward without destroying the integrity of our communities. We need to go forward with more

368
00:54:19,490 --> 00:54:27,231
benefits and more resources, especially for the east side of town. We need to go forward with

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00:54:27,231 --> 00:54:36,673
opportunities for the east side, forward with being the best that we can be. And hopefully you can understand

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00:54:36,673 --> 00:54:46,650
that we want it done equally. If you have already chosen and if we would not like to see it but if it is voted upon, we want

371
00:54:46,650 --> 00:54:56,650
you to take all of that into consideration. As your vision, this will be responsible for decreasing our

372
00:54:58,529 --> 00:55:08,129
property values. That's number one. Also, it would -- the vision will not affect the city

373
00:55:10,240 --> 00:55:18,640
equally. Some communities will just fade away. And we chose this city and we

374
00:55:20,617 --> 00:55:30,617
chose our communities because it is a family. In the community that I'm representing you can knock on

375
00:55:31,461 --> 00:55:38,202
anybody's door at night and someone will come to your aid because we want it to stay like it is.

376
00:55:38,202 --> 00:55:44,541
the disparities that -- >> mayor: thank you. I'm afraid your time has expired and we have to be fair to

377
00:55:44,541 --> 00:55:47,177
everybody. Thank you. We appreciate your comments. Madam clerk.

378
00:55:47,177 --> 00:55:54,377
>> teresa bright followed by carmen dubose followed by chip williams. >> good afternoon.

379
00:56:04,428 --> 00:56:14,428
my name is teresa bright and of course I live in the azalea trail neighborhood. And we purchased that property

380
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:26,440
in 1992 and we took our time in building our home there. And the property is located -- the new part of azalea trail is

381
00:56:30,687 --> 00:56:40,687
located on southeast 12th avenue and it goes over to southeast 13th avenue. Now, building houses in that

382
00:56:44,534 --> 00:56:54,534
area, the one section there, it was a dumping ground for a roadway that was put there to expand williston road.

383
00:56:58,615 --> 00:57:08,615
but my husband decided to go ahead and buy it. And we had to take out all of the debris that was on that

384
00:57:10,394 --> 00:57:16,767
property. And six other families that live in that area had to do the same thing.

385
00:57:16,767 --> 00:57:26,767
now, as the zoning presents itself now, single, we spent a lot of time and money to develop an area that's beautiful.

386
00:57:32,582 --> 00:57:42,582
and to change an area -- no. We don't want that. In fact the whole neighbor area where I live definitely do not

387
00:57:43,427 --> 00:57:52,536
want it. And I ups all of the codes that some things are going to change. But there are other

388
00:57:52,536 --> 00:58:02,136
neighborhoods that need housing, affordable housing. And right now we control our area in that neighborhood.

389
00:58:04,781 --> 00:58:14,240
we know each other, casually and personal. So when you have a neighborhood like that, you don't want to

390
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:22,320
destroy it. And not knowing who is going to come in to your neighborhood -- by the way, there's only one lot

391
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:32,320
in that neighborhood now. And I know the owner is not going to sell it for any reason. What I'm saying is we need a

392
00:58:36,279 --> 00:58:41,418
safe place to live still. There is an area that's semi retired. Like I said, we're comfortable

393
00:58:41,418 --> 00:58:51,418
with each other. Streets on 11th, 12th, good streets, even though the community has been there for a

394
00:58:59,403 --> 00:59:08,545
very long time, but all of the streets in between is poorly paved -- >> mayor: thank you, ma'am.

395
00:59:08,545 --> 00:59:14,484
I'm afraid your time has expired. Thank you for being with us. >> next speaker is carmen

396
00:59:14,484 --> 00:59:21,840
dubose, followed by chip williams, followed by james mcfarland. >> mayor: welcome.

397
00:59:21,792 --> 00:59:28,331
>> good afternoon and thank you for allowing me to speak. I'm also from the azalea trail neighborhood.

398
00:59:28,331 --> 00:59:37,331
[inaudible] and the removing of exclusionary zoning within our neighborhood. My family brought up the

399
01:00:05,168 --> 01:00:13,443
thoughts of destroying the integrity of our neighborhood. Most of us have lived and invested in our neighborhoods

400
01:00:13,443 --> 01:00:21,651
for more than 50 years. My family moved into in 1967. We've been there a long time and we want it to stay as it is.

401
01:00:21,651 --> 01:00:31,651
we have worked hard in our neighborhood, invested in our neighborhoods and for the future of the generation to come.

402
01:00:33,296 --> 01:00:42,906
we want to keep the heritage of azalea trail. There were resources mentioned in one of our meetings that

403
01:00:42,906 --> 01:00:49,120
could come along with the inclusions. How would that benefit azalea trail.

404
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:59,120
that's what we want to know. We need more jobs created in gainesville, businesses, warehouses/factories in east

405
01:01:05,495 --> 01:01:10,800
gainesville. This will cut down on crime because the citizens will have better-paying job opportunities

406
01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:19,142
which will make better citizens in gainesville. The second highest city in the state when it comes to gas

407
01:01:19,142 --> 01:01:29,142
taxes. Our neighborhood was mentioned. Some of us went through a lot of difficulties when we built our

408
01:01:29,486 --> 01:01:39,486
houses to get them established. And so we don't want that hard work to go undone. There have been some promises by

409
01:01:41,498 --> 01:01:51,498
past commissioners that haven't -- they haven't kept their promises and we want to know if we can trust you all to

410
01:01:51,641 --> 01:01:58,882
keep a promise when you make a promise. We don't want the crime to come through this change.

411
01:01:58,882 --> 01:02:07,282
the change will bring vandalism to azalea trail. The property value will be diminished.

412
01:02:09,993 --> 01:02:19,993
I know if there is no struggle, there is no progress. But we have to work together on this, like some of the previous

413
01:02:20,270 --> 01:02:27,510
speakers said, if you got your mind made up already, think about what you citizens are pleading.

414
01:02:27,510 --> 01:02:34,451
>> mayor: thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. >> chip williams followed by james mcfarland followed by

415
01:02:34,451 --> 01:02:39,689
jim mcfarland. >> just a point of order. There's a very old friend of mine that has to go back to

416
01:02:39,689 --> 01:02:44,494
work. Can I switch cards with him? Is that okay with you? >> mayor: I don't have a

417
01:02:44,494 --> 01:02:51,694
problem. >> I'm retired. >> mr. Fields. >> I do have to go to work.

418
01:02:54,404 --> 01:03:01,400
thank you. [off mic] >> mayor: glad you're with us. Thank you.

419
01:03:04,948 --> 01:03:12,922
>> my name is wayne fields and I've been a resident of southeast gainesville for over 60 years.

420
01:03:12,922 --> 01:03:19,295
I'm here to speak in favor of exclusionary zoning, to be more specific residential single-family zoning.

421
01:03:19,295 --> 01:03:26,102
in my lifetime I have seen lincoln high school closed because white parents at gainesville high school didn't

422
01:03:26,102 --> 01:03:36,102
want their kids to go toe a predominantly black school, lincoln high school in 1970. I've seen two schools built and

423
01:03:36,980 --> 01:03:46,980
the decision to build those schools around a city dump was not in support by the residents in azalea trail.

424
01:03:48,825 --> 01:03:56,332
on the east side of gainesville I've seen when dixie, food lion, southern charm restaurant come and go.

425
01:03:56,332 --> 01:04:01,304
it's interesting when you bring up the word food desert because that's what southeast gainesville is.

426
01:04:01,304 --> 01:04:11,304
the words gentrification, food desert, affordable housing does not exist in heal plan station, oakmont, town of tioga, turkey

427
01:04:14,500 --> 01:04:23,359
creek and arbor greens. In my lifetime I would like to see the land use law of exclusionary zoning bring to

428
01:04:23,359 --> 01:04:31,835
east gainesville a movie theater, a grocery store, insurance agencies, clothing stores and please don't take the

429
01:04:31,835 --> 01:04:40,744
thought that I am against affordable housing. But I am for affordable housing in a reasonable manner, such as

430
01:04:40,744 --> 01:04:49,252
section 8, an assistance program, that's rental as is tans programs that I'm sure the city of gainesville and the

431
01:04:49,252 --> 01:04:59,252
county has a budget for. And even more so, would like to see some improvements of an athletic facility second to none

432
01:05:00,630 --> 01:05:07,337
in southeast gainesville. So today, commissioners, I would like for you all to look in the mirror and ask yourselves is

433
01:05:07,337 --> 01:05:17,337
there anything that I can do to assist southeast gainesville. I say yes. Help southeast gainesville to

434
01:05:19,315 --> 01:05:29,315
flourish instead of flounder. I'm trying to do my part with businesses, teens work summer youth employment program, ogr

435
01:05:30,930 --> 01:05:37,867
after school and the endowment committee. So I ask you, please, make the right decision and support the

436
01:05:37,867 --> 01:05:46,267
development of east gainesville. >> mayor: madam clerk. >> chip williams, james mcfarland and jim mcfarland.

437
01:05:51,881 --> 01:05:58,655
>> I was going to speak on two things, possibly. >> mayor: madam clerk, I think they were going to switch places

438
01:05:58,655 --> 01:06:07,655
so when you come to -- >> okay. >> mayor: go ahead. >> when you start putting a

439
01:06:07,797 --> 01:06:14,437
bunch of families in a single-family residential area, it's the same problem it was when we addressed it 20 years

440
01:06:14,437 --> 01:06:20,310
ago. It is unfair for someone who has single-family residence that's been in a family for a long time

441
01:06:20,310 --> 01:06:24,814
to have it wiped out and changed by this. Now I have to step back for a moment.

442
01:06:24,814 --> 01:06:30,687
I can make a lot more money if you'll go with this zoning and you'll allow me. When you think about driving

443
01:06:30,687 --> 01:06:38,194
down that road to mary helen's lake place you all have been at and you look at my nice landscaping, that takes that

444
01:06:38,194 --> 01:06:45,501
stretch and allows me to put four units right there. Four family units. I'll tear my house down and I'll

445
01:06:45,501 --> 01:06:51,875
do it and build it. I have been trying to save that property since I was there and many of you have been on it when

446
01:06:51,875 --> 01:06:57,881
you skipped gainesville high school and ran over there for a break on the lake. [laughter]

447
01:06:57,881 --> 01:07:07,560
it's beautiful. I was going to save that property to give to the city for a park and hopefully marihelen

448
01:07:07,560 --> 01:07:14,230
would do the same then and you would have something of value. I have to step back further. What do we have as a plan.

449
01:07:14,230 --> 01:07:19,836
do we have a 50-year plan? No. Do we have a 30-year plan? No.

450
01:07:19,836 --> 01:07:26,509
do we have a ten-year plan? No. We keep wanting to jump in and change the zoning of somebody

451
01:07:26,509 --> 01:07:32,982
that's lived there at this point suddenly like that. That is totally wrong. When I present in new york they

452
01:07:32,982 --> 01:07:38,955
understand it but around here you don't catch on. You need a 50-year plan. You need to understand

453
01:07:38,955 --> 01:07:43,259
sustainability. And not call it the department of fake development sustainability.

454
01:07:43,259 --> 01:07:50,660
we have got to get the right terminology of what's going on in this community. We're at the apex of the water

455
01:07:50,660 --> 01:07:56,172
flow in the three water management districts. We're in a critical spot that was proud of 60% tree cover.

456
01:07:56,172 --> 01:08:05,882
while we have nations now setting mandates of maining the 60% tree cover, we're wanting to tear it all down and put in more

457
01:08:05,882 --> 01:08:13,523
concrete. We need to expand, I'll tell you, by 2050 it's going to be so hot here we'll be miserable.

458
01:08:13,523 --> 01:08:21,798
we're going to want houses. Our watershed will be destroyed because right now, hey, let's think about it, we are on water

459
01:08:21,798 --> 01:08:26,836
restrictions. We don't have enough water to water our yard. So we want me to have eight

460
01:08:26,836 --> 01:08:34,770
families living on a single-family resident lot sucking in all of that water and destroying the aquifer much

461
01:08:34,770 --> 01:08:43,820
quicker. It is time to stop, not develop until we have a plan and we have impact fees for any development.

462
01:08:43,820 --> 01:08:52,950
we need a moratorium on those developments today. We need to put this on a plan for a 50-year plan, at least 30

463
01:08:52,950 --> 01:08:56,799
because I'll be dead and won't come back. [laughter] it's time that you start

464
01:08:56,799 --> 01:09:02,839
thinking ahead, not do this to a single-family resident. I have lived on that property for over 60 years.

465
01:09:02,839 --> 01:09:11,239
>> mayor: thank you, sir. Appreciate it. >> next speaker is jim mcfarland, sharon power and

466
01:09:14,183 --> 01:09:19,583
heather jewel. [off mic] >> mayor: no, equal for everybody.

467
01:09:25,128 --> 01:09:32,928
>> sharon bauer, heather jewell and chip williams. >> good afternoon. The commission first began

468
01:09:42,812 --> 01:09:50,286
trying to eliminate single-family zoning in 2018, not by rezoning neighborhoods and identifying -- and notifying

469
01:09:50,286 --> 01:09:57,827
owners but by simply redefining single-family to include multifamily city-wise. After the first large turnout of

470
01:09:57,827 --> 01:10:04,200
opponents, commissioner johnson made this comment on october 4th. We weren't engaging or listening

471
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:09,772
to the community and if we are at some level it's not effective. Because if it was it would not

472
01:10:09,772 --> 01:10:19,682
have people showing up outrages with would not have people in our offices, having people stop me in the grocery store saying

473
01:10:19,682 --> 01:10:25,788
they're not being listened to. It's not the way the government works. Here's some commission reports

474
01:10:25,788 --> 01:10:33,563
in response to her. There are some folks who fully intend to bring chaos on government and society and show

475
01:10:33,563 --> 01:10:39,769
up and act that way consistently. There's people who do it because they have something to gain from

476
01:10:39,769 --> 01:10:45,174
it. I can't speak to motivations and I won't speak to motivations. If we're going to do big things,

477
01:10:45,174 --> 01:10:51,714
we're going to get big pushback and we're picking up bigger things to work on that a lot of commissioners prior to us have.

478
01:10:51,714 --> 01:10:58,421
when we talk about affordable housing there are predictable arguments. When we start the changes you'll

479
01:10:58,421 --> 01:11:04,927
see people who come here and complain to high heaven about it no matter how much we talked to them before hand about it

480
01:11:04,927 --> 01:11:12,101
because they're uncomfortable with the change. It's our responsibility and what we get paid for is to filter

481
01:11:12,101 --> 01:11:17,874
when somebody comes up there how much of that is that I need to vent. It's predictable that people are

482
01:11:17,874 --> 01:11:24,580
going to be upset when we try to do big things because change is hard and we know we have to do it.

483
01:11:24,580 --> 01:11:31,320
in august when you made containers of alcohol city wide permanent, there was a large number of people in the audience

484
01:11:31,320 --> 01:11:36,626
to object and commissioner ward said if you cared about the increase of violent crime you would have been here this

485
01:11:36,626 --> 01:11:46,335
morning on gpd instead of coming here to grand stand on tv. In january he shared a photo of his legal pad because someone

486
01:11:46,335 --> 01:11:53,576
had taken a picture of it when he left his seat. On it he listed people who commented and the number of

487
01:11:53,576 --> 01:12:00,149
agenda items they made a three-minute comment on. Not what they said, how many items they spoke on.

488
01:12:00,149 --> 01:12:06,155
his contempt for engaged citizens is well documented and his mind is closed. This workshop was described by

489
01:12:06,155 --> 01:12:16,155
the city as designed to help the public better understand the impact of two proposed zoning changes, ie, it's for you to

490
01:12:19,335 --> 01:12:27,577
lecture and not listen. What this city does is not citizen engagement and I believe it violates the statute

491
01:12:27,577 --> 01:12:33,849
requirements for citizen input. We cannot have six more years of this or our city will be destroyed.

492
01:12:33,849 --> 01:12:42,249
>> mayor: thank you. Next speaker. >> heather jewell, followed by chip williams, followed by peggy

493
01:12:44,930 --> 01:12:49,866
carr. >> heather jewell, I live in university park. I moved to gainesville about a

494
01:12:49,866 --> 01:12:56,739
year ago after careful consideration of where I wanted to live. I chose gainesville because of

495
01:12:56,739 --> 01:13:03,450
its urban forest, historic character, walkable and bikeable nature. I have not been disappointed in

496
01:13:03,450 --> 01:13:09,752
my choice until now. The proposals of zoning in the name of creating affordable housing is disingenuous and

497
01:13:09,752 --> 01:13:18,261
manipulative. By your own data provided in the gainesville housing action plan, the home vacancy rent is 4.7%

498
01:13:18,261 --> 01:13:24,700
and the rental vacancy rate is 17%, both well above the u.s. Median. To say we have a housing

499
01:13:24,700 --> 01:13:32,675
shortage here is false. In the same report you make claims about income levels and impact on people's abilities to

500
01:13:32,675 --> 01:13:40,160
afford housing but the presentation of data is manipulated because you have included students in the

501
01:13:40,160 --> 01:13:44,553
analysis. You show the area around university of florida as a low-income area.

502
01:13:44,553 --> 01:13:51,627
I think we both know that that's a large student population there. This leads me to wonder whom

503
01:13:51,627 --> 01:13:58,434
this proposal is really meant to benefit. Is it the students? Is it unit of florida?

504
01:13:58,434 --> 01:14:07,109
or it is alumni that want to come here to have rentals on game weekends, or is it developers.

505
01:14:07,109 --> 01:14:16,709
please consider the wishes of the full-time, permanent residents and lay this issue to rest now.

506
01:14:17,530 --> 01:14:25,795
>> chip williams, followed by peggy carr, followed by debra martinback. >> I live in the golf view

507
01:14:25,795 --> 01:14:34,503
neighborhood which is right next to the university of florida. We've been there 39 years. We've had students live there.

508
01:14:34,503 --> 01:14:38,841
students in our neighborhood have not been an issue. We've had issues from time to time but they've been resolved

509
01:14:38,841 --> 01:14:48,117
by communication and such. In my view the students are not an issue here. It's this -- in my view, in the

510
01:14:48,117 --> 01:14:56,225
same thought that we're going to change all of the zoning in gainesville on these single-resident areas.

511
01:14:56,225 --> 01:15:02,198
people here have spoken to this and others have spoken to it too. You're coming in and destroying

512
01:15:02,198 --> 01:15:10,506
savings and such that people have put together for all of their lives. In one fell swoop it seems that

513
01:15:10,506 --> 01:15:16,979
there could be a step measure of doing this instead of one action. Earlier in the meeting today

514
01:15:16,979 --> 01:15:26,979
commissioner hayes-santos indicated that, to put us at ease, there are state laws that say you can have x number of

515
01:15:27,923 --> 01:15:33,863
people in a house. We're getting rid of the number of people in the house is because we can't enforce it.

516
01:15:33,863 --> 01:15:42,238
we haven't talked about any enforcement today. If you can't enforce that now, ho are you going to enforce two

517
01:15:42,238 --> 01:15:49,412
cars proposed earlier in the new zoning stuff. This has not been thought through.

518
01:15:49,412 --> 01:15:57,386
it feels rushed to me. Some are going to say we've kicked this can down the road for years and years, but it's

519
01:15:57,386 --> 01:16:04,126
too fast. The proposal earlier today was interesting but there were so many holes there that I saw just

520
01:16:04,126 --> 01:16:11,934
through sitting here this one time. I try to keep up with you guys watching tv or read the paper

521
01:16:11,934 --> 01:16:17,973
and such. I would go back to what the first speaker said today, please, please, please listen to

522
01:16:17,973 --> 01:16:23,779
all of the folks that are in front of you today and have been in front of you before this. We are people coming from all

523
01:16:23,779 --> 01:16:30,719
different neighborhoods, all different walks of life. Candidly, when someone came up here and started talking about

524
01:16:30,719 --> 01:16:39,610
affordable housing, what we're talking about today has nothing to do with affordable housing. Somehow we've merged these two

525
01:16:39,610 --> 01:16:46,235
things together and what I saw in that presentation earlier today has nothing to do with affordable housing.

526
01:16:46,235 --> 01:16:55,845
take a long hard look at that. If that's your goal, that's your end goal, please revisit that. Thank you.

527
01:16:55,845 --> 01:17:04,845
>> okay. Our next speaker is peggy carr, followed by debra martinback followed by gary gordon.

528
01:17:08,991 --> 01:17:17,299
>> mayor poe and commissioners, thank you for the opportunity. I am a little confused and I want to ask for clarification.

529
01:17:17,299 --> 01:17:25,740
is this the early comment period where we make general statements? Because I had gone through the

530
01:17:25,740 --> 01:17:30,880
agenda and had specific statements about each of the agenda items -- >> mayor: it's on the first item

531
01:17:30,880 --> 01:17:34,717
from the agenda. >> pardon? >> mayor: it's on the first item from the agenda.

532
01:17:34,717 --> 01:17:40,222
not general public comment. >> in is about the comp plan language change, is that correct?

533
01:17:40,222 --> 01:17:44,660
>> mayor: yes. >> and then I will have the opportunity to speak about the other items later, correct?

534
01:17:44,660 --> 01:17:48,631
>> mayor: there will be general public comment at the end of the meeting. No, I'm sorry.

535
01:17:48,631 --> 01:17:54,136
it's just this. Can we start her clock over. This is on the item -- do you have your agenda?

536
01:17:54,136 --> 01:18:01,677
it's on the first item on the agenda, exclusionary zoning. >> and specifically though on the agenda it says that people

537
01:18:01,677 --> 01:18:11,677
will have the opportunity to speak for early comment and once that is done if speakers would like to speak we can speak for

538
01:18:13,155 --> 01:18:18,894
three minutes to each agenda item. >> mayor: that's for our regular meetings that we -- we just got

539
01:18:18,894 --> 01:18:23,232
right into the item. If you want to speak about the item, now is your opportunity to do so.

540
01:18:23,232 --> 01:18:27,903
>> this is my only opportunity to speak? >> mayor: there's another item that comes after that, you can

541
01:18:27,903 --> 01:18:33,309
speak to that one as well. >> thank you very much for the clarification. So specifically then to the

542
01:18:33,309 --> 01:18:40,482
proposed change, the comprehensive plan amendment, let me make a couple of comments.

543
01:18:40,482 --> 01:18:47,623
point one about option one, the creation of the neighborhood residential category is not acceptable or needed.

544
01:18:47,623 --> 01:18:54,830
and let me point out that in option one as presented in the agenda today, it is not at all clear what is being proposed for

545
01:18:54,830 --> 01:19:03,830
the future land use map under this option. Would all single-family areas being neighborhood residential?

546
01:19:04,139 --> 01:19:12,715
if so, this is an absolutely breathtaking proposal. Any student of new urbanism knows that the concept of

547
01:19:12,715 --> 01:19:20,189
transect zones allows for a diversity of housing types in an orderly transition from high density to lower density.

548
01:19:20,189 --> 01:19:27,229
by adopting a future land use change that would allow multifamily smack in the middle of what was traditionally a

549
01:19:27,229 --> 01:19:36,229
single-family neighborhood flies in the face of solid new urbanism thinking. One consideration for strategic

550
01:19:36,605 --> 01:19:43,545
choice of higher density development is the presence of transect. A concept known as

551
01:19:43,545 --> 01:19:53,545
transit-oriented development. There's a logic for the density, but the blanket proposal to increase density in all

552
01:19:53,889 --> 01:20:01,330
single-family zoning categories is nonsensical. Point two about option one, it is not at all clear why a new

553
01:20:01,330 --> 01:20:09,304
land use category is required when the existing residential conservation category comes quite close to meeting the same

554
01:20:09,304 --> 01:20:16,211
design standards as those being proposed for neighborhood residential. I guess the rationale is with

555
01:20:16,211 --> 01:20:25,287
the new land use category the future land use map can easily be changed. The proposed sweeping change to

556
01:20:25,287 --> 01:20:31,593
the future land use map is antithetical to democratic engagement. All of the changes being

557
01:20:31,593 --> 01:20:37,700
considered today can now be achieved by the rezoning process. Oh.

558
01:20:37,700 --> 01:20:45,307
but that will take time. And public participation, which is costly. Well, democracy is a costly form

559
01:20:45,307 --> 01:20:52,514
of government, isn't it? About option two, the proposal to eliminate all single-family category and replace them with

560
01:20:52,514 --> 01:21:00,956
residential low density is utterly unacceptable. Because it bumps up the potential density in all current

561
01:21:00,956 --> 01:21:08,964
single-family categories from a maximum of 8 units per acre to 15 units per acre. This is twice as unsatisfactory

562
01:21:08,964 --> 01:21:15,871
as option one. Thanks you for the chance to comment about this particular agenda item.

563
01:21:15,871 --> 01:21:23,671
>> debra martinback followed by gary gordon followed by cindy gordon. >> debra martinback represents

564
01:21:26,381 --> 01:21:31,587
multiple properties owners, over a hundred. One of the things that we've asked from you way back when we

565
01:21:31,587 --> 01:21:39,528
first started talking about the landlord permits and zoning is that we allow the owners to use their houses, the number of

566
01:21:39,528 --> 01:21:47,202
bedrooms that they have in the house and allow them to rent out as individual bedrooms, as a group and they not all have to

567
01:21:47,202 --> 01:21:52,508
be related. I ask that you definitely include getting rid of the requirements that it's only

568
01:21:52,508 --> 01:22:00,908
three unrelated people. Thank you. >> gary gordon, followed by cindy gordon followed by jane

569
01:22:03,118 --> 01:22:10,918
berman holten. >> gary gordon, full disclosure, candidate for mayor. Near we are again.

570
01:22:16,365 --> 01:22:22,700
people have filled this meeting room to say stop it. Stop working on ways to subvert or eliminate single-family

571
01:22:22,700 --> 01:22:29,144
zoning. Stop working on way to further turn the city over to investors and into rent bill.

572
01:22:29,144 --> 01:22:37,853
stop claiming one unit in ten and any development in a serious affordable housing program. Stop claiming the majority of

573
01:22:37,853 --> 01:22:45,930
you didn't vote for these ideas, proposals or programs when you did, either in outright votes or with half and half suggestions

574
01:22:45,930 --> 01:22:53,268
or by continually sending it back to staff to return half-baked, stirred and served up as virtually the same dish.

575
01:22:53,268 --> 01:23:03,268
we know hayes-santos didn't do all this by himself or just poe or saco. That's not a majority.

576
01:23:03,912 --> 01:23:08,830
stop claiming it wasn't you who's responsible for this coming up. You are responsible.

577
01:23:08,830 --> 01:23:15,324
you never said outright overtly kill it. Didn't give us the hem and how tap dance, don't give us

578
01:23:15,324 --> 01:23:21,730
denials, don't preach or lecture. Don't quote any of this as a grand solution to historic

579
01:23:21,730 --> 01:23:27,703
racism. Don't deny the trouble you've caused or the fear and anger you've created among local

580
01:23:27,703 --> 01:23:33,703
homeowners. Only desmon duncan-walker and cynthia chestnut's hands are clean.

581
01:23:40,816 --> 01:23:47,789
stop trying to remake gainesville into your distorted version of new urbanism. Stop trying to remake

582
01:23:47,789 --> 01:23:56,310
gainesville into your pr slogan new american city. Most of us like it here. Other residents -- older

583
01:23:56,310 --> 01:24:05,310
residents and newer ones, the newer ones comes because it's not jacksonville, atlanta or miami.

584
01:24:08,677 --> 01:24:16,285
stop trying to turn it into one of those cities. Stop kicking things we don't want back to the plan board or

585
01:24:16,285 --> 01:24:25,561
staff or to some out-of-town consultant to be rewritten, sloganized, regurgitated to be brought back to you and stop

586
01:24:25,561 --> 01:24:33,368
dragging us out to tell you over and over again stop it. Stop trying to ram any of this through before the election.

587
01:24:33,368 --> 01:24:38,740
the majority of us don't want this. The majority of you have done enough damage.

588
01:24:38,740 --> 01:24:45,113
the majority of us want you to stop it. I'm gary gordon, candidate for mayor.

589
01:24:45,113 --> 01:24:54,713
[laughter] >> our next speaker is cindy gordon followed by jane berman holton, I believe, followed by

590
01:24:57,593 --> 01:25:07,593
cindy harrington. >> I should start off just by motioning to my husband and saying what he said.

591
01:25:08,570 --> 01:25:18,460
but there is plenty to be concerned about this blanket rezoning of the city. I'll try to just give you the

592
01:25:18,460 --> 01:25:25,870
high points. Ever since gainesville rise was presented to the city and 90% of the people who have spoke on

593
01:25:25,870 --> 01:25:33,762
that were against it, the city has continued to bring it up piecemeal in various forms in various guises.

594
01:25:33,762 --> 01:25:41,169
and it continues to fail because so many people just don't want it. The fact it's peddled as new

595
01:25:41,169 --> 01:25:51,169
urbanism or environmental or anything like that illusory, mass transit. How are we going to get this

596
01:25:56,251 --> 01:26:03,558
many people from here to there. How do we plan to get them out of their cars and doing a more environmental transportation.

597
01:26:03,558 --> 01:26:11,566
there is nothing in these propositions that goes near that. In fact, there has been no

598
01:26:11,566 --> 01:26:21,566
environmental feasibility study. In a lot of places, there is an environmental feasibility study that goes over what's going to

599
01:26:28,183 --> 01:26:35,123
happen with the infrastructure. This plan does not quantify in any meaningful way what will happen with the infrastructure,

600
01:26:35,123 --> 01:26:45,123
what will happen with the roads, with the plumbing, and what will happen. It does not speak to the stress

601
01:26:46,168 --> 01:26:56,168
on the aquifer. Most of all it's being peddled as an affordability plan, a plan for affordable housing and it

602
01:26:56,645 --> 01:27:03,452
does not touch affordability. There have been no facts and figures coming out of any of these presentations we sat

603
01:27:03,452 --> 01:27:13,452
through that have given us a bottom line. All affordable at x amount of people at x amount of income

604
01:27:14,663 --> 01:27:22,370
level. It also doesn't touch any other tools in the toolbox for affordable housing.

605
01:27:22,370 --> 01:27:29,878
where is any mention of federal funding from the build back better plan. Federal fundinges one of the

606
01:27:29,878 --> 01:27:39,878
main ways it has ever gotten built for those that remember the great society. There's no mention of sandusky

607
01:27:45,427 --> 01:27:53,435
which some think is their private piggy bank. Most of all people of gainesville aren't in favor of

608
01:27:53,435 --> 01:27:58,707
this. You guys work for the people of the city of gainesville not the developers.

609
01:27:58,707 --> 01:28:05,907
>> thank you. >> thank you. >> james followed by cindy harrington followed by terry.

610
01:28:20,610 --> 01:28:30,610
>> good afternoon, city managers, staff, audience. I think what we need to do is step back and throw it out.

611
01:28:30,972 --> 01:28:36,211
so I'd like to give a justification to do that. It's very simple. I studied the fact, the

612
01:28:36,211 --> 01:28:46,211
comprehensive plan is not required to be updated until '24, '26. I don't think this is how to do

613
01:28:57,320 --> 01:29:04,232
it. The consultants hired experience no communities. One thing gainesville has that's

614
01:29:05,207 --> 01:29:12,147
very important, we're a university community, 50 percent that live here are students. When we talk about family and

615
01:29:12,147 --> 01:29:20,255
housing and rentals, you can't keep students out. It's not allowed. But you're basically pandering

616
01:29:20,255 --> 01:29:28,655
to students. Another aspect is that the neighborhood impacted have in the been informed.

617
01:29:29,364 --> 01:29:36,404
I've asked over and over for the 69 neighbors to be informed. I do feel the neighborhood should be able to have a sloat,

618
01:29:36,404 --> 01:29:44,879
those with home owner's association should be able to have a vote by association as to whether we approve this project.

619
01:29:44,879 --> 01:29:51,119
basically it's the way the train running down the tracks, like a runaway train. You have the right to step back

620
01:29:51,119 --> 01:29:57,425
and say no. Staff pushed to do all these documents and create this and change this and change that.

621
01:29:57,425 --> 01:30:03,865
many through the processes, 2018 or before. It doesn't solve affordability, doesn't address what you're

622
01:30:03,865 --> 01:30:12,140
trying to do. I'm not a racist. I'm auto single family property owner who enjoys my peaceful

623
01:30:12,140 --> 01:30:19,848
enjoyment of my home, who does support affordable housing but I support plans that are realistic.

624
01:30:19,848 --> 01:30:29,848
there's a realism here. I heard the word family, I've heard units per acre, changing from 3.5 units per acre to 15 is

625
01:30:30,859 --> 01:30:39,901
unheard of. Furthermore with 5 foot setbacks and put cars in the rear, how do you get through people.

626
01:30:39,901 --> 01:30:47,709
how do you get a car through 5 feet? Let's go back and say is this rational, realistic, sensible?

627
01:30:47,709 --> 01:30:53,315
there's nothing in here -- I could put holes in it all day, okay? Many of us could.

628
01:30:53,315 --> 01:30:58,219
occupancy. We talk about units. What's a unit? Four bedrooms.

629
01:30:58,219 --> 01:31:05,930
I just heard six bedrooms. Six bedrooms in a unit times two people each, which you could allow two people if the bedroom

630
01:31:05,930 --> 01:31:11,533
is big enough. I call back to the icmp, international property management association suggested

631
01:31:11,533 --> 01:31:21,533
some numbers based on size of facility, size of bedrooms. I'd like to hear bedrooms not units, decent size bedrooms.

632
01:31:22,377 --> 01:31:26,982
>> thank you. Your time is up. >> thanks. >> sandy harrington followed by

633
01:31:26,982 --> 01:31:33,582
jenny boy mer. . >> good afternoon. I actually was trying to faulk

634
01:31:36,991 --> 01:31:44,990
about the no more than three unrelated rule and I ended up in this group but that's okay. Mayor and city commissioners,

635
01:31:44,990 --> 01:31:50,105
thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is cindy harrington. I'm a realtor in gainesville.

636
01:31:50,105 --> 01:31:55,944
like most people I've seen the huge increase in rentals over the last few years. Those increases primarily affect

637
01:31:55,944 --> 01:32:05,944
those who can least afford higher housing costs creating an additional burden at an already financially unstable or at the

638
01:32:06,788 --> 01:32:12,761
very least financially fragile rental community. No more than three unrelated rule is outdated.

639
01:32:12,761 --> 01:32:20,350
from what I understand it was used to discourage fraternities in neighborhoods. Others say it was designed to

640
01:32:20,350 --> 01:32:30,350
discourage brothels. I'm not sure if that's a fact or an urban legend. The number of persons occupying

641
01:32:31,646 --> 01:32:39,954
a dwelling if increased above three unrelated persons is detrimental and hazardous to public health, welfare, safety

642
01:32:39,954 --> 01:32:46,628
and morals of the citizens of this community. Really? The morals of the citizens if we

643
01:32:46,628 --> 01:32:56,628
increase it to four or five? Will we be burning books downtown any time soon s&p look, people live together.

644
01:32:57,338 --> 01:33:02,977
some even raise a family together without the benefit of marriage. I make no judgment on them.

645
01:33:02,977 --> 01:33:09,117
some folks bring in renters to offset the rising cost of maintaining a home. How is that detrimental to a

646
01:33:09,117 --> 01:33:14,122
community. Now if they are having keg parties at all hours, that should be addressed where it

647
01:33:14,122 --> 01:33:23,398
blocks. You called gpd. But let's not muddy the waters with what if this, what if that,

648
01:33:23,398 --> 01:33:28,937
there are remedies to address those issues. We are at a time when people are being forced out of their

649
01:33:28,937 --> 01:33:37,912
community because they cannot afford the rents in this city. We have now burdened landlords with additional expenses that

650
01:33:37,912 --> 01:33:45,520
will be passed down to tenants. Why not consider easing that burden by eliminating an archaic law that really has no

651
01:33:45,520 --> 01:33:55,520
legitimate reason being on the books in the first place. Or at the very least increase the number to four, at the very

652
01:33:55,763 --> 01:34:00,935
least. Wow, we can actually improve the lives of renters without costing the city a dime.

653
01:34:00,935 --> 01:34:09,935
thank you for your time and attention. >> terry followed by jenny boymer, followed by janie

654
01:34:12,800 --> 01:34:16,718
williams. >> good afternoon, mr. Mayor and commissioners. I'm sure you feel the air of

655
01:34:16,718 --> 01:34:25,627
what the community is feeling right now. But I want to ask you something. How would you feel about sharing

656
01:34:25,627 --> 01:34:35,360
20 feet of backyard with your kids on a saturday afternoon with four other families? How do you think that would

657
01:34:35,360 --> 01:34:42,836
work? Have you even experimented with this before bringing it to the community?

658
01:34:43,444 --> 01:34:51,853
the city and the county have an opportunity with the properties that haven't had taxes paid in a number of years, who had

659
01:34:51,853 --> 01:35:01,853
municipal liens on them, and you have the power to take those properties with as -- and make a development on there and an

660
01:35:02,397 --> 01:35:12,397
experiment to see if this would actually work before taking across the entire city and changing the zoning.

661
01:35:13,541 --> 01:35:23,141
have you thought recreational areas. What about the flow of water. Go outside of gainesville and

662
01:35:29,123 --> 01:35:39,123
see 23 west after they chopped down those trees and the water flooded middlebrook golf course. I don't think we've had enough

663
01:35:39,367 --> 01:35:43,638
thought into what you're doing here. We live here because we like the backyard effect.

664
01:35:43,638 --> 01:35:48,776
we want our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to grow up in neighborhoods they can be

665
01:35:48,776 --> 01:35:53,448
proud of. They can play basketball in the street and annoy every other neighbor.

666
01:35:53,448 --> 01:36:03,448
but think about this. No for rechanging the zoning. We have the opportunity. Try using some of the properties

667
01:36:04,325 --> 01:36:10,925
available. Experiment with them and see how that works. Thank you.

668
01:36:12,533 --> 01:36:21,533
>> jenny wimer, jenny williams and casey fitzgerald. >> jenny williams. I don't know the other person.

669
01:36:31,552 --> 01:36:38,926
hello, I'm jamie williams. I am a personal property owner. I personally own 43 single family houses in gainesville.

670
01:36:38,926 --> 01:36:44,799
I started buying them right when I graduated university of florida 20 years ago. I lived in a single family house

671
01:36:44,799 --> 01:36:49,871
over by campus. I had four girls that lived in it. We all got along great, and we

672
01:36:49,871 --> 01:36:57,211
got along with our neighbors and we were very respectful. I'm here in favor of getting rid of the three nonrelated people.

673
01:36:57,211 --> 01:37:02,650
it is a very hard thing as a landlord to enforce. I have tried to enforce it. I have tried to tell our

674
01:37:02,650 --> 01:37:09,223
residents, hey, there can only be three people on this lease. Only three people can live here. The truth of the matter is if

675
01:37:09,223 --> 01:37:15,963
it's a four bedroom or five bedroom house, they are going to put four and five people in that house whether I want them to or

676
01:37:15,963 --> 01:37:21,200
not. I have been back and forth with codes like how am I supposed to enforce this?

677
01:37:21,200 --> 01:37:27,675
it is a hard thing to enforce. I am just telling you flat out in pure honesty, it is hard. It's very hard to enforce.

678
01:37:27,675 --> 01:37:37,180
so some of the code enforcement people say you have to go count toothbrushes or do this. Who has time for that?

679
01:37:37,180 --> 01:37:43,257
I am not going to take roll call at all my rentals when I go in there. What I will tell you is I'm

680
01:37:43,257 --> 01:37:51,232
against having a brothel or six frat boys that are going to throw keg parties every day, I'm against that.

681
01:37:51,232 --> 01:37:59,240
it's hard to police it if I can only put three on the lease. If it's a six bedroom house and I put six on the lease, I know

682
01:37:59,240 --> 01:38:04,479
who is parking there, who is living there, then I can hold them accountal. I can't hold them accountable if

683
01:38:04,479 --> 01:38:09,350
there's only three people and they say that's my friend, that's my boyfriend. It's hard.

684
01:38:09,350 --> 01:38:18,292
my suggestion would be to adopt hud housing guidelines of two people per bedroom. It doesn't even have to be a

685
01:38:18,292 --> 01:38:23,640
four bedroom house with eight people. I'm asking four people to live in a four-bedroom house.

686
01:38:23,640 --> 01:38:28,903
they are going to do it anyway. I know that's a sad reason to ask for it but it is the truth. As a personal property owner,

687
01:38:28,903 --> 01:38:34,709
I'm telling you it's hard. It is just a hard thing to enforce. The other thing is the tenants

688
01:38:34,709 --> 01:38:41,716
rights and responsibilities. As a tenant, it's not fair for me to tell a tenant that they think they are related to

689
01:38:41,716 --> 01:38:49,824
somebody through partnerships or whatever kind of family bond they have formed, I can't tell them -- it's hard to get into a

690
01:38:49,824 --> 01:38:56,964
house to do a showing with a 24-hour notice. It's going to be even harder for me to try and get into that

691
01:38:56,964 --> 01:39:06,174
house and prove there's four people living in a three unrelated. So that's what I have.

692
01:39:06,174 --> 01:39:15,174
>> one more time for jenny boymer. Casey fitzgerald followed by scott parker followed by clara

693
01:39:16,551 --> 01:39:22,356
joharry. >> good afternoon, mr. Mayor and commissioners. My name is casey fitzgerald.

694
01:39:22,356 --> 01:39:28,296
my wife pamela and I are 28 residents of a very pleasant ridgewood neighborhood in northwest gainesville.

695
01:39:28,296 --> 01:39:33,801
first let me say we fully recognize the city has been working on this issue for a very long time.

696
01:39:33,801 --> 01:39:39,941
we also recognize and appreciate the city commission and staff are very well intentioned in promoting the changes being

697
01:39:39,941 --> 01:39:46,541
discussed. We concur afterwardable housing is indeed warranting the city's attention.

698
01:39:48,449 --> 01:39:55,256
given today's time constraints I'm just going to mention a few concerns, however. The over arching concern and

699
01:39:55,256 --> 01:40:02,296
primary reason for being here today is the package of decisions, discussion would not only eliminate single family

700
01:40:02,296 --> 01:40:09,604
zoning classification in gainesville but numerous adverse for neighborhoods without generating additional affordable

701
01:40:09,604 --> 01:40:16,777
housing in gainesville. We say this mainly because there is a disturbing lack of data, analyses and evidence in support

702
01:40:16,777 --> 01:40:23,918
of these proposals. Despite the city's years long focus and this worthy cause, including the engagement of

703
01:40:23,918 --> 01:40:32,793
national consultants, absolutely no credible evidence presented to show the suggested approach will be successful.

704
01:40:32,793 --> 01:40:39,667
in the gainesville community many credentialed knowledgeable citizens, some here with relative experience in urban

705
01:40:39,667 --> 01:40:46,540
regional planning, architecture, land use, et cetera, that are willing to be convinced if credible etched is presented.

706
01:40:46,540 --> 01:40:55,540
however, until such evidence is made available, the proposed sweeping citywide approach is not supportable.

707
01:40:55,583 --> 01:41:05,583
the fact the adoption of petitions I is irreversible due to harris implications, the stakes are quite high.

708
01:41:05,893 --> 01:41:11,966
relying as this approach does exclusively on market forces is another concern because trying to achieve the desired

709
01:41:11,966 --> 01:41:18,673
affordable housing outcomes by this mechanism does not seem like a prudent, reliable strategy.

710
01:41:18,673 --> 01:41:26,473
finally, concern number three, it's a troubling technical issue. The higher density development

711
01:41:26,714 --> 01:41:36,714
that would result from the proposals would create more impervious surface area, pollution loads to creeks and

712
01:41:38,459 --> 01:41:44,498
ultimate receiving water florida aquifer where we get our drinking water. We have seen no indication the

713
01:41:44,498 --> 01:41:52,740
proper engineering analysis and modeling done to assess these impacts. So in conclusion based on the

714
01:41:52,740 --> 01:42:01,248
lack of evidence provided by the city to date, we encourage to table the unsupported wide ranging proposals under

715
01:42:01,248 --> 01:42:08,389
consideration and direct staff to further evaluate alternative affordable housing approaches and return with strategic

716
01:42:08,389 --> 01:42:16,789
workable options and accompanying credible evidence. Thank you for your time tapped thoughtful consideration.

717
01:42:18,432 --> 01:42:25,632
>> scott parker followed by claire joharry followed by darlene -- >> no, ma'am.

718
01:42:28,542 --> 01:42:37,585
I'm sorry, you have to be here to get your statement in person. Sorry, carrie. Thank you for being willing to

719
01:42:37,585 --> 01:42:45,985
do that, though. >> claire joharry. >> good afternoon. First of all, I agreed with my

720
01:42:51,565 --> 01:42:56,337
community. I lived in my home across from the university at college park for 40 years.

721
01:42:56,337 --> 01:43:03,144
my parents built the home. You probably know it. It's a beautiful mediterranean home, electric gates, and we

722
01:43:03,144 --> 01:43:06,947
loved it. We attended university of florida. We're all in medicine but we

723
01:43:06,947 --> 01:43:16,947
stayed where we live because we love that area, love seeing the children grow up, our neighbors. But recently I want to give my

724
01:43:19,560 --> 01:43:27,935
point of view of living there for 40 years of what's going on. Since they have built new apartments there, majority has

725
01:43:27,935 --> 01:43:36,610
not filled, a lot aren't created, we've had an increase in crime. We've had theft.

726
01:43:36,610 --> 01:43:42,490
we've had drugs. We've had speeding, hitting and running. We've had people run into our

727
01:43:42,490 --> 01:43:49,190
neighbors' gates. It's out of control. Parties from the fraternities are crazy.

728
01:43:49,190 --> 01:43:55,162
they are in our yards. The floors three streets behind are vibrating. My home is vibrating.

729
01:43:55,162 --> 01:44:01,502
my mother, who is 90 years old, lives with me. I care for her. I called the police station five

730
01:44:01,502 --> 01:44:08,702
times. We can't live like this, it's loud. They said video them.

731
01:44:12,213 --> 01:44:18,119
I went across the street and videoed them. I went to the police station and said if anything happens,

732
01:44:18,119 --> 01:44:24,825
gainesville will be in trouble. That's when they came. I want you to take in consideration as you grow, add

733
01:44:24,825 --> 01:44:33,868
these apartments, consider these single homes with families, there's a school. Kids won't be able to ride their

734
01:44:33,868 --> 01:44:40,941
bikes there to go to school. There's a big park there. Every saturday there's soccer, there's baseball.

735
01:44:40,941 --> 01:44:49,250
I love watching them as I take my walk. That area is beautiful. I could live anywhere.

736
01:44:49,250 --> 01:44:56,490
recently a lady from ft. Lauderdale offered me over a million dollars, 1.7, crazy amount, 1.3.

737
01:44:56,490 --> 01:45:02,930
I said hell to the no. Okay? I love where I live. Now, all I ask you is put

738
01:45:02,930 --> 01:45:08,869
yourself in my shoe. I was raised there. I went to medicine, created -- I could live anywhere.

739
01:45:08,869 --> 01:45:14,108
my parents built that home with pride. That area is historic of gainesville.

740
01:45:14,108 --> 01:45:24,108
it's a hot piece of land. It was safe but now it's not. The more you build there, it's going to get worse.

741
01:45:24,285 --> 01:45:28,589
that's all I say. Please think about it. I understand where you're coming from.

742
01:45:28,589 --> 01:45:36,964
gainesville is pretty big. You've got the v.a. Hospital, there's room to grow there. It doesn't need to be where all

743
01:45:36,964 --> 01:45:46,874
the bars is and all the apartments and all that. Yes, we want gainesville to grow, but this is out of

744
01:45:46,874 --> 01:45:50,144
control. Thank you. >> thank you. I want to remind you the school

745
01:45:50,144 --> 01:45:56,317
is now called carolyn parker. We want to make sure our language stays as family friendly as possible.

746
01:45:56,317 --> 01:46:04,717
>> darlene followed by nicole followed by sherry hughes. >> commissioners, mayor, I moved here in 1985.

747
01:46:07,428 --> 01:46:14,535
there's been a lot of changes, unfortunately for some. Even though I'm a realtor, it's important to have affordable

748
01:46:14,535 --> 01:46:22,935
housing. Just a few statements. When I listened to your preparation as the gentleman

749
01:46:25,713 --> 01:46:35,890
spoke, this came out of his mouth, density will not change. Fifteen units per acre, I think density will change.

750
01:46:35,890 --> 01:46:44,698
I think that's outrageous. I can't even imagine 15 acres unless you go five stories high. Maybe you complain do 15 units

751
01:46:44,698 --> 01:46:51,338
per acre. It's sad to say this, single family home is the american dream.

752
01:46:51,338 --> 01:46:59,446
I've been a realtor over 45 years. Everybody I help with the home, that's this american dream.

753
01:46:59,446 --> 01:47:09,446
their american dream is when they raise a family, they have a pack yard for their children or their babies and it's not 15 by

754
01:47:12,192 --> 01:47:21,192
15 feet. Where are these pictures that we saw, these beautiful pictures? Where were they taken?

755
01:47:21,402 --> 01:47:29,777
did the gentleman that gave the presentation, did he visit those pictures and go by and see what they are and what's around it?

756
01:47:29,777 --> 01:47:35,490
pictures are great but where are they? Are they in gainesville or what city are they coming from?

757
01:47:35,490 --> 01:47:41,288
we have a lot of cities in this country. Last but not least, cost of building.

758
01:47:41,288 --> 01:47:51,288
when you say cost of building is expensive, it is, especially when 20 to 30% of a house that's being built are taxes that the

759
01:47:53,634 --> 01:48:03,634
city and the state, they pay for, the builders. I wish their builder here to speak to you about what you're

760
01:48:05,879 --> 01:48:14,555
trying to do here, which is take away the single family home and stick four or five units in one lot or two acres -- two houses

761
01:48:14,555 --> 01:48:22,463
in one lot. This is outrageous. Y'all need to be replaced, because elections have

762
01:48:22,463 --> 01:48:29,630
consequences. >> nicole cords followed by sharie hughes followed by nancy morris.

763
01:48:38,379 --> 01:48:45,579
>> miss portis, hughes -- >> nancy or tom morris. >> they are downstairs. >> okay.

764
01:48:51,658 --> 01:49:01,258
we'll get them when they pop in. Go ahead. We'll come back to them. >> dana silva.

765
01:49:09,209 --> 01:49:16,350
my neighbors and I talked to each other about we couldn't afford to live in the city if we didn't have our homes, pleasant

766
01:49:16,350 --> 01:49:24,224
street, been there 27 years. We have humble little houses on small lots. It's residential conservation

767
01:49:24,224 --> 01:49:33,200
zoning we were told wouldn't be affected by some of these ordinances would affect us. This is a time line presented by

768
01:49:33,200 --> 01:49:43,200
the city of all this stuff the city has been doing for affordable housing. None of it has -- there are some

769
01:49:43,877 --> 01:49:53,877
errors in that. Be that as it may, I see a different time line. It goes back to 2014, 2015,

770
01:49:57,191 --> 01:50:07,191
brought in zones, certain area of gainesville. Shortly after that, 2016, the re -- I don't know what to even

771
01:50:12,739 --> 01:50:18,846
call it. People in city governance cut out a lot of public participation.

772
01:50:18,846 --> 01:50:28,846
2017, the base code was implemented and it led to the destruction of the neighborhood because it was done in a

773
01:50:29,623 --> 01:50:37,731
dishonest way. I'm just going to say that. What this is all kind of still reverberating from those years

774
01:50:37,731 --> 01:50:45,531
to deregulate development especially in the neighborhood surrounding university and downtown, the central

775
01:50:46,607 --> 01:50:54,448
neighborhoods. To call this about affordable housing is incorrect. There's no link to affordability

776
01:50:54,448 --> 01:51:04,448
in any of these proposals. To say that someone who couldn't already afford their rent could move to a new rental apartment

777
01:51:13,400 --> 01:51:23,400
in another neighborhood is not logical. As far as saying it's racist to have single family zoning, I

778
01:51:27,381 --> 01:51:33,220
just can't even go there. You want to hear about racism, I'll tell you. 27 years of watching it close

779
01:51:33,220 --> 01:51:43,220
up, law enforcement, selective enforcement and then the city coming in and colluding to get rid of seminary lane and to

780
01:51:48,602 --> 01:51:56,402
destroy kennedy homes and put hartwood, highly expensive properties, single family hoa there.

781
01:52:06,219 --> 01:52:12,920
now here we are with these proposals that the city has paid. >> mayor: thank you.

782
01:52:12,920 --> 01:52:20,534
>> more than half million dollars to support. >> mayor: I have to have everybody the same.

783
01:52:20,534 --> 01:52:28,334
next up. >> tom morris followed by jackie davis. >> this proposal seems to be

784
01:52:33,914 --> 01:52:39,419
half baked. It strikes me we need to slow down on this whole thing and think about it a little bit

785
01:52:39,419 --> 01:52:44,858
more. I'm just going to bring up a couple of things, and I'll make this quick.

786
01:52:44,858 --> 01:52:54,401
mason manors, now outless subdivisions off 16th avenue and live up in the woods. I raised three kids there.

787
01:52:54,401 --> 01:53:01,908
I always, and I think most parents feel that you give a progressive long leash to children, right?

788
01:53:01,908 --> 01:53:07,280
when you live in a neighborhood where you pretty much know all the neighbors, you can turn those kids loose.

789
01:53:07,280 --> 01:53:16,590
every year they get a little bit older, go a little bit further from home. When there's 15 people, 15 units

790
01:53:16,590 --> 01:53:22,529
per acre, you're not going to be able to do that. You're not going to know the neighbors.

791
01:53:22,529 --> 01:53:30,671
the other problem I see, the jewel to gainesville is pretty much these creek valleys. I haven't seen anything that

792
01:53:30,671 --> 01:53:40,113
looks like environmental assessment of what this plan is going to cost the degradation of those.

793
01:53:40,113 --> 01:53:47,313
that's it. >> nancy morris followed by jackie davis followed by virginia moore.

794
01:53:49,222 --> 01:53:59,222
>> hi there. I would like also ask you to reconsider, to slow down. I think people are making

795
01:53:59,800 --> 01:54:09,400
assumptions. They are assuming the people that want to build these multifamily units are going to

796
01:54:13,613 --> 01:54:17,884
be folks that want affordable housing. We don't know that. That's an assumption.

797
01:54:17,884 --> 01:54:22,856
I think it will destroy the neighborhoods. That was my husband that spoke just before.

798
01:54:22,856 --> 01:54:28,228
I agree. We know our neighbors. We've been in our house for 35 years.

799
01:54:28,228 --> 01:54:36,103
we bought there for that reason. So to just change the whole integrity of it is very upsetting.

800
01:54:36,103 --> 01:54:44,244
I also, again, the infrastructure has not been evaluated. We have flooding two streets

801
01:54:44,244 --> 01:54:54,244
over when there's a major reinoehl event. We put in bigger. Types to stop flooding, it is

802
01:54:54,554 --> 01:54:59,626
worse. When it rains our poor neighbors have sewage come up into their streets.

803
01:54:59,626 --> 01:55:09,603
I feel really badly for them. So I think we need to do a lot more studies, slow down. Why would you implement that all

804
01:55:09,603 --> 01:55:15,909
over the city. If you insist on doing it, I like the idea that the one man had about liens that are on

805
01:55:15,909 --> 01:55:24,418
houses, look at those and study those and make sure we can support it. Thank you.

806
01:55:24,418 --> 01:55:34,180
>> jackie tavis followed by virginia mauer, followed by dr. Leanetta nealy. >> I think miss davis left.

807
01:55:42,102 --> 01:55:50,844
I did see her walk out a while ago. >> my name is jenny mauer, and I thank you for holding this work

808
01:55:50,844 --> 01:55:57,117
hop and for the opportunity to speak. I want to address a serious problem that you have with

809
01:55:57,117 --> 01:56:03,623
restrictive covenants. Not the outrageous ones excluding most races and nationalities, the enforcement

810
01:56:03,623 --> 01:56:10,463
of which violates the federal constitution, they cannot be enforced and they are not an issue, but rather I mean the

811
01:56:10,463 --> 01:56:17,971
deed restrictions, deed covenants, that restrict development in the neighborhoods to single family homes only.

812
01:56:17,971 --> 01:56:27,971
these covenants apply not only -- to all whoever buys the property as long as it is in effect.

813
01:56:29,616 --> 01:56:38,910
these restrictions are in deeds and chains of title all over gainesville. Some may not be enforceable.

814
01:56:38,910 --> 01:56:44,297
others are current and enforceable. There are matters of public records and deeds in the county

815
01:56:44,297 --> 01:56:49,236
courthouse. I am told andrew persons has told the public that the proposed changes in the

816
01:56:49,236 --> 01:56:57,677
comprehensive plan will not affect neighborhoods with deep covenants that restrict use of the land to single family

817
01:56:57,677 --> 01:57:05,218
housing. I understand that realtors and others try to quell fear and public opposition by telling

818
01:57:05,218 --> 01:57:13,360
home owners in neighborhoods like colony park or forest ridge, for example, that they will be protected by their

819
01:57:13,360 --> 01:57:18,765
restrictive covenants and the proposed changes will not ever affect them. Unless that is indeed the

820
01:57:18,765 --> 01:57:27,574
commission's intention, it is ill-advised and dangerous to make these claims. If it is what the mayors and

821
01:57:27,574 --> 01:57:37,174
commissioners intend, please tell that to the public unambiguously and immediately. Direct city staff and change

822
01:57:38,852 --> 01:57:45,759
city ordinance that comes back to the commission clearly excludes properties covered by a deed covenant restricting land

823
01:57:45,759 --> 01:57:53,330
to single family houses. Florida courts are separate and independent branch of government, and they decide

824
01:57:53,330 --> 01:57:59,806
legal conflicts. Neither the commission nor these other people who offer their personal opinions control how

825
01:57:59,806 --> 01:58:08,515
florida courts will rule in a conflict between otherwise valid deed covenants and a municipal comprehensive plan.

826
01:58:08,515 --> 01:58:18,291
consider this, however, and I think this is important, that if you exclude these properties, you are treating neighborhoods

827
01:58:18,291 --> 01:58:27,891
unequally, once again privileging white affluent over property values that fall, there are strong racial implications

828
01:58:33,506 --> 01:58:39,913
to that. If you do not exclude them, this will signal you do not intend to do so, and you will ignite a

829
01:58:39,913 --> 01:58:46,319
firestorm in this community even greater than the opposition you already face. In the end, one way or another,

830
01:58:46,319 --> 01:58:51,324
you will not achieve your otherwise very public goals. >> mayor: thank you. I'm afraid your time has

831
01:58:51,324 --> 01:58:56,196
expired. I appreciate you being here with us. >> dr. Mcnealy followed by kim

832
01:58:56,196 --> 01:59:04,971
tanzer, followed by melanie barr. I do believe she had to leave. If she's not here, mr.

833
01:59:04,971 --> 01:59:11,110
millimeters. Mr. Mayor, you might suggest there's chairs available. >> mayor: if you're outside

834
01:59:11,110 --> 01:59:18,451
there are some chairs that freed up or if you would like to stay out there you are welcome to do that.

835
01:59:18,451 --> 01:59:25,258
welcome, doctor mcnealy. >> thank you. I'm leanetta mcnealy. I am excited, can you believe

836
01:59:25,258 --> 01:59:35,258
that, to be here with you this afternoon, and I have a long board meeting tonight. Anyway, I wanted to say good

837
01:59:39,105 --> 01:59:46,546
afternoon, mayor poe and honorable city commissioners and city manager curry. First of all I'd like to thank

838
01:59:46,546 --> 01:59:54,946
commissioner chestnut for insisting on having neighborhoods coming together to hear the proposed zoning

839
01:59:59,893 --> 02:00:09,569
changes. I don't know if she hadn't said that that the vote wouldn't have been taken by now.

840
02:00:09,569 --> 02:00:19,569
I want to thank commissioner ward, commissioner duncan-walker and also city manager curry as well as city staff who came to

841
02:00:21,247 --> 02:00:31,247
our neighborhood and met with us. You heard from quite a few people today from azalea trail,

842
02:00:31,791 --> 02:00:41,791
formerly known as hollywood but we have stuck together and we have decided what we certainly want as far as the zoning

843
02:00:42,402 --> 02:00:52,402
proposal. My ultimate problem is I know the city needs housing for the number of people who live here

844
02:00:58,118 --> 02:01:08,118
and have no roof over their heads or can afford where they live. Where is the cheapest land east

845
02:01:09,950 --> 02:01:18,538
of gainesville. We are very -- meaning those of us who are in a neighborhood, we are very vulnerable to losing

846
02:01:18,538 --> 02:01:28,538
what we have worked so hard for through the years and change our neighborhood from single family homes, multileases, duplexes,

847
02:01:32,652 --> 02:01:42,652
apartments, whatever. If this new zoning passes, we will certainly be at a loss. Increased people definitely put

848
02:01:48,601 --> 02:01:56,943
a burden on us. East gainesville will disproportionately be impacted. Extra resources we don't have

849
02:01:56,943 --> 02:02:05,343
already. As was stated earlier by mr. Fields, we live in a food desert.

850
02:02:06,719 --> 02:02:13,319
no shops. No restaurants. How many of you will accept this.

851
02:02:17,864 --> 02:02:23,937
more people, large amount of people put in -- >> mayor: thank you, dr. Mcnealy.

852
02:02:23,937 --> 02:02:29,976
>> I'm so sorry. I need to come back next time. >> mayor: good luck on your meeting tonight.

853
02:02:29,976 --> 02:02:38,376
>> miss tanzer followed by melanie barr, todd williams and brittany corbit. >> mayors and commissioners,

854
02:02:48,895 --> 02:02:55,268
thank you for your time. This is a page from your own report by your real estate consultant hra, and it says the

855
02:02:55,268 --> 02:02:59,806
city of gainesville should complete in-depth land use analysis to consider the following changes.

856
02:02:59,806 --> 02:03:09,150
the changes that you've been presented today are here. However, you have not done in-depth land use analysis

857
02:03:09,150 --> 02:03:17,123
that's necessary to go forward. I ask that you do that. Also from that report, just to clarify, we're not all on the

858
02:03:17,123 --> 02:03:25,131
same page about numbers. You heard today that 63% of the city's land was unresidential single family, that's incorrect.

859
02:03:25,131 --> 02:03:31,537
63% of the residential parcels are single family, which is quite different. But when you do the math, you

860
02:03:31,537 --> 02:03:37,844
find that that's 20% of the area's land. That may be too much, that may be not enough, I don't know.

861
02:03:37,844 --> 02:03:45,618
we're not even on the same page about our data. The minneapolis 20/40 plan was very clear about their strategy,

862
02:03:45,618 --> 02:03:53,126
so they looked at transportation corridors. They looked at cities with existing density at a higher

863
02:03:53,126 --> 02:03:57,730
occurring rate and then they looked at the areas to up zone, which is what we're talking about.

864
02:03:57,730 --> 02:04:07,730
taking that same area in minneapolis, which is far from the university of minnesota and applying that in gainesville,

865
02:04:08,841 --> 02:04:15,915
what we see is that if we did the same thing here as was done in minneapolis, this entire area would be excluded from any

866
02:04:15,915 --> 02:04:22,955
upzoning. That has to do in gainesville with the fact that our student population is very, very

867
02:04:22,955 --> 02:04:30,730
disproportionate relative to other places. Let's look at that zoning area. This is one of your maps as

868
02:04:30,730 --> 02:04:40,640
well. We see a few vacant lots in the northwest, and we see a whole lot more in the east.

869
02:04:40,640 --> 02:04:45,878
reinforcing what self people have said. If you blanket up zone the city of gainesville, you will be

870
02:04:45,878 --> 02:04:51,584
exacerbating existing racial problems in the city, not improving them. Finally, I'd like to remind you

871
02:04:51,584 --> 02:04:59,926
that if you're interested in affordable housing, you have plenty of land to work with yourself.

872
02:04:59,926 --> 02:05:09,369
the power district, which has been laying vacant for at least a decade I'm aware of is 16 1/2 acres.

873
02:05:09,369 --> 02:05:18,811
there's a property south of depot park. These could be zoned at, say, u6 zoning, and that would provide

874
02:05:18,811 --> 02:05:25,985
an additional 1,000 units or so of housing. You've just essentially given away lot 10 for what I thought

875
02:05:25,985 --> 02:05:31,290
would be housing but in fact now it's going to be a grocery store, parking four stories of office and then a little bit of

876
02:05:31,290 --> 02:05:39,310
housing. That could have been 100 units of housing. As we proposed in 2001 as we

877
02:05:39,310 --> 02:05:49,310
presented depot area plaster plan, this is another 77 acre zoned to provide -- >> I don't believe I've seen

878
02:05:57,850 --> 02:06:06,559
melanie barr pop back in, so we'll go to todd williams, 505 corbit, 505 larry reamer. >> thank you.

879
02:06:06,559 --> 02:06:12,665
I'll be as quick as I can, but I'll turn the affidavit over because -- [ inaudible ]

880
02:06:12,665 --> 02:06:21,174
>> I'm todd williams. I'm a landlord and a property manager. I wanted to point out not only

881
02:06:21,174 --> 02:06:27,790
absentee but everything I manage either I own or manage for other local people. We do take care of our

882
02:06:27,790 --> 02:06:34,921
properties. We spent the last year upgrading insulation, appliances, do parking plans, all of that.

883
02:06:34,921 --> 02:06:41,494
and the three nonrelated, you say you don't want more development, well, what could be more affordable than allowing an

884
02:06:41,494 --> 02:06:49,235
extra person to live in a four bedroom house. Have you a five bedroom house, let five people live there, then

885
02:06:49,235 --> 02:06:54,207
you wouldn't have to develop more housing. So there are landlords that do care for it.

886
02:06:54,207 --> 02:07:03,349
I would put any of my properties up against any one of these houses that are privately owned. That's all I have to say.

887
02:07:03,349 --> 02:07:07,987
>> mayor: thank you for your comments. Madam clerk. >> corbit followed by larry

888
02:07:07,987 --> 02:07:15,187
reimer followed by robert mounts. >> mayor: welcome. >> I'm a property manager in

889
02:07:18,464 --> 02:07:24,470
gainesville. >> say your name for the record. >> brenton corbit. I'm a property manager and

890
02:07:24,470 --> 02:07:33,779
college student, so I understand the possible negative side because you've got a bunch of young kids who everybody for

891
02:07:33,779 --> 02:07:41,721
some reason puts this negative thing on they are all going to throw keggers and destroy property.

892
02:07:41,721 --> 02:07:47,960
I've been doing this for serve years. I haven't seen that. But what we do have is this

893
02:07:47,960 --> 02:07:56,636
unfortunate no more than three unrelated parties thing that's been going on for who knows how long it's been going on.

894
02:07:56,636 --> 02:08:00,506
older than me. It doesn't make common sense to me. If you have a five bedroom

895
02:08:00,506 --> 02:08:09,916
house, why can't five people be living in it. Talk about affordable housing, it's just basic math.

896
02:08:09,916 --> 02:08:18,291
if you have a house an owner wants to charge $5,000 because expenses are $4,000, if you pack five people in you can charge

897
02:08:18,291 --> 02:08:24,597
more than you can if you put three people in it. It doesn't change the owner's expense, property taxes go up,

898
02:08:24,597 --> 02:08:29,635
they have to pay a rental permit every year. Everything goes up. So the owners are really the

899
02:08:29,635 --> 02:08:35,808
ones that suffer. Really the people that are best to gain were the apartment complexes that come in and slap

900
02:08:35,808 --> 02:08:45,618
300 units and they can benefit from all of this. So my main focus, my main thing, three unrelated parties.

901
02:08:45,618 --> 02:08:54,293
I feel like college students -- I'm not one, I know I look young, 28 years old, I have six kids.

902
02:08:54,293 --> 02:09:04,293
I feel like they get a bad rap when really we as single family home owners around the campus, we can't deny it.

903
02:09:04,503 --> 02:09:12,278
maybe we have a duty to be better neighbors to these college students to teach them the right way to live rather

904
02:09:12,278 --> 02:09:16,716
than assume they are going to live the incorrect way. Also want to say appreciate you guys.

905
02:09:16,716 --> 02:09:21,587
I thought my job was hard. This is the first time I've ever done this. I can't imagine what you go

906
02:09:21,587 --> 02:09:31,587
through on a daily basis. That was all I had to say. Thank you for your time. >> larry wimer followed by jean

907
02:09:31,631 --> 02:09:40,600
galligan. >> I think larry left. If you're still here, larry, still outside somewhere, you can

908
02:09:40,600 --> 02:09:47,206
come back. >> robert mounts followed by gene galligan followed by matthew umanos.

909
02:09:52,118 --> 02:09:59,918
>> mr. Mayor, commissioners, I'm robert mounts, retired attorney from the neighborhood parks association.

910
02:10:01,360 --> 02:10:08,968
a memo included with this proposal city planner juan castillo cited various provisions as a comprehensive

911
02:10:08,968 --> 02:10:18,968
plan to show these changes will be internally consistent with the plan such as the future land use which says neighborhoods

912
02:10:19,211 --> 02:10:28,120
should retain diversity of housing types to enable a wide range of economic levels and age groups to live in the

913
02:10:28,120 --> 02:10:33,659
boundaries. Mr. Castillo cherry picks policies and objectives showing consistency with the housing

914
02:10:33,659 --> 02:10:41,967
element including provisions ensuring zoning and other housing regulations do not unduly limit opportunities for

915
02:10:41,967 --> 02:10:51,967
lower income groups to secure housing and locations. I'm engaged in a little bit what about -- not to distract but

916
02:10:55,514 --> 02:11:02,154
what about the policy that says the city's future land use map should strive to accommodate increases in student enrollment

917
02:11:02,154 --> 02:11:11,230
in areas designated for multifamily development within a half mile of the university and innovation square but outside a

918
02:11:11,230 --> 02:11:19,630
single family development neighborhoods. What about the future lapped use zone that protects neighborhoods

919
02:11:20,806 --> 02:11:30,406
and tree canopy. What about instruction to ensure city proposals in keeping with surrounding contract and

920
02:11:34,487 --> 02:11:43,620
appropriate sites. What about the housing elements goal to maintain sound, viable neighborhood and revitalize

921
02:11:43,620 --> 02:11:49,135
those that suffered disrepair or neglect. What about the housing policy requiring the city to work with

922
02:11:49,135 --> 02:11:56,142
neighborhoods on housing issues. What about the policy which requires cities to help neighborhoods to develop plans

923
02:11:56,142 --> 02:12:04,717
to promote conservation and restoration of housing that has special historic, architectural or historic values.

924
02:12:04,717 --> 02:12:09,889
what about the requirement to facilitate communication and dialogue with neighboring groups?

925
02:12:09,889 --> 02:12:19,980
what about the obvious interest to porters quarters and fifth avenue pleasant street and gentrification and displacement.

926
02:12:19,980 --> 02:12:29,980
lastly, what about the housing element provisions that increase level and desirability of owner occupancy and home ownership in

927
02:12:29,375 --> 02:12:36,148
the university context area. Do you really think allowing developers and out of town corporations to build

928
02:12:36,148 --> 02:12:44,890
quadruplexes primarily available to rent to students by the room and family neighborhoods close to university promotes owner

929
02:12:44,890 --> 02:12:54,490
occupancy and home ownership? We hardly think so. It's not a slam-dunk. >> gene galligan followed by

930
02:12:58,300 --> 02:13:08,300
matthew umanos followed by abe goldman. >> hi, my name is jean galligan. I've heard so many people come

931
02:13:12,918 --> 02:13:22,528
up and speak that know the ins and outs of policies and effects of policies, educated people, people with phds.

932
02:13:22,528 --> 02:13:27,833
and I don't know if you have a recording of all this, because I can't remember them all right now, but I hope that you will

933
02:13:27,833 --> 02:13:37,676
look over what they said and consider it. I hope you're open to other plans, because it seems to me

934
02:13:37,676 --> 02:13:43,983
there's so many other ways of achieving what you're trying to achieve. We do need to grow.

935
02:13:43,983 --> 02:13:52,825
we do need more housing. We need more ways for young families and single people to own where they live.

936
02:13:52,825 --> 02:13:59,932
I don't think this the way to do it. The first gentleman that spoke, mr. Castillo, talked about

937
02:13:59,932 --> 02:14:09,932
leaving something to market forces and that terrifies me, because market forces are for the profit of the people who are

938
02:14:10,476 --> 02:14:18,876
the force. That's not necessarily good for anybody. It's not good for inhabitants or

939
02:14:19,919 --> 02:14:29,919
poor people or middle class people or homeless people or anyone else. I hope you will really listen to

940
02:14:30,290 --> 02:14:40,290
the people that have been up here speaking so knowledgeably and so -- with so much education but I'm discouraged, because

941
02:14:41,473 --> 02:14:51,473
since this all has become a possibility, I hear people in the paper, I hear small discussion groups.

942
02:14:56,355 --> 02:15:03,462
there are people with e-mail, zoom meetings and so on but I've never heard the county commission budge one inch or

943
02:15:03,462 --> 02:15:13,462
consider any other possibility other than we've got to get rid of all single family homes or single family home zoning.

944
02:15:16,542 --> 02:15:22,982
I think there are so many better ways to do it than way more educated people and informed people than I will have brought

945
02:15:22,982 --> 02:15:32,982
up today. I hope you'll consider. Like said when she first came up here, I hope you're willing to

946
02:15:38,263 --> 02:15:48,263
hear other opinions, more informed opinions, and maybe tailor what you're trying to do. Everybody here is kind of aghast

947
02:15:49,108 --> 02:15:57,508
at what could happen. There's no proven outcomes. There's no plan, there's no data.

948
02:16:04,623 --> 02:16:11,230
we should consider that h it's really bad. Thank you. >> abe goldman followed by

949
02:16:11,230 --> 02:16:20,830
frederick davis junior. >> mayors, commissioners, thank you for taking the time to participate in the workshop.

950
02:16:22,674 --> 02:16:31,583
I'm in favor and gainesville alachua realtors in favor of removing no more than three related or occupancy as

951
02:16:31,583 --> 02:16:36,688
recommended by the city's planning commission. This is an exclusionary zoning practice.

952
02:16:36,688 --> 02:16:45,431
think about a few young couples, none of which are married or the friends tv show or golden girls. Any and everything in between is

953
02:16:45,431 --> 02:16:54,431
currently not allowed. These are various living arrangements, helps cost of living making hoursing more

954
02:16:54,440 --> 02:16:59,344
affordable. Removing no more than three occupancy limit would also increase available rooms.

955
02:16:59,344 --> 02:17:09,344
we need the inventory. Supply is not meeting demand. While alachua add 300 rental units between 2000 and 2019, we

956
02:17:10,422 --> 02:17:20,422
lost rental units of $1,000 or less, fell in 2019. Now adding growth. We are growing and we should be

957
02:17:25,637 --> 02:17:31,944
proud of growth. People want to join our great community. By not approving, we are not

958
02:17:31,944 --> 02:17:36,582
allowing neighborhoods to evolve to meet the needs of growing community. Removing the no more than three

959
02:17:36,582 --> 02:17:44,423
unrelated or occupancy limit will create more density without any construction. Owners are individuals and

960
02:17:44,423 --> 02:17:48,927
rentals are often a tight investment. We don't want them selling or increasing rent.

961
02:17:48,927 --> 02:17:56,301
we need to ensure current affordable rentals are kept, removing no more than three unrelated or occupancy limit may

962
02:17:56,301 --> 02:18:02,174
encourage investment and make more properties viable to be rentals and increase the rental inventory.

963
02:18:02,174 --> 02:18:12,174
I have heard some concerns. We have some point to noise, trash, yard maintenance and similar but that's why we have

964
02:18:15,921 --> 02:18:21,260
codes. We don't need to focus on rentals. Some owners are just as bad at

965
02:18:21,260 --> 02:18:26,698
being loud, parking and the like. Parking is bad for three plus when they have kids driving as

966
02:18:26,698 --> 02:18:30,903
well. Rentals should not be targeted any differently. Property value has been a

967
02:18:30,903 --> 02:18:36,975
concern but values in the duck pond neighborhood with various housing types and various living arrangements continue to

968
02:18:36,975 --> 02:18:43,810
increase with no shortage of demand. The keating memo provides that as general rule considers an

969
02:18:43,810 --> 02:18:50,889
occupancy policy of two people per bedroom under the federal housing administration. The international property code

970
02:18:50,889 --> 02:19:00,499
management suggests 70 square feet per bedroom per individual and 50 square feet. I urge you to make a motion to

971
02:19:00,499 --> 02:19:07,539
remove no more than three unrelated or city occupancy as city consultant and commission recommends.

972
02:19:07,539 --> 02:19:17,539
thank you for your consideration. >> we'll go back through anybody we call who wasn't here at the

973
02:19:18,250 --> 02:19:24,156
moment. We'll go back before we close public comment and come back to the commissioners.

974
02:19:24,156 --> 02:19:33,156
I understand, yes. >> patrick davis followed by john kobler. >> mayor: you also can get a

975
02:19:34,700 --> 02:19:43,775
parking pass from the oif you go through the glass doors on this side, you can get a pass for parking out front.

976
02:19:43,775 --> 02:19:53,775
>> I'm frederick davis, jr. I hear you have a proposal to increase our property values. I've lived in gainesville 37

977
02:19:54,286 --> 02:20:00,492
years. I've seen a lot of changes. When I first came here it was called the tree city.

978
02:20:00,492 --> 02:20:06,732
gru had the second lowest utilities rates in the entire state of florida. While needless to say some

979
02:20:06,732 --> 02:20:16,732
things have changed and not for the better, we're not called the tree city. Maybe needenharbor used to be

980
02:20:21,480 --> 02:20:29,855
canopyist and she did a terrific job. As you can see now, everything is getting clear-cut.

981
02:20:29,855 --> 02:20:39,855
the beauty, distinctiveness of this college town has disappeared too great an extent. I hate going down krispy kreme

982
02:20:43,201 --> 02:20:52,100
and looking across the street and seeing those big, ugly apartment buildings, they look like government, like no one has

983
02:20:52,100 --> 02:20:57,649
any imagination or any sense of aesthetics. I would be willing to bet most people that live in the city for

984
02:20:57,649 --> 02:21:07,392
any period of time are not in favor of what's been happening to gainesville. Anyway, I know we're a

985
02:21:07,392 --> 02:21:13,732
university city and we try to be avant-garde and all this sort of thing. Well, we tried that with the

986
02:21:13,732 --> 02:21:21,373
biomass plant. Remember when that was going to be so cool and progressive? Remember how that's turned out.

987
02:21:21,373 --> 02:21:26,778
we're all paying for that with the second highest utilities rates in the state. You go from second lowest to

988
02:21:26,778 --> 02:21:34,578
second highest. That's not progress in my opinion. All these eclectic spots that

989
02:21:36,488 --> 02:21:42,600
make gainesville cool. I don't know if any of you are hip enough or whatever but there was this place called the jam on

990
02:21:42,600 --> 02:21:51,503
west university avenue. If you could find a place to park, you go through this really narrow bar.

991
02:21:51,503 --> 02:22:00,245
it was about this wide. You get into the backyard of this establishment, and there are all these giant oak trees

992
02:22:00,245 --> 02:22:05,717
everywhere, the stage they erected. Musicians would go back there and jam.

993
02:22:05,717 --> 02:22:11,223
it was the coolest place. They had a fire pit and everything. It's been completely leveled.

994
02:22:11,223 --> 02:22:17,763
all the trees have been cut down. Another one of those multidimensional, multistory,

995
02:22:17,763 --> 02:22:26,163
unimaginative apartment buildings. So people pretty much lived in the neighborhoods they want to

996
02:22:28,573 --> 02:22:37,682
live in. If they don't, they inch their way toward that goal and hopefully achieve it most of the

997
02:22:37,682 --> 02:22:41,953
time. Where I live, we're not rich enough to attract attention across town.

998
02:22:41,953 --> 02:22:51,496
we're not poor enough to attract attention of neighbors. We're beautiful. We have an owner rental that

999
02:22:51,496 --> 02:23:01,960
works out just fine. >> mayor: thank you. >> goldman followed by john kobler followed by -- torkelson.

1000
02:23:33,238 --> 02:23:43,238
>> could I get -- >> mayor: you'll need to put it next to it over here. >> all right.

1001
02:23:47,352 --> 02:23:54,659
so I want to just add to the many, many interesting, important things people have said.

1002
02:23:54,659 --> 02:24:00,499
I'm writing a longer piece about this but I want to touch on a couple of things. This is really not a progressive

1003
02:24:00,499 --> 02:24:07,699
proposal. If you consider yourselves progressive politically, generally you don't believe in

1004
02:24:08,974 --> 02:24:17,150
rampant deregulation, and you don't believe in letting the free market, the capitalist free market take over and achieve

1005
02:24:17,150 --> 02:24:27,150
whatever goals you think might happen. Aside from that, correct me if I'm wrong, it seems to me there

1006
02:24:27,859 --> 02:24:34,320
are three main broad objectives of the set of proposals. One of them is to create more affordable housing.

1007
02:24:34,320 --> 02:24:43,308
another one in terms of social justice is to proof racial and economic equity in housing. The thirst one is to talk about

1008
02:24:43,308 --> 02:24:52,117
environmental impacts, a number of which have been mentioned and previously a number of proponents here have talked

1009
02:24:52,117 --> 02:25:00,525
about reducing their carbon foot present by creating more density by using lower energy use transportation.

1010
02:25:00,525 --> 02:25:10,525
as quite a number of our other neighbors have pointed out, really where the like lip outcomes are going to not only

1011
02:25:12,437 --> 02:25:22,347
fail to achieve these objectives but in most cases make things worse than at present. There's likely to be more, not

1012
02:25:22,347 --> 02:25:30,589
lessed affordable housing. Everything building now with increased construction materials and labor is going to be more

1013
02:25:30,589 --> 02:25:35,160
than everything that exists at the moment. So we're likely to get higher rents.

1014
02:25:35,160 --> 02:25:45,160
at best we might get a slightly reduced rate of increase of rents. In terms of racial equity, as

1015
02:25:45,437 --> 02:25:51,643
our neighbors have said, there's likely to be gentrification and displacement because you've created the incentives for that

1016
02:25:51,643 --> 02:26:01,643
in many lower income and below market rental rates. But there's also likely higher carbon emissions and increased

1017
02:26:02,420 --> 02:26:09,600
carbon footprint. Because not too many people have talked about that, I'm going to talk about that and also the

1018
02:26:09,600 --> 02:26:17,335
inclusionary zoning, so-called inclusionary zoning. So gainesville's inclusionary zoning is going to be based on

1019
02:26:17,335 --> 02:26:26,277
median how old income. These are sort of the official u.s. Census figures for 2020. Gainesville's median housing

1020
02:26:26,277 --> 02:26:34,677
income is 38,000. That means half of the households here apparently earn less than that.

1021
02:26:36,988 --> 02:26:46,988
yet what's peculiar is the median household income in ocala is 11% higher the median household than gainesville.

1022
02:26:49,534 --> 02:26:56,641
the median is -- >> mayor: thank you, I'm afraid your time has expired. We appreciate your sharing this

1023
02:26:56,641 --> 02:27:03,841
with us. >> let me just say -- >> mayor: okay, perfect, thank you.

1024
02:27:05,183 --> 02:27:12,983
>> john kugler, followed by terry torkelson, followed by -- [ inaudible ] >> mayor: mr. Kugler.

1025
02:27:29,407 --> 02:27:36,581
we'll go through all the names one last time before we close comment in case swap was out. >> thank you.

1026
02:27:36,581 --> 02:27:43,121
so many people are in fear over the destruction of their lifestyle and neighborhood style.

1027
02:27:43,121 --> 02:27:51,763
but if what you're talking about is infill development, these are the few sparse openings that exist in the areas.

1028
02:27:51,763 --> 02:28:01,763
if you can manage to install some controls against people going in and demolishing good existing housing, single family

1029
02:28:02,173 --> 02:28:08,947
housing in those areas in order to take profits for premium multifamily, then it's not going to change the neighborhood to

1030
02:28:08,947 --> 02:28:18,947
have a few sparse, scattered blocks developed in this way. It's fear of much of nothing, I think.

1031
02:28:19,724 --> 02:28:28,299
what we have now, something like 80 plus percent of black african-americans, and this is nationwide, live in communities

1032
02:28:28,299 --> 02:28:38,299
that are less than 5% white. Almost 70% of white americans live in americans that are less than 5% nonwhite.

1033
02:28:40,678 --> 02:28:48,987
this pattern was created historically through jim crow subprime lending and other dirty means.

1034
02:28:48,987 --> 02:28:56,728
but now that those things are supposed to be illegal, segregation -- racial segregation is illegal, subpar

1035
02:28:56,728 --> 02:29:06,328
lending illegal but still around, why has the pattern persisted? It has persisted because of the

1036
02:29:06,504 --> 02:29:15,547
economic segregation of housing. Our history has also linked income levels and race. That has not been solved.

1037
02:29:15,547 --> 02:29:24,389
do we want to continue to have two americas, separate and unequal, two gainesvilles separate and unequal?

1038
02:29:24,389 --> 02:29:33,698
we have to develop -- your major impact is going to be on new developments, new subdivisions need to be mixed income housing.

1039
02:29:33,698 --> 02:29:43,698
undo the pattern of economic segregation of housing that has supported, that has taken on the dimensions of historic racial

1040
02:29:46,277 --> 02:29:52,784
segregation. It's going to be a better city if you manage to break that pattern.

1041
02:29:52,784 --> 02:30:01,492
disperse the demand for mass transportation. You're going to even out the levels of tax income base --

1042
02:30:01,492 --> 02:30:07,732
property tax base supporting schools. You're going to have a model of policing that has to be the same

1043
02:30:07,732 --> 02:30:16,608
everywhere because the city looks the same everywhere. We need to -- we'll get rid of food deserts and economic

1044
02:30:16,608 --> 02:30:25,800
deserts. The hartwood complex somebody mentioned, that's a good thing if infill in prosperous

1045
02:30:25,316 --> 02:30:31,656
neighborhoods includes affordable housing. Those are reciprocal and both must have it.

1046
02:30:31,656 --> 02:30:38,363
high-income housing in poorer neighborhoods and affordable housing in more prosperous neighborhoods.

1047
02:30:38,363 --> 02:30:45,563
>> mayor: thank you. Appreciate it. >> jane, victoria hall followed by -- machado.

1048
02:31:02,787 --> 02:31:09,227
>> hi, everyone, thank you. My name is victoria machado. I've lived in gainesville for about 15 years.

1049
02:31:09,227 --> 02:31:17,627
I purchased my home in 2017. I really appreciate making room for afterwardable, equitable housing.

1050
02:31:20,705 --> 02:31:27,278
it's really needed here in our community. But I do have several questions. It's mainly about

1051
02:31:27,278 --> 02:31:35,453
implementation. I'm asking what will ensure this housing does, in fact, reach the people who need it.

1052
02:31:35,453 --> 02:31:40,959
I asked this because soon after I purchased my house, the house next door to mine went up for sale.

1053
02:31:40,959 --> 02:31:49,367
I was really excited about getting a new neighbor, a new family or just a if you person. But the person who purchased the

1054
02:31:49,367 --> 02:31:58,977
house never moved in. Instead they turned it into a fulltime airbnb. Every weekend I get new

1055
02:31:58,977 --> 02:32:06,484
neighbors. It's been positive and negative, mostly negative for me. The shared driveway has been a

1056
02:32:06,484 --> 02:32:10,154
problem. It's exacerbated by the fact the owner does not live in the neighborhood.

1057
02:32:10,154 --> 02:32:19,897
the city can't do anything about my grievances because airbnbs are regulated on a state level. So this leads to my question,

1058
02:32:19,897 --> 02:32:29,440
what will prevent an investor from buying up one of these multifamily homes and turning it into a fulltime airbnb.

1059
02:32:29,440 --> 02:32:37,480
who will make sure this is actually implemented in a responsible, sustainable way that promotes community.

1060
02:32:37,480 --> 02:32:45,890
I'm 32 years old. I'm not saying I'm the youngest person in this room but I do represent a new generation of

1061
02:32:45,890 --> 02:32:54,532
people who want to support equity and justice and who are open to the possibilities of growth in a sustainable way.

1062
02:32:54,532 --> 02:33:03,141
I'm open to moving away from single family homes, right? Toward building a dynamic and diverse community.

1063
02:33:03,141 --> 02:33:10,515
what I don't want is for this to support a facade. Like others in the crowd, I question whether this will

1064
02:33:10,515 --> 02:33:20,324
support low income folks or will just be a nice side hustle for the rich folks who already live there.

1065
02:33:20,324 --> 02:33:29,534
thank you. >> lynn seals, and I have a tim w. I don't have his full last name

1066
02:33:29,534 --> 02:33:36,734
there. And followed by curt johnson. >> thank you for having your ear.

1067
02:33:38,609 --> 02:33:45,116
I'm lynn sorrels. My husband and I have raised our children here. They have gone to school here,

1068
02:33:45,116 --> 02:33:54,725
uf. We've lived in the community and really enjoyed it. I decided to make a point from

1069
02:33:54,725 --> 02:34:02,700
the home owner's standpoint that when people come to gainesville, they come because they buy into take community.

1070
02:34:02,700 --> 02:34:09,807
they buy into a city. They buy into a neighborhood. I live in a really nice multicultural neighborhood right

1071
02:34:09,807 --> 02:34:19,807
here in the city limits. As most neighborhoods, I'm sure people enjoy the rhythm of the neighborhood.

1072
02:34:21,519 --> 02:34:31,950
I believe all people should have housing. I believe in affordable housing. But I don't think I believe

1073
02:34:31,950 --> 02:34:41,950
these coming into single-family neighborhoods is the answer. I guess I want to say I worry about the impact it could have

1074
02:34:48,479 --> 02:34:58,479
on single-family units, like traffic increase, decrease in property values, noise. I just would ask you to keep in

1075
02:35:02,894 --> 02:35:12,894
mind that when you're making your plans, the city planners, I believe that rather than using these quads or increased units

1076
02:35:18,509 --> 02:35:28,509
that maybe the future neighborhoods, the new constructions might be used to have many of these multiunits

1077
02:35:33,257 --> 02:35:43,257
and just that we could do more with new construction. We could do more with the limits -- the occupational

1078
02:35:45,670 --> 02:35:55,670
limits for housing as well. Many good points were made in that. So thank you for your time.

1079
02:35:56,470 --> 02:36:02,647
>> tim w. Followed by curt johnson followed by monique moss. >> greetings.

1080
02:36:02,854 --> 02:36:08,459
I live in the porters neighborhood. We just were visited last thursday at our neighborhood

1081
02:36:08,459 --> 02:36:18,459
meeting by the team here that started the presentation. They told us we didn't have any single-family zoning when I knew

1082
02:36:24,342 --> 02:36:34,180
my household is single-family zoning in the neighborhood. People say we assume that the students are going to be doing

1083
02:36:34,180 --> 02:36:42,627
these things. We don't have to assume. We have to assume. We have a mix of multifamily

1084
02:36:42,627 --> 02:36:48,132
housing and single-family housing in the neighborhood. The new developments that are happening, we're already seeing

1085
02:36:48,132 --> 02:36:53,504
the problems we're stating are assumptions. We see the keggers that happen all the time.

1086
02:36:53,504 --> 02:37:02,947
we see the people parking in our front yards because the developers didn't provide for enough parking for all the

1087
02:37:02,947 --> 02:37:11,947
people that are living in this house. It's interesting the proposal uses certain wordings, the

1088
02:37:13,624 --> 02:37:20,640
intentions of what's being proposed. They say things like exclusionary when they really

1089
02:37:20,640 --> 02:37:28,464
mean single family house protected. They say inclusionary when they really mean pro developer.

1090
02:37:28,873 --> 02:37:38,873
we're seeing the parking -- we're seeing the traffic even in the process of building these developments, the contracts are

1091
02:37:39,750 --> 02:37:49,260
ruining our roads, sidewalks. You can see the cracks. There's a claim this was made for affordable housing.

1092
02:37:49,260 --> 02:37:57,802
but during the presentation, there was no mention of I believe it's a 10% ratio. A 10% ratio on four units on a

1093
02:37:57,802 --> 02:38:05,843
quarter of your property is going to result in zero affordable housing units when eight might result in one.

1094
02:38:05,843 --> 02:38:15,843
that's all we could round up. Every time you state families, you don't mean families. You mean units.

1095
02:38:16,153 --> 02:38:26,153
when you increase it to four unrelated individuals, and I see many of the commissioners aren't paying attention to me, you

1096
02:38:26,897 --> 02:38:36,707
really mean four different students that can be rotated at any given time so that the developers can profit.

1097
02:38:36,707 --> 02:38:45,182
they are profiting on the houses and homes that we live in, and they are making us feel uncomfortable.

1098
02:38:45,182 --> 02:38:54,325
you say you need more density, well, that means we're going to be crowded. You say things are expensive

1099
02:38:54,325 --> 02:38:59,764
when you're actually telling us we're being greedy for having value in our homes that we live in.

1100
02:38:59,764 --> 02:39:09,206
you don't think of the crowding and value in having that space to live. >> mayor: appreciate it.

1101
02:39:09,206 --> 02:39:17,515
it's come up a couple of times. I just want to be clear that inclusionary zoning starting with an I, where you require

1102
02:39:17,515 --> 02:39:22,420
affordable housing and new development, that's not what we're discussing today, which is why it wasn't mentioned in the

1103
02:39:22,420 --> 02:39:28,125
presentation. We're going to take that up at a future meeting. Today it's about exclusionary

1104
02:39:28,125 --> 02:39:34,398
housing, zoning that excludes certain housing and development. That's why you haven't heard a discussion about that.

1105
02:39:34,398 --> 02:39:44,398
>> mr. Mayor, if I could clarify that, I think some people were speaking earlier saying they were unfair, exclusionary

1106
02:39:47,978 --> 02:39:55,778
housing. I want to be sure, exclusionary housing here takes away single-family housing.

1107
02:39:59,123 --> 02:40:07,131
>> mayor: we'll get -- those two are interchanged. I want to make clear when we are talking about exclusionary

1108
02:40:07,131 --> 02:40:13,731
schoening today, which would change in residential neighborhood. Inclusionary seasoning require

1109
02:40:16,440 --> 02:40:20,744
affordable housing. That's not what we're talking about today. We will at a future meeting.

1110
02:40:20,744 --> 02:40:27,944
thank you. >> curt johnson followed by monique moss followed by janie williams.

1111
02:40:31,956 --> 02:40:41,665
>> my name is curt johnson. I want to follow up on some points the previous person was mentioning, the wording that's

1112
02:40:41,665 --> 02:40:51,665
used and the pictures that are produced seem to be camouflaging the true intent, talking about -- juan was up here and

1113
02:40:58,816 --> 02:41:04,922
kept using the word home owners. We're going to do this for home owners. Home owners can split their lot.

1114
02:41:04,922 --> 02:41:10,600
most home owners, if they want to split the lot, it would be right down the middle of their house.

1115
02:41:10,600 --> 02:41:19,904
that is really for developers who will buy the cheapest houses they can find, which are mostly going to be in historic black

1116
02:41:19,904 --> 02:41:29,904
neighborhoods, for instance, because they can tear the house down. Then they can split the lot in

1117
02:41:31,348 --> 02:41:41,348
half and build two units. Presenting that as something for the home owners is deceptive. Quickly, I think there's been

1118
02:41:42,359 --> 02:41:52,359
some good cases made for raising it to four or five but there's a big swing between four and five. Someone said don't worry about

1119
02:41:55,839 --> 02:42:05,839
unlimited because we have to stay here to protect us. We have to rely on tallahassee to protect us from you folks.

1120
02:42:09,787 --> 02:42:19,787
this is a picture of a half acre lot. Using your setbacks we still have a buildable footprint of

1121
02:42:24,101 --> 02:42:32,501
17,550 square feet. Multiply that times three stories, which we're also allowing, divide that by 250

1122
02:42:34,110 --> 02:42:44,110
square feet per person, hundreds of people. I think if you allow something, the market forces which you're

1123
02:42:46,490 --> 02:42:52,496
relying on here, will find a way to use it. If you allow it, they will build it.

1124
02:42:52,496 --> 02:42:57,835
I think that is totally unnecessary. You don't need that many square feet to be buildable.

1125
02:42:57,835 --> 02:43:07,835
so I think the argument for setbacks is moot. I want to point out one thing in your plan says the neighborhood

1126
02:43:09,713 --> 02:43:19,313
should contain a diversity of housing, citizens and all ages. Yes, ideally, that would be true.

1127
02:43:19,657 --> 02:43:29,257
the inescapable reality is financial will preclude that from happening. I think you need to consider

1128
02:43:31,735 --> 02:43:38,335
tham. >> monique moss followed by janie williams followed by chris billy.

1129
02:43:41,912 --> 02:43:50,721
no monique moss? Janie williams. >> mayor: she spoke earlier. She was in the back and had the

1130
02:43:50,721 --> 02:43:57,321
bright print dress on. >> chris billy? Cody galligan. Are you chris?

1131
02:44:00,431 --> 02:44:05,202
okay. Followed by code galligan followed by -- [ inaudible ]

1132
02:44:05,202 --> 02:44:15,202
>> I wasn't planning on speaking but I do feel so moved. I came at this originally, I've been here since '94.

1133
02:44:17,314 --> 02:44:27,314
I own a house in porters I bought in 2004. I've been there every since. I used to be exactly like I

1134
02:44:28,250 --> 02:44:36,633
would say you guys in the sense of thinking we should upzone and create density. I always saw porters being like

1135
02:44:36,633 --> 02:44:46,276
a brooklyn, needing brownstones. That's what I hoped would happen, until I lived there. I started to kind of listen more

1136
02:44:46,276 --> 02:44:56,276
to my neighbors. Honestly, I even up until very recently I still thought, you know, we really need to densify,

1137
02:44:56,954 --> 02:45:02,292
densify, densify. I still believe that in some way. I started to hang out more to

1138
02:45:02,292 --> 02:45:12,292
use the verbiage of nimby opponents and I've been kind of convinced they are right. I don't think they are the bad

1139
02:45:13,704 --> 02:45:22,312
guys that I used to think they were. I think there's some anti-growth people, and I don't agree with

1140
02:45:22,312 --> 02:45:26,350
them. For the most part, I think we can grow gainesville from gainesville.

1141
02:45:26,350 --> 02:45:32,222
I don't think this is the right way to do it, but I think we have to do it. I think if we listen to

1142
02:45:32,222 --> 02:45:42,222
everybody here, we can grow from what we have. There is a real danger in allowing -- to run rampant.

1143
02:45:46,236 --> 02:45:55,746
they will obvious trample on what exists, what beauty we have here. So I think it's not going to be

1144
02:45:55,746 --> 02:46:02,653
easy. I think these things can be achieved through the community. For instance, I can't stand the

1145
02:46:02,653 --> 02:46:05,355
setbacks. I want to build on the side of my house. I can't.

1146
02:46:05,355 --> 02:46:12,362
why shouldn't I go to my neighbor and say, hey, can I build closer? If the neighbor says no, then,

1147
02:46:12,362 --> 02:46:22,362
you know, these are like -- these are things -- why aren't we doing this in I live in gainesville because we have

1148
02:46:22,840 --> 02:46:30,747
appear community. I love all you people up this. I've met most of you. All all awesome, including the

1149
02:46:30,747 --> 02:46:38,388
people back here now. I have no problem with all of you. Why don't we try to work this

1150
02:46:38,388 --> 02:46:46,630
out instead of blanket one size fits all thing, which scares people and I understand why. Money doesn't talk, it swears.

1151
02:46:46,630 --> 02:46:53,904
it's a bob dylan quote. It's the absolute truth. I want us to be talking, and I want us to build from the beauty

1152
02:46:53,904 --> 02:47:01,678
that is gainesville and the people here. That is our asset. It will get squashed if we don't

1153
02:47:01,678 --> 02:47:10,821
do it right. The state of florida is very pro land rights, so we have to be really careful with what we do.

1154
02:47:10,821 --> 02:47:20,821
>> mayor: thank you. >> cody galligan, lee and gina zetman and ronnie lauer. Nobody is here on that list?

1155
02:47:27,271 --> 02:47:36,271
ann hazily. -- brill followed bid esha brill followed by elizabeth hurst. >> I'm ann hazily.

1156
02:47:45,122 --> 02:47:52,229
I just really wrote and wasn't going to plan to speak but I have to say a few things, as usual.

1157
02:47:52,229 --> 02:48:02,229
the idea of turning our neighborhoods into little squash buckets of people with no room is just a way to lower the

1158
02:48:10,847 --> 02:48:20,847
values of our homes so that -- this has been said to me directly, personally by a commissioner several years ago,

1159
02:48:23,694 --> 02:48:33,694
and I spoke about it at that time at one of these meetings. At the time mayor poe instituted the plan of not allowing

1160
02:48:40,110 --> 02:48:47,170
clapping because I got a lot of collapse. He instituted the plan at that time instead of -- because

1161
02:48:47,170 --> 02:48:56,617
people complained, put your hands up and twiddle your fingers and don't clap. I spoke again.

1162
02:48:58,428 --> 02:49:04,835
the second time people still wanted to clap. They reached under the table underneath them and clapped

1163
02:49:04,835 --> 02:49:14,644
their hands, so they wouldn't be taken out by the police as the mayor had warned them. So what I did was I talked about

1164
02:49:14,644 --> 02:49:23,153
the direct conversation that I had with one of the commissioners, the man that said, yes, that's good if the

1165
02:49:23,153 --> 02:49:32,863
values of your oem goes down, even if your families worked very hard to develop that family value and money.

1166
02:49:32,863 --> 02:49:40,537
the reason is because then my wife and I can afford one of your homes when the prices go down.

1167
02:49:40,537 --> 02:49:50,537
that's been the plan for all these years, and that's still the plan. >> esha brill followed by

1168
02:49:52,382 --> 02:50:01,382
elizabeth hurst. Miss jean chalmers. >> miss hurst, go ahead. When your name is called, go

1169
02:50:03,600 --> 02:50:10,667
ahead and come up. >> good evening. I'm not going to speak about the issue because I'll just second

1170
02:50:10,667 --> 02:50:18,750
kim tanzer. We're so lucky to have a nationally renowned expert in the community.

1171
02:50:18,750 --> 02:50:23,814
so I just second professor tanzer's remarks. I want to make a couple of comments.

1172
02:50:23,814 --> 02:50:28,618
I'm a realtor. I've been doing this for 33 years. I used to have a long list of

1173
02:50:28,618 --> 02:50:38,618
people who wanted to move in from those places out west and return to a real city. There's no one on that list

1174
02:50:39,529 --> 02:50:45,502
anymore. People don't want to come because of an uglification of the town.

1175
02:50:45,502 --> 02:50:52,976
I want to complain about these awful, awful buildings that are going up. I know you feel you can't

1176
02:50:52,976 --> 02:51:01,318
control fdot, because they own the sidewalk and the street in front of them but you can. I promise you you can.

1177
02:51:01,318 --> 02:51:11,318
when I was a commissioner, we went up against fdot and we won. How could a city like vancouver where a 26-story building, for

1178
02:51:13,630 --> 02:51:21,438
every two stories you put on, you have to have a tree, or you have to dedicate a park. You have to do something to make

1179
02:51:21,438 --> 02:51:27,978
it beautiful. You go up one level, and you have to have it landscaped. The second level you have to

1180
02:51:27,978 --> 02:51:35,352
have chairs and umbrellas. Then you enter a lobby. It's a beautiful city. We are doing so many ugly things

1181
02:51:35,352 --> 02:51:44,952
in this city. I'm sure niederhauser isn't sleeping well. I would like you to be strong

1182
02:51:46,930 --> 02:51:51,301
and try to get some beauty back in this town. Thank you so much. You have a tough job, and we

1183
02:51:51,301 --> 02:51:57,901
appreciate you. >> miss hurst followed by christine coopman. >> good afternoon, mayor,

1184
02:52:07,751 --> 02:52:15,926
commissioners, my name is betsy elizabeth hurst. I was born years ago in alachua hospital.

1185
02:52:15,926 --> 02:52:24,340
I grew up in gainesville. I call gainesville my home. I've been lucky to live in beautiful places in this country

1186
02:52:24,340 --> 02:52:31,141
and other countries, pre-covid, I admit. I had a hard time deciding to come today because I joined the

1187
02:52:31,141 --> 02:52:38,148
hopeless. I didn't think I would. I've been extremely active with the county city commission

1188
02:52:38,148 --> 02:52:46,756
school board since 1989 dedicating quite a bit of my life and my time usa I cared and I wanted to make this community

1189
02:52:46,756 --> 02:52:53,663
better. I loved growing up with the creek system, tree canopy, the parks, and I frankly agree with

1190
02:52:53,663 --> 02:53:03,663
what jean chalmers just said. I have been appalled. Even my open son, who is 30 years younger, has reached that

1191
02:53:06,142 --> 02:53:12,449
point. I have been disgusted with the highrises, the lack of planning, the lack of walkability, the

1192
02:53:12,449 --> 02:53:20,357
lack of tree canopy p gainesville used to be inviting. It was a community people wanted to move to.

1193
02:53:20,357 --> 02:53:29,599
we had a culture, funky buildings. We had the swamp. We had the st. Francis house,

1194
02:53:29,599 --> 02:53:34,871
almost 100-year-old building. I can't even find a place to park. I have a bad back.

1195
02:53:34,871 --> 02:53:43,913
I have a a terrible time driving around gainesville right now. I take all my routes to figure out which way is the least

1196
02:53:43,913 --> 02:53:50,820
painful. This community would be a better place. Imin special ed, I've worked as

1197
02:53:50,820 --> 02:53:56,793
a psychologist. What you are building is not affordable. I've spoken to some of you in

1198
02:53:56,793 --> 02:54:05,793
the past. It's not. We have torn down affordable housing, we could still have a

1199
02:54:06,169 --> 02:54:12,309
community before it's gone. Gainesville was a great place to grow up. I hope it can continue to be a

1200
02:54:12,309 --> 02:54:19,150
better town. I hope all of you will think very hard. I know I hear you talk about

1201
02:54:19,150 --> 02:54:26,523
affordable housing, and there are lots of ways to do it. There's lots of other choices and still keep this a nice

1202
02:54:26,523 --> 02:54:34,323
community. Thank you very much. >> our last speaker thus far is christine coopman.

1203
02:54:35,999 --> 02:54:39,769
>> e-mail the last. I'm not going to speak about the housing. I'm not going to speak about the

1204
02:54:39,769 --> 02:54:49,279
neighborhoods. Everybody here is so smart, so educated, so well prepared. I would like to talk about how

1205
02:54:49,279 --> 02:54:58,279
offended I am by your sanctimonious announcement that single-family housing is racist. How dare you.

1206
02:54:58,688 --> 02:55:08,365
how dare you presume that all of us who enjoy our neighborhoods, enjoy our homes, that we are inherently racist.

1207
02:55:08,365 --> 02:55:18,365
I'm offended. I'm offended that commissioner saco was so frightened to be in the room of so many people that

1208
02:55:19,142 --> 02:55:22,946
she fled to her office and couldn't even sit here in front of us -- because she's afraid of the number of people that may

1209
02:55:22,946 --> 02:55:30,286
have opposition to her. I'm offended that you, mayor poe, that you call me racist. >> mayor: I have never called

1210
02:55:30,286 --> 02:55:35,792
you racist, ma'am. >> you said single-family housing is racist. >> mayor: no.

1211
02:55:35,792 --> 02:55:39,396
>> it was written and printed in the paper. It was printed in the "gainesville sun."

1212
02:55:39,396 --> 02:55:45,502
>> mayor: no, ma'am. >> I just want you to know that we are homeowners. We worked hard for this.

1213
02:55:45,502 --> 02:55:52,976
we love this city. But to have you preach to us about what you think we should be doing, I think the very first

1214
02:55:52,976 --> 02:56:00,417
speaker said it very clearly. We need some balance and we're not sure that you're really listening, that we know that you

1215
02:56:00,417 --> 02:56:10,417
are embracing the new american city model. We know that the study that we paid for, a lot of money with

1216
02:56:12,395 --> 02:56:15,899
the people from new york compared us to minneapolis and portland. We're not minneapolis.

1217
02:56:15,899 --> 02:56:22,472
we're not portland. We're gainesville, florida. We are a unique city. And I think we are honorable.

1218
02:56:22,472 --> 02:56:32,810
and I do know that we are not inherently racist just because we own our own homes. Thank you.

1219
02:56:32,810 --> 02:56:37,987
>> do you want me to go back through? >> mayor: sure. >> reesha brell, one last call.

1220
02:56:37,987 --> 02:56:46,987
cody galigan. Lee and gina zetland, ronnie lauer, jamie s. Williams, monique moss, amelia hall.

1221
02:56:57,607 --> 02:57:04,207
okay. Just kidding. Jane morrowski, terry torkelson, john kuegler, larry rimer,

1222
02:57:11,121 --> 02:57:21,121
melanie barr, jackie davis, sherry hughes, nicolle courtis, scott parker, and jenny boymer. >> I have a question.

1223
02:57:27,770 --> 02:57:33,877
>> mayor: okay, thank you. >> I have a question. Are you going to read the things of the people who --

1224
02:57:33,877 --> 02:57:40,116
>> mayor: the clerk will put everything into the record, yeah. We'll get copies of all that.

1225
02:57:40,116 --> 02:57:44,621
thank you all for taking the time this afternoon to come down here, share your thoughts with us.

1226
02:57:44,621 --> 02:57:52,595
of course, if you chose not to speak today but you still want to share some ideas or perspectives with us, you can do

1227
02:57:52,595 --> 02:58:00,136
that via the e-comment or emailing us or phoning or whatever your preferred method of communication is.

1228
02:58:00,136 --> 02:58:09,746
still plenty of time to do that, but we do appreciate you taking the time this afternoon. So we are going to now turn to

1229
02:58:09,746 --> 02:58:16,286
members of the city commission to ask any follow-up questions or share their thoughts. Again, this is a workshop today

1230
02:58:16,286 --> 02:58:24,827
so there will be no motions made or voted on. But we can give direction to our staff for any follow-up that we

1231
02:58:24,827 --> 02:58:30,990
might like to see based on that conversation. So we'll start with commissioner hayes-santos.

1232
02:58:30,990 --> 02:58:36,339
>> thank you, mayor. And I'm sorry. >> mayor: commissioner hayes-santos, madam clerk.

1233
02:58:36,339 --> 02:58:40,510
[inaudible] >> mayor: very good, thank you. Go ahead, commissioner. >> thank you, mayor.

1234
02:58:40,510 --> 02:58:48,484
and I printed out my thoughts. The clerk has them. Okay. My kind of thoughts are on the

1235
02:58:48,484 --> 02:58:52,989
table there. I want to thank you all for speaking and sharing your thoughts.

1236
02:58:52,989 --> 02:59:01,564
I certainly do appreciate it. I have lived here since 1990 -- is when my mom moved here to go to the zoo technology program at

1237
02:59:01,564 --> 02:59:08,104
santa fe college. Pretty much been here ever since. I have lived north, south, west,

1238
02:59:08,104 --> 02:59:14,377
east in all different portions of our city. I have lived in malone, simpleton apartments, I have

1239
02:59:14,377 --> 02:59:21,500
lived in single-family homes, I have lived in duplexes, triplexes, quadruplexes. Single-family homes with

1240
02:59:21,500 --> 02:59:28,725
roommates and have not had roommates. I have lived in homes that are 120 years old and I have lived

1241
02:59:28,725 --> 02:59:37,367
in newer homes. I love our city and it's a city with a diverse housing. But the status quo is not

1242
02:59:37,367 --> 02:59:44,474
working. We have to look at how we can make adjustments to that. We have a housing supply issue.

1243
02:59:44,474 --> 02:59:53,683
there is not enough housing available in our city to meet the increases in our population. Last year, our area population

1244
02:59:53,683 --> 03:00:02,158
increased by 6,000 people which means that we would have had to build 2,400 new homes just to meet the demand of new people

1245
03:00:02,158 --> 03:00:10,558
moving here. We are in essence running out of developable land inside the city.

1246
03:00:10,900 --> 03:00:16,472
that's why you're seeing all these great spaces in the city kind of going away because there's not much left.

1247
03:00:16,472 --> 03:00:21,311
I think someone mentioned there was one lot left in their neighborhood. Many neighborhoods there's not

1248
03:00:21,311 --> 03:00:25,982
many empty lots available and that's why you're seeing an incredible amount of sprawl happening to the west because

1249
03:00:25,982 --> 03:00:34,982
that's where available land is. I hate sprawl. I think it's the worst thing possible.

1250
03:00:35,910 --> 03:00:41,130
and people mention orlando and atlanta and other cities like that. Those are cities that just --

1251
03:00:41,130 --> 03:00:49,338
those are kind of horrible sprawling cities. I don't want gainesville to be a horrible sprawling city like the

1252
03:00:49,338 --> 03:00:54,711
rest of florida. They have just built single-family homes in urban development.

1253
03:00:54,711 --> 03:01:01,918
and I am more supportive of protecting our environmental land and keeping that natural where you can have bears and

1254
03:01:01,918 --> 03:01:09,258
foxes and other things going around. And then develop inside the city where we are having people in

1255
03:01:09,258 --> 03:01:15,732
keeping the animals and people separate. That's why I believe we should look for infill in the city and

1256
03:01:15,732 --> 03:01:22,939
this will help make our city more affordable. I believe the proposals are balanced and an incremental

1257
03:01:22,939 --> 03:01:26,676
approach. We call ourselves a welcoming city, something we take a lot of pride in.

1258
03:01:26,676 --> 03:01:34,984
but we need to take action with that and we need to have housing available for new people moving here.

1259
03:01:34,984 --> 03:01:42,759
we're also seeing climate refugees. We're seeing heat waves across the world and we're already

1260
03:01:42,759 --> 03:01:49,565
seeing refugees coming from the florida coastal areas moving to the inland. We are going to see a

1261
03:01:49,565 --> 03:01:55,471
significant amount of people moving from between orlando and probably lake city in the core of our state and moving from the

1262
03:01:55,471 --> 03:02:02,411
coast as sea levels rise over the next 40 years. That is a reality. And we have to be ready for

1263
03:02:02,411 --> 03:02:09,752
that. It can't just put our head in the sand and pretend that climate change isn't happening,

1264
03:02:09,752 --> 03:02:16,292
because it is. And we are going to be the place where those refugees are going to come.

1265
03:02:16,292 --> 03:02:25,601
I first want to be clear that this will not affect many historic neighborhoods, the density and the neighborhood

1266
03:02:25,601 --> 03:02:32,275
multi-family. It will not affect pleasant street, porters quarters, 5th avenue and the majority of the

1267
03:02:32,275 --> 03:02:39,282
duval neighborhood. I also say the changes before us are in line with the biden administration's proposals.

1268
03:02:39,282 --> 03:02:47,156
this is what he is saying we need to do as a city to help make our cities more affordable. He's asking all municipalities

1269
03:02:47,156 --> 03:02:53,963
around the country and counties to put in proposals like this to help deal with our national housing supply issue.

1270
03:02:53,963 --> 03:03:02,672
these proposals are supported by progressives like a.o.c., senator booker, senator warren, among many other progressive

1271
03:03:02,672 --> 03:03:12,672
policy makers in our country. There's also proposals to give cities in biden's proposal, give cities who enact these types of

1272
03:03:14,250 --> 03:03:19,880
proposals more money for affordable housing. Cities who actually make these changes will give more federal

1273
03:03:19,880 --> 03:03:23,993
dollars. Cities who don't won't. So we can make our city more affordable and we'll get those

1274
03:03:23,993 --> 03:03:29,365
federal housing dollars that have been spoken of if we make changes. We have to make those changes to

1275
03:03:29,365 --> 03:03:39,365
be able to get those dollars. I also want to make a clarification, kind of that none of these proposals will stop

1276
03:03:41,644 --> 03:03:47,116
someone from building a single-family home. If you want one, you still can. If you have a single-family, no

1277
03:03:47,116 --> 03:03:55,992
one is stopping you from living in that single-family home. You can keep your property how you want it.

1278
03:03:55,992 --> 03:04:03,792
let's see. Another person said in neighborhoods that have multi-family, you can't know

1279
03:04:07,169 --> 03:04:15,177
your neighborhoods. I grew up many years living in multi-family, I played in the streets and I knew my neighbors.

1280
03:04:15,177 --> 03:04:20,883
it's not about the type of housing. It's being a welcoming person and I think you can even find

1281
03:04:20,883 --> 03:04:26,355
meeting neighbors no matter in a single-family home or multi-family home. As a commission, we have to do

1282
03:04:26,355 --> 03:04:34,530
what is best for our city. Even if there are hard choices. The status quo is not working and inaction is not an option.

1283
03:04:34,530 --> 03:04:43,873
getting to the proposals that are in front of us, the land use portion I believe that we should move to the residential land

1284
03:04:43,873 --> 03:04:49,345
use. And the reason why moving to that land use of the two questions of the neighborhood

1285
03:04:49,345 --> 03:04:55,584
residential land use or residential low that staff is asking us to make a decision on is because that's the same land

1286
03:04:55,584 --> 03:05:03,826
use that is in residential conservation zoning. And the residential conservation zoning is what is mainly used in

1287
03:05:03,826 --> 03:05:09,826
our historically black neighborhoods. Fifth avenue, pleasant street and duval.

1288
03:05:11,167 --> 03:05:21,167
and I think that we should not have -- in the past, we have created separate land uses for historically white areas and I

1289
03:05:21,477 --> 03:05:29,552
don't think that's appropriate. I think we should have the same. When it comes to the zoning density, neighborhood

1290
03:05:29,552 --> 03:05:37,326
residential zoning should have the same density as residential conservation zoning r.c. Which I mentioned before is in pleasant

1291
03:05:37,326 --> 03:05:44,767
street, duval and fifth avenue. Historically black areas of town shouldn't have to have higher density than historically white

1292
03:05:44,767 --> 03:05:50,906
neighborhoods. Currently, pleasant street, fifth avenue, duval and porters quarters neighborhoods have a

1293
03:05:50,906 --> 03:05:54,844
higher departments than historically white neighborhoods in town. That's not fair and that's why

1294
03:05:54,844 --> 03:06:02,651
you're seeing more development in those neighborhoods. And that pressure. We need to change that incentive

1295
03:06:02,651 --> 03:06:07,923
around making it a level playing field with our historic neighborhoods. I believe we need to set the

1296
03:06:07,923 --> 03:06:13,729
neighborhood residential zoning set at a max of 12 units per acre which would be the exact same as a residential

1297
03:06:13,729 --> 03:06:21,170
conservation zoning that we see in pleasant street, fifth avenue and in a portion of the duval neighborhood.

1298
03:06:21,170 --> 03:06:28,770
I also think that we should have the neighborhood residential zoning, the minimum lot size the same for all uses.

1299
03:06:28,770 --> 03:06:35,518
I believe we should go with option 2 on the bedroom multiplier section that we remove the bedroom multiplier.

1300
03:06:35,518 --> 03:06:41,957
I also believe that we should allow cottage, bungalow and tiny home neighborhoods. This is allowed in the county

1301
03:06:41,957 --> 03:06:48,330
and in the kind of pictures on the back it shows you what kind of tiny home neighborhood or cottage neighborhood may look

1302
03:06:48,330 --> 03:06:54,670
like and allows more diverse housing options. For the neighborhood scale multi-family development

1303
03:06:54,670 --> 03:07:02,812
section, I think we should have the building height for those small scale multi-family at the same height restriction as the

1304
03:07:02,812 --> 03:07:07,650
neighborhood around it. That would keep it the same scale. I do hear there are other

1305
03:07:07,650 --> 03:07:16,292
commissioners who want to keep it at two floors and I'm open to that for sure. I also want to bring up the u-1

1306
03:07:16,292 --> 03:07:21,530
single-family zoning district that is not being discussed but it is a single-family zoning district.

1307
03:07:21,530 --> 03:07:27,336
it is not zoned on any lot in the city, but it is in our zoning code and I believe we should make changes to it while

1308
03:07:27,336 --> 03:07:33,420
we're making changes to other ones. We should change that zoning to 12 units per acre for the same

1309
03:07:33,420 --> 03:07:38,314
reason I said before, residential conservation that's in our historically black neighborhoods should be the same

1310
03:07:38,314 --> 03:07:43,452
zoning in the other neighborhoods. I also think we should allow small scale neighborhood family

1311
03:07:43,452 --> 03:07:52,394
as allowed use in the u-1 neighborhoods. Getting to another transect zone, I see some pictures in

1312
03:07:52,394 --> 03:07:56,565
here. This is not in any single-family zoning area. I want to make that sure.

1313
03:07:56,565 --> 03:08:06,565
this is the u-4 and u-7 transect zones that I believe we should allow individual row houses and townhouses to create another

1314
03:08:08,244 --> 03:08:17,860
form of missing middle housing and u-4 and u-7 should have zero foot interior setbacks. Right now, townhomes are

1315
03:08:17,860 --> 03:08:23,759
inherently more affordable. In 2021, the average single-family home in gainesville msa sold for

1316
03:08:23,759 --> 03:08:29,759
$299,600. While the average townhome sold for $147,500 during the same period.

1317
03:08:31,200 --> 03:08:39,642
our code currently allows large scale developers to build row houses and townhomes in these zoning districts but doesn't

1318
03:08:39,642 --> 03:08:45,447
allow a homeowner, one person, to build one row house. This doesn't make sense. Also many of the historic

1319
03:08:45,447 --> 03:08:52,588
structures in these zoned areas have zero foot setbacks already. I believe that we should move forward with the changes that I

1320
03:08:52,588 --> 03:08:59,361
have proposed and that staff has brought forward and that we should schedule an ordinance hearing in july.

1321
03:08:59,361 --> 03:09:05,100
the mayor should schedule one for a special meeting at that point. Thank you, mayor.

1322
03:09:05,100 --> 03:09:10,239
>> mayor: thank you. Commissioner ward. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. And thank you to those of you

1323
03:09:10,239 --> 03:09:20,239
that have been willing to sit through this and are still here. I don't know about y'all, but I'm exhausted.

1324
03:09:21,517 --> 03:09:28,190
there's a lot to talk about here. I will start off as I started an email that I use to respond to

1325
03:09:28,190 --> 03:09:37,499
everyone who contacted me in the last week or two. If all you need to know is whether I support removing

1326
03:09:37,499 --> 03:09:43,839
single-family or not, the answer is no, I don't. There's a lot of nuance there. There's a lot of reasoning

1327
03:09:43,839 --> 03:09:49,778
behind that that I'll go into some of now. If not, it's up on facebook and some of you have it in email

1328
03:09:49,778 --> 03:09:59,188
format right now. We need to start all these discussions, I believe, with a question of what problem is it

1329
03:09:59,188 --> 03:10:06,762
we're trying to solve. Some of us have an assumption that the problem we're trying to solve is current affordable

1330
03:10:06,762 --> 03:10:15,971
housing as well as affordable housing five, 10, 20 years down the road -- a generation or two ahead.

1331
03:10:15,971 --> 03:10:25,714
it is absolutely true that building patterns that were created in the 1970s and 1980s in our city and which

1332
03:10:25,714 --> 03:10:35,714
were widely celebrated created sprawl and created lots of very uncomfortable things that we are now I won't say stuck with, but

1333
03:10:37,860 --> 03:10:45,100
are what we deal with right now. Some of those are good. Some of those are not so good. I have been told we shouldn't be

1334
03:10:45,100 --> 03:10:51,674
planning for who's going to live here in 20 years. Well, we have to. That's part of the job.

1335
03:10:51,674 --> 03:11:01,674
when you don't do that, you're leaving the job undone. We also have to govern for people who are here right now.

1336
03:11:02,151 --> 03:11:12,151
we have -- our planning staff has done a tremendous job of putting together a lot of detail and had some exceptionally good

1337
03:11:13,562 --> 03:11:22,538
ideas. What we haven't done is made the case throughout the community of exactly why we are doing this.

1338
03:11:22,538 --> 03:11:31,747
we said here are the things, we're going to do these things and a case is made against doing those things primarily out of

1339
03:11:31,747 --> 03:11:40,489
discomfort for what's going to happen with those things and why we should do them. I used to be in sales and I

1340
03:11:40,489 --> 03:11:47,496
spent a lot of time in fund-raising. And what we have here is a classic example of selling

1341
03:11:47,496 --> 03:11:54,503
features and not benefits. We need to make sure people understand the benefits of something before we say we're

1342
03:11:54,503 --> 03:12:00,542
going to do it. We didn't do that. And that's nobody's fault because it isn't really

1343
03:12:00,542 --> 03:12:09,170
anybody's job to do that. Our planning department has done -- our sustainable development has done a remarkable job of

1344
03:12:09,170 --> 03:12:17,326
laying out what's possible and what arguably ought to be done, but I believe that a rip the band-aid off approach is the

1345
03:12:17,326 --> 03:12:24,666
wrong way to approach this. And that's why I don't support it. I would have liked to see us

1346
03:12:24,666 --> 03:12:31,774
spend four hours this afternoon and lots of other meetings talking about very specific tools in our toolkit that can

1347
03:12:31,774 --> 03:12:40,774
address affordable housing more quickly. The most ardent supporters of what we're talking about this

1348
03:12:41,283 --> 03:12:50,592
afternoon would generally agree it's not going to add a lot of housing quickly. It's a slow growth approach.

1349
03:12:50,592 --> 03:12:59,668
it's something that I believe would probably add good affordable housing opportunities in a generation or two, over the

1350
03:12:59,668 --> 03:13:09,668
course of a generation or two. But we can't prove that. We also can't prove that it will be a disaster.

1351
03:13:10,112 --> 03:13:16,919
I don't think it will be. But there's this big chunk of folks in the middle who kind of like me think, well, there's a

1352
03:13:16,919 --> 03:13:26,919
lot we could work on that does reach the goals that we're trying to reach now. And we talked a fair bit about

1353
03:13:27,863 --> 03:13:32,234
some of those things in other meetings. We just haven't talked about it today.

1354
03:13:32,234 --> 03:13:37,606
so we should always be starting with what problem are we trying to solve instead of assuming that everyone agrees that we're

1355
03:13:37,606 --> 03:13:43,645
trying to solve the same problem because that clearly is not the case. A lot of folks know and believe

1356
03:13:43,645 --> 03:13:50,853
that we're trying to solve a problem and then a whole lot of other folks are thinking but what does that do to my property

1357
03:13:50,853 --> 03:13:54,156
value. I hear that. I understand. And that's why I don't support

1358
03:13:54,156 --> 03:14:03,756
that. I'll move on to another thing. With occupancy limits, that question again, what problem are

1359
03:14:07,669 --> 03:14:13,342
we trying to solve by having occupancy limits? I think the problem we're trying to solve -- and I grew up here,

1360
03:14:13,342 --> 03:14:23,318
so I was around, I think, when we implemented some of those limits. I was a kid, but I remember

1361
03:14:23,318 --> 03:14:32,294
hearing about them on tv and reading about it in the paper. I think we're trying to solve noise and garbage issues.

1362
03:14:32,294 --> 03:14:36,899
I think. But I don't really know what we're trying to solve with those because they have been on the

1363
03:14:36,899 --> 03:14:42,704
books for a long time. Just because something has been on the books doesn't mean it should stay on the books.

1364
03:14:42,704 --> 03:14:47,743
I would like a more robust conversation about that, but it has to start with what are we trying to solve.

1365
03:14:47,743 --> 03:14:57,743
and I think that what we're trying to solve is noise and disruption. Maybe there's a different way to

1366
03:14:58,787 --> 03:15:08,787
solve that because it is absolutely true that occupancy limits are not enforced because they are impossible to enforce.

1367
03:15:08,797 --> 03:15:13,402
we're not going to go do bed checks. We don't do it already. We're not going to start doing

1368
03:15:13,402 --> 03:15:21,376
it, nor should we. So we can contend this is a thing that works or we can be honest with ourselves and

1369
03:15:21,376 --> 03:15:29,818
consider some other things. I think probably we could achieve a solution to the problem that we're trying to

1370
03:15:29,818 --> 03:15:39,818
solve of noise and garbage by better funding code enforcement and by giving party patrols at gpd a little bit more funding

1371
03:15:40,963 --> 03:15:47,102
and direction. But I don't know. These are things we need to think about and talk about.

1372
03:15:47,102 --> 03:15:57,102
I understood in lot splits, I have had local folks, small-time developers -- developer is not a bad word by the way.

1373
03:15:59,470 --> 03:16:05,754
we all, most of us, live in a home that was built by a developer of some sort. I do.

1374
03:16:05,754 --> 03:16:15,754
I think most of us do. Mr. Filly is a developer. There are local good folks trying to do good things with

1375
03:16:16,265 --> 03:16:24,473
small pieces of land and we need to do something to empower those folks. I'd like to see us be able to do

1376
03:16:24,473 --> 03:16:29,311
that. One of the ways is considering how we deal with lot splits. I have heard from folks that

1377
03:16:29,311 --> 03:16:34,349
that is a problem. One of the things I was hoping for is we would have some folks here today to talk about that

1378
03:16:34,349 --> 03:16:39,721
who have personally experienced it. I'm not a builder. It would be great to hear from

1379
03:16:39,721 --> 03:16:49,464
those folks. I was hoping that we would have some of them here or at least, you know, have them write in to

1380
03:16:49,464 --> 03:16:55,370
be specific about their concerns instead of just having staff bring solutions. It's always good to have folks

1381
03:16:55,370 --> 03:17:02,311
from the community who have experienced the problem come in and talk about their experience as well as folks who just oppose

1382
03:17:02,311 --> 03:17:12,311
it because. There's a lot to think about. We still have true city u.s.a. Designation.

1383
03:17:12,688 --> 03:17:22,688
our tree canopy is robust. The first or second highest percentage of trees in florida, it moves around.

1384
03:17:24,833 --> 03:17:33,508
but if you look at pictures from the 1970s of big chunks of gainesville like, say, downtown, there are no trees.

1385
03:17:33,508 --> 03:17:38,213
we have added a whole lot of trees. There are places trees have been taken down and I miss it every

1386
03:17:38,213 --> 03:17:46,321
time they get taken down. But we have also added a lot of trees in other places. So let's not spread that untruth

1387
03:17:46,321 --> 03:17:56,321
because we do have that designation still. I want to also hit another item. The biomass plant, deerhaven

1388
03:17:56,498 --> 03:18:02,471
renewables is our least expensive source of energy right now and has been for a good little while.

1389
03:18:02,471 --> 03:18:09,144
we have been paying about 3.5 cents a kilowatt for energy production in that. That's an important thing that

1390
03:18:09,144 --> 03:18:18,744
folks need to know. We talked earlier about a very confusing titles of all this stuff.

1391
03:18:18,754 --> 03:18:25,560
exclusionary zoning, that sounds like something nobody wants to do but you don't know what it really means.

1392
03:18:25,560 --> 03:18:34,870
you have to remind yourself what it actually is over and over. Inclusionary zoning is an entirely different thing.

1393
03:18:34,870 --> 03:18:41,977
we shouldn't use them in the same presentation, but they are different things. I'm glad we're going to have a

1394
03:18:41,977 --> 03:18:50,377
different discussion about inclusionary zoning. We haven't established exactly what we're trying to accomplish

1395
03:18:52,821 --> 03:18:56,658
and gotten buy-in from the community. Thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: thank you.

1396
03:18:56,658 --> 03:19:03,799
commissioner arreola. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. What we are trying to accomplish is to create more mixed income

1397
03:19:03,799 --> 03:19:10,472
added throughout gainesville. That is the benefit of passing these ordinances. I also want to be very clear

1398
03:19:10,472 --> 03:19:19,247
because I think there is a lot of confusion going on. We are talking about small scale multi-family housing.

1399
03:19:19,247 --> 03:19:29,900
we are not talking about large high-rises in neighborhoods. And as I have spent the better part of the last two and a half

1400
03:19:29,900 --> 03:19:35,997
months talking door to door with people about what this all means, I think there are a lot of people who are interested in

1401
03:19:35,997 --> 03:19:43,672
having this conversation. And I think what they want to know is how can I be certain about what is going to change in

1402
03:19:43,672 --> 03:19:53,672
my neighborhood. There are plenty of limitations being put into these ordinances. The most important thing that I

1403
03:19:54,516 --> 03:20:00,288
want to get across today, I support the recommendations and I support the additions from my colleague, but there is one

1404
03:20:00,288 --> 03:20:07,996
thing that every time I express it, it gets almost unanimous support from neighbors. And that is a two-story limit

1405
03:20:07,996 --> 03:20:14,135
for the neighborhood scale multi-family. I think that this is an appropriate measure to take.

1406
03:20:14,135 --> 03:20:19,708
I think that it sets a great example. And I think that it reflects what you see mostly in

1407
03:20:19,708 --> 03:20:24,546
gainesville. And most people aren't building three stories anyway. Single-family housing is not

1408
03:20:24,546 --> 03:20:31,653
being eliminated. In fact, with these recommendations, you can now build single-family housing on

1409
03:20:31,653 --> 03:20:39,961
smaller lots that you previously could not. What we are going to do, I hope, is we are going to end the

1410
03:20:39,961 --> 03:20:48,203
wealthy monopoly of one type of zoning across this city. And I have heard people say, well, why don't we try this in

1411
03:20:48,203 --> 03:20:55,760
this neighborhood or why don't we try this in that neighborhood. That would only lead to complete

1412
03:20:55,760 --> 03:21:02,830
inequality. The only equitable thing to do is to not give special treatment and to not give carve-outs.

1413
03:21:02,830 --> 03:21:12,830
this has to be equitable across the city. I am very glad to see support on the commission for removing the

1414
03:21:13,280 --> 03:21:23,280
unrelated persons limitation. I have always found that to be discriminative. And I believe that this is going

1415
03:21:23,872 --> 03:21:32,747
to change the status quo for housing in gainesville. Like everyone up here, I grew up here.

1416
03:21:32,747 --> 03:21:40,288
I have -- actually when I was a kid, my parents left, brought me back and then I left for college and then came back.

1417
03:21:40,288 --> 03:21:47,629
and we are choosing to live here just like everybody else. The census has shown us a lot more people are choosing to live

1418
03:21:47,629 --> 03:21:53,201
here, too for various different reasons. Some of it I have heard from individuals.

1419
03:21:53,201 --> 03:21:58,907
some of it has to do with climate change. Some of it has to do with the fact they like living here.

1420
03:21:58,907 --> 03:22:05,800
gainesville has more to offer now than it ever has before. But we have a problem. We have a problem with housing

1421
03:22:05,800 --> 03:22:10,251
supply. And that takes time. It cannot be fixed with a magic wand.

1422
03:22:10,251 --> 03:22:20,251
it does take time to fix. The ending of exclusionary zoning is not a silver bullet. It is one piece of the puzzle

1423
03:22:22,597 --> 03:22:28,536
that we have to tackle to make housing affordable and available for all. And that is the most important

1424
03:22:28,536 --> 03:22:38,536
thing -- that there are more housing options available to more income levels all throughout our city.

1425
03:22:39,914 --> 03:22:48,657
if there was one comment that came up about short-term vacation rentals. This commission, actually we

1426
03:22:48,657 --> 03:22:55,997
were writing an ordinance and passed an ordinance to regulate short-term vacation rentals. The very next week tallahassee

1427
03:22:55,997 --> 03:23:04,390
passed a law that said no city can have any regulation over any short-term vacation rentals. I believe airbnb helped write

1428
03:23:04,390 --> 03:23:09,844
that law. [laughter] so what I would say to folks -- because I get calls all the time

1429
03:23:09,844 --> 03:23:13,882
about complaints. If you are in my district, I'm willing to reach out to those companies because they always

1430
03:23:13,882 --> 03:23:19,687
say we want complete customer satisfaction in all the neighborhoods and I put them to the test on that.

1431
03:23:19,687 --> 03:23:25,727
so I really appreciate everyone coming to express their thoughts. Whether we agree or disagree,

1432
03:23:25,727 --> 03:23:30,532
that's the nature of a democratic society. It means a lot to me that we have the opportunity to have

1433
03:23:30,532 --> 03:23:36,104
these discussions in the public because in many countries we don't. Thank you.

1434
03:23:36,104 --> 03:23:44,212
>> mayor: thank you. Commissioner saco. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. I think I want to start off with

1435
03:23:44,212 --> 03:23:51,453
I think one of our neighbors misunderstood why I had to leave my office. I am visiting -- rather, I am

1436
03:23:51,453 --> 03:23:59,994
having family visit me who are in their 80s and 90s and I'd rather not put a dozen very elderly folks in danger by being

1437
03:23:59,994 --> 03:24:06,701
in a room with unmasked people of uncertain vaccination status. I'm trying to take care of my family and that's why I'm in my

1438
03:24:06,701 --> 03:24:14,375
office trying to still do my job. As for the actual topic, I will agree briefly that I do support

1439
03:24:14,375 --> 03:24:23,551
removing the three unrelated person cap. Just a few short years ago in law school, you don't make a lot

1440
03:24:23,551 --> 03:24:30,458
of money and you have a lot of expenses. And you can't find a lot of places affordable with people

1441
03:24:30,458 --> 03:24:36,164
your own age that want a quiet place to be. A lot of folks tried to rent out homes, but it would get capped

1442
03:24:36,164 --> 03:24:46,164
at three and it made it really difficult and more expensive for young people to really start I don't want to say adulting, but

1443
03:24:47,775 --> 03:24:54,749
moving forward. I think lifting that cap lets folks have roommates of their choice in homes of their choice.

1444
03:24:54,749 --> 03:25:03,124
that way they have a little bit more control over their personal finances and where they can go. They aren't just limited to one

1445
03:25:03,124 --> 03:25:11,332
of those bedrooms in a by the bed apartment building. That gives a lot of freedom of choice back to our neighbors.

1446
03:25:11,332 --> 03:25:21,332
as for the bigger topic at hand, I will support it. And that is all I will say on that because I think plenty has

1447
03:25:22,844 --> 03:25:30,440
been said tonight. Thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: thank you. Commissioner chestnut.

1448
03:25:31,520 --> 03:25:41,520
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. I have a few questions and then I have some comments. I think mr. Castillo started out

1449
03:25:41,462 --> 03:25:51,620
with 63% of city single-family -- city zoned for single-family housing, correct? What is the occupancy rate

1450
03:25:52,507 --> 03:25:59,707
there? Of that 63%, how much of it is already occupied? Single-family occupied.

1451
03:26:15,663 --> 03:26:22,537
>> mayor: for those watching at home, there's a discussion going on between mr. Persons and mr. Castillo to try to get the

1452
03:26:22,537 --> 03:26:31,312
number right. >> is my question clear? >> I believe so. It sounds like you are wanting

1453
03:26:31,312 --> 03:26:41,312
-- so the two questions, what percent single -- >> so in gainesville, would you say that 40% of our housing is

1454
03:26:50,798 --> 03:26:58,598
single-family occupied and 60% student occupied? >> I'm sorry. >> would you say that is pretty

1455
03:27:02,543 --> 03:27:12,143
close to it? >> mr. Mayor, we are roughly about -- like roughly about 60% renter, 40% owner occupied.

1456
03:27:13,521 --> 03:27:21,262
>> that's what I wanted. 60% and 40% or 39%. So, mr. Persons, if you could stay at the podium for just a

1457
03:27:21,262 --> 03:27:27,302
moment. Thank you. I think that when you give a report, that is a very important

1458
03:27:27,302 --> 03:27:33,875
distinction to make in any report you give. When you talk about single-family housing, thank

1459
03:27:33,875 --> 03:27:43,151
you. Dr. Jenny mauer mentioned something disturbing and I'd like to get some clarity on it

1460
03:27:43,151 --> 03:27:52,360
because it has racist overtones. She said that there's a single-family deed covenants and I think she said you commented

1461
03:27:52,360 --> 03:28:01,960
on it at some point. >> perhaps they are referring to deed restrictions in the public record.

1462
03:28:03,471 --> 03:28:08,609
can I answer any questions about that? >> well, I wish she was still here.

1463
03:28:08,609 --> 03:28:14,315
oh, there she is. Okay, there she is. Mr. Mayor, would you allow her to come back to the podium?

1464
03:28:14,315 --> 03:28:19,554
because I'd like to get some clarity on this very issue. >> mayor: yeah, that will be fine.

1465
03:28:19,554 --> 03:28:25,554
>> yeah. >> well, I'm not advocating. >> I know, I know. >> okay.

1466
03:28:33,601 --> 03:28:42,900
what is the question? >> well, the question is, these deed covenants for single-family housing, you're saying that

1467
03:28:42,900 --> 03:28:46,948
these still exist in gainesville? >> oh, heavens yes. Yes.

1468
03:28:46,948 --> 03:28:56,948
in fact, I'm pretty sure that the plat that my house is on -- that would be a significant neighborhood -- probably -- I

1469
03:28:57,892 --> 03:29:04,832
know there's still language. The question is, are they enforceable or not? We know the racial and

1470
03:29:04,832 --> 03:29:10,710
nationality ones are not. But the restrictions to single-family housing, you have to deal with that one way or

1471
03:29:10,710 --> 03:29:17,512
another. Either you exclude that or you don't exclude it. And you've got one set of

1472
03:29:17,512 --> 03:29:23,885
problems if you do and a different set of problems if you don't. And if you don't already know

1473
03:29:23,885 --> 03:29:33,885
exactly what you think of that, then this needs a great deal more analysis and research. >> all right, okay.

1474
03:29:38,990 --> 03:29:45,773
>> mr. Mayor, could I -- >> mayor: yeah. >> could I add to that? So there are deed restrictions

1475
03:29:45,773 --> 03:29:53,548
in the city of gainesville in a lot of neighborhoods. Some are expired. Some are still, you know, in

1476
03:29:53,548 --> 03:30:02,690
effect. Those are private arrangements. They do not change the city's ability to zone property, to

1477
03:30:02,690 --> 03:30:09,363
issue building permits. They are essentially civil contracts between other people who own property in the plat.

1478
03:30:09,363 --> 03:30:17,572
so any sort of enforcement of those restrictions, you know, with a large majority of those would come from one private

1479
03:30:17,572 --> 03:30:22,276
property owner in that plat against another. But the city wouldn't be party to it.

1480
03:30:22,276 --> 03:30:27,515
it's not something that -- we are sort of separate on those issues. >> all right.

1481
03:30:27,515 --> 03:30:33,521
thank you, thank you. Okay. >> mayor: well, okay, if you want to go on --

1482
03:30:33,521 --> 03:30:41,996
>> yeah, I do want to continue. >> mayor: I will defer to the commissioner here. >> we will discuss it later.

1483
03:30:41,996 --> 03:30:49,203
thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, gentlemen. Growing up in tallahassee, my mother always said to me learn

1484
03:30:49,203 --> 03:30:56,210
the rules of the game. And when you learn the rules of the game, then you can walk in on your own merit.

1485
03:30:56,210 --> 03:31:04,852
no special exceptions. And so one of the rules was to get an education. A second one was to buy a home

1486
03:31:04,852 --> 03:31:13,852
because that's the american dream. As an african-american, you will use your home to build

1487
03:31:14,610 --> 03:31:20,168
generational wealth. That's why single-family homes are so important. That's why you heard the people

1488
03:31:20,168 --> 03:31:30,168
from azalea neighborhood talk and speak about that so because that's -- they received the same amount of information.

1489
03:31:31,245 --> 03:31:35,950
that's what they worked for -- to own that home and build that wealth so they can pass it on to their children.

1490
03:31:35,950 --> 03:31:40,755
and that is how we will get ahead. But when I ran for the city commission, it was on

1491
03:31:40,755 --> 03:31:47,355
neighborhood preservation. And neighborhood preservation to me means maintaining single-family neighborhoods

1492
03:31:48,429 --> 03:31:53,901
because that is where people have their property. That's where they have their worth.

1493
03:31:53,901 --> 03:32:01,175
so I think that today we have only just begun to hear from people. And I appreciate the four hours

1494
03:32:01,175 --> 03:32:06,547
we have spent because this has been very enlightening. And I think this is only the second meeting we have really

1495
03:32:06,547 --> 03:32:15,189
had to discuss exclusionary zoning. I think what we have discovered today is that people want more

1496
03:32:15,189 --> 03:32:20,227
information. So I'm not ready to support the recommendation from staff. I'm not ready to support the

1497
03:32:20,227 --> 03:32:28,102
recommendations from my colleague because I don't think we have enough information. I just want to comment on a few

1498
03:32:28,102 --> 03:32:35,776
things that people said. Jane berman holton brought up a very important point. She said the comprehensive plan,

1499
03:32:35,776 --> 03:32:43,884
we don't need to rush into this at this point. That there's no need for the rush -- for us to move with all

1500
03:32:43,884 --> 03:32:50,891
deliberate speed to change gainesville, change what we are doing because the comprehensive plan, as she said, is not due

1501
03:32:50,891 --> 03:32:59,891
really until '24, '26. Peggy carr talked about the environmental degradation that will occur here.

1502
03:33:05,506 --> 03:33:11,712
we haven't taken the time to look at the environmental impact of this massive zoning change. The infrastructure has not been

1503
03:33:11,712 --> 03:33:20,112
evaluated. Then we have not -- I think dr. Tanzer raised an important point.

1504
03:33:22,230 --> 03:33:27,928
and I think it's one that we should look at in terms of looking at affordable housing. When she said that the city

1505
03:33:27,928 --> 03:33:36,370
should look at the property that it already owns and perhaps that's where we could do a pilot to begin to address affordable

1506
03:33:36,370 --> 03:33:43,711
housing. The power district, that we have the property. So I think what needs to happen

1507
03:33:43,711 --> 03:33:52,453
is we need to look at how we can take the property that we already own to a public-private partnership to experience in

1508
03:33:52,453 --> 03:34:01,696
terms of getting affordable housing out to the people. That is why it is so important to be able to earmark the arpa

1509
03:34:01,696 --> 03:34:07,935
dollars so that we would have dollars for which to do that with in terms of getting affordable housing.

1510
03:34:07,935 --> 03:34:17,935
I think that we need to have more workshops with our neighbors because I think people are just beginning to understand

1511
03:34:26,120 --> 03:34:32,126
what's going on. To have this room filled to capacity today and the downstairs filled with capacity,

1512
03:34:32,126 --> 03:34:40,000
people, our neighbors are quite concerned. They are in fear of what this commission is about to do to

1513
03:34:40,000 --> 03:34:47,141
their property. And one reason they are in fear of it is because of the bert harris law.

1514
03:34:47,141 --> 03:34:57,141
it is my understanding if this passes, it will take an act of congress to undo it. It is just so devastating.

1515
03:34:57,218 --> 03:35:05,993
and it's so devastating to this community, we need to take our time, move cautiously. There may be some who are

1516
03:35:05,993 --> 03:35:15,993
concerned with creating a legacy or making their mark on housing. But I think that this is not the way to proceed.

1517
03:35:16,637 --> 03:35:26,580
I think it is unfortunate -- it is quite unfortunate that single-family housing and the word racist are used in the same

1518
03:35:26,580 --> 03:35:32,580
context. Because single-family owners, housing owners are not inherently racist.

1519
03:35:36,123 --> 03:35:46,123
I am a single-family owner. I'm not a racist. And I think that we definitely need to uncouple those terms.

1520
03:35:49,360 --> 03:35:57,344
at this point, I think that we need to proceed with continuing listening, hearing from our neighbors, knowing that there is

1521
03:35:57,344 --> 03:36:06,353
no need to rush to amend the comprehensive plan at this point because this commission doesn't need to do that.

1522
03:36:06,353 --> 03:36:16,353
perhaps the next commission should look at it for '24, '26 but we should not put our community at risk because people

1523
03:36:16,430 --> 03:36:26,430
want to leave a legacy. A legacy that we make our neighbors and proceed in an affordable housing plan with the

1524
03:36:30,244 --> 03:36:39,844
dollars that the biden administration has passed on to us. Now, I don't think that if

1525
03:36:40,421 --> 03:36:50,421
president biden was to look at gainesville, I think they would be disappointed to hear that the racist term and the

1526
03:36:51,599 --> 03:36:57,710
single-family homeowner are in the same sentence, that's one. I think he would say to us you need to look at the community

1527
03:36:57,710 --> 03:37:04,445
and listen to your citizens. And if you've got people coming out to discuss this, you need to provide more opportunities for

1528
03:37:04,445 --> 03:37:14,445
them to discuss it. But that you do not need to move with all deliberate speed and destroying their neighborhood as

1529
03:37:15,756 --> 03:37:20,527
they know it and destroying the community as they know it. Thank you. >> mayor: thank you.

1530
03:37:20,527 --> 03:37:30,127
commissioner duncan-walker. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. I jotted down several notes throughout the course of our

1531
03:37:33,908 --> 03:37:40,470
neighbors speaking to us. And I just want to, first of all, start by saying thank you to all of you who took the

1532
03:37:40,470 --> 03:37:49,890
opportunity to come out today and express your concerns. They are legitimate concerns. Every single person that stood

1533
03:37:49,890 --> 03:37:55,896
up and spoke today expressed a legitimate concern. And there were some things that just kind of resonated with me

1534
03:37:55,896 --> 03:38:03,700
in terms of some of the words that I heard used today. I heard the word "heritage" used.

1535
03:38:03,700 --> 03:38:12,913
I heard "equality" used. I heard "jobs" used. I heard businesses and east gainesville and food deserts and

1536
03:38:12,913 --> 03:38:22,913
affordable housing and so many other words that we should indeed be focusing on. When I ran, I ran on the

1537
03:38:24,959 --> 03:38:32,933
platform of equitable development. And when our city manager was pulling together the framework

1538
03:38:32,933 --> 03:38:42,810
for affordable housing, I asked that definition be included. And I ask that it be included for a very specific reason.

1539
03:38:42,810 --> 03:38:52,810
and it is because equitable development allows for each community to be considered and brought to the table and

1540
03:38:55,823 --> 03:39:03,664
developed equitably. We say the equity is important to us. And this very commission

1541
03:39:03,664 --> 03:39:11,438
committed, I believe, a couple of years ago to a racial equity toolkit. And I believe several hundreds

1542
03:39:11,438 --> 03:39:20,948
of thousands of dollars were spent on that, and that was great. Inside of that was a toolkit for

1543
03:39:20,948 --> 03:39:27,955
equitable development. And I made mention of it before. I know we have not necessarily been using -- we're not dealing

1544
03:39:27,955 --> 03:39:33,327
with gare any more. We have not utilized the tools therein. But they still belong to us.

1545
03:39:33,327 --> 03:39:43,327
and those are things that I do not believe we should abandon. The environmental protection agency has resources that I

1546
03:39:46,473 --> 03:39:55,649
think we could benefit from. And frankly shake some policy around because I am a little uncomfortable with piecemealing

1547
03:39:55,649 --> 03:40:05,649
decisions like this. I think it's important for us as a body to not just say that equity is important to us, but

1548
03:40:05,759 --> 03:40:11,365
to show that it's important to us. And I think you do that through the creation of policy.

1549
03:40:11,365 --> 03:40:20,965
but the environmental protection agency has a particular tool for creating equitable healthy and sustainable communities.

1550
03:40:23,944 --> 03:40:32,520
strategies for advancing smart growth, environmental justice, and equitable development. And I think that's part of what

1551
03:40:32,520 --> 03:40:40,928
I've been hearing in here today -- the marriage of all of those components. They could potentially move us

1552
03:40:40,928 --> 03:40:49,336
toward the affordable housing that we know that we need, that would move us toward being able to maintain single-family

1553
03:40:49,336 --> 03:40:53,841
zoning. And all of the other things that our community members in here have addressed.

1554
03:40:53,841 --> 03:41:03,841
my problem right now is that we don't have a plan. We don't have a plan. And I appreciate staff for

1555
03:41:06,954 --> 03:41:15,295
bringing this forward, but right now I am uncomfortable with this. The level of analysis that I

1556
03:41:15,295 --> 03:41:25,295
believe needs to be put into this, I don't yet see. I would love to see us not just continue these conversations,

1557
03:41:28,342 --> 03:41:38,342
but I would love to see us do that in a very meaningful and intentional way in terms of allowing our neighbors input to

1558
03:41:39,586 --> 03:41:49,186
be implemented. I sound a little dangerous, but I think that's what we are looking at.

1559
03:41:53,300 --> 03:42:02,976
I don't know whether it's an equity analysis. I'm not sure whether it's an equitable development framework.

1560
03:42:02,976 --> 03:42:09,820
I feel the city manager getting tight. [laughter] and that's okay.

1561
03:42:09,820 --> 03:42:19,820
that's okay. At the end of the day, what I'm suggesting is that these types of decisions that have long-term

1562
03:42:21,328 --> 03:42:31,328
impact, immediate impact but also long-term impact -- I want to be sure that we think very, very long and hard about and

1563
03:42:35,142 --> 03:42:45,142
that we hear meaningfully from our neighbors. This strategy that I mentioned from the epa, in that they

1564
03:42:47,421 --> 03:42:53,327
practice meaningful community engagement. There were sessions where the community had a chance not just

1565
03:42:53,327 --> 03:43:00,334
to come in and say what they don't want, but there were visioning processes where they got to say this is the

1566
03:43:00,334 --> 03:43:06,940
gainesville that we want to see. And I think right now that's the piece that we're missing. And I don't believe we need to

1567
03:43:06,940 --> 03:43:13,800
miss that. And perhaps that's a part of your plan. I see you.

1568
03:43:13,800 --> 03:43:20,854
[laughter] and that would be wonderful if it is. >> mr. Mayor, if I might

1569
03:43:20,854 --> 03:43:25,225
respond. >> mayor: let's wait until the commissioner is done and then I'll certainly recognize you.

1570
03:43:25,225 --> 03:43:32,566
>> sure, sure. >> thank you. Madam manager, I hope that is what you are going to say.

1571
03:43:32,566 --> 03:43:42,750
but at any rate, equitable development is something that I want this commission to reach back to.

1572
03:43:42,750 --> 03:43:47,447
we have a toolkit. We have a framework or at least some tools that have already been provided for us and

1573
03:43:47,447 --> 03:43:52,586
something that we paid for. And I think we don't need to ignore it. I think as we move forward, that

1574
03:43:52,586 --> 03:44:02,586
should be one of the principles that propels us forward in all of the decisions that we make that are development oriented.

1575
03:44:07,634 --> 03:44:17,634
I'll sum up my comments by saying I just I believe we need some sort of overarching policy or guide that helps us to make

1576
03:44:25,485 --> 03:44:34,795
these decisions. And it should be equity. That equity should be racial. That equity should be social.

1577
03:44:34,795 --> 03:44:40,701
that equity can be applied in a number of different ways. But if equity is not meaningfully applied in these

1578
03:44:40,701 --> 03:44:50,701
decisions, we're going to end up with a gainesville that a lot of us will not benefit from, that a lot of us will not like, and

1579
03:44:57,551 --> 03:45:06,460
that a lot of us won't want to live in or be able to live in. And that's certainly not what I want to see.

1580
03:45:06,460 --> 03:45:11,631
thank you. >> mayor: thank you. Madam manager, did you want to jump in there?

1581
03:45:11,631 --> 03:45:21,631
>> yes, mr. Mayor. I think the overarching piece, commissioner duncan-walker, that you may be looking for is, in

1582
03:45:24,211 --> 03:45:33,754
fact, the comp plan that the city has been working on prior to my even coming to the city. Mr. Persons can step forward.

1583
03:45:33,754 --> 03:45:42,162
but I believe that it is a comp plan that covers all of the elements of a sustainable community, if you will.

1584
03:45:42,162 --> 03:45:51,705
and it is based on equity. I know it is still moving. It had a very serious community engagement process around it

1585
03:45:51,705 --> 03:46:00,705
with visioning. I mean I saw the schedule of community engagement meetings that took place.

1586
03:46:01,140 --> 03:46:07,530
I was here for the presentation before the commission. I know that process still needs to go through some other steps.

1587
03:46:07,530 --> 03:46:15,695
but I believe that plan, if you will, has been presented to the commission. It covers almost every element

1588
03:46:15,695 --> 03:46:23,804
of what makes a community an equitable healthy sustainable community. And it had the involvement of

1589
03:46:23,804 --> 03:46:29,750
the office of equity and inclusion. >> mayor: correct. >> and it is based on equity.

1590
03:46:29,750 --> 03:46:34,781
so you may want to just expand on that since it was a process that took place prior to my coming.

1591
03:46:34,781 --> 03:46:44,781
and I do know that is what the commission is already aware of. >> you did an excellent job for the record.

1592
03:46:44,958 --> 03:46:52,399
but, right, the comprehensive plan specifically as it relates to equitable development and then, you know, it is the sort

1593
03:46:52,399 --> 03:46:59,940
of overarching plan for the city. Its intent is really to help guide decision making.

1594
03:46:59,940 --> 03:47:09,182
and as we have sort of talked about a little bit, the comprehensive plan that the city has been working on the past

1595
03:47:09,182 --> 03:47:19,182
year or so is baking equity in to the core foundation of it. Equity issues and concerns are in every chapter.

1596
03:47:22,996 --> 03:47:31,838
it is the direction of the commission for us and staff to produce a plan, a comprehensive plan that's very different than

1597
03:47:31,838 --> 03:47:41,838
what we have today, that has -- that takes into account social and environmental justice concerns that we simply don't

1598
03:47:42,482 --> 03:47:48,588
have in our existing plan and haven't as a community for a very long time. So I think that is the sort of

1599
03:47:48,588 --> 03:47:58,588
guiding framework because it both has a decision-making component to help the commission make decisions as well as staff.

1600
03:47:59,566 --> 03:48:08,241
but it also sets priorities for how we spend public dollars for funding. It's a legal document in the

1601
03:48:08,241 --> 03:48:17,417
state of florida, so it has a lot of benefits for that being the sort of overarching plan. >> thank you very much for that.

1602
03:48:17,417 --> 03:48:24,257
and I'm actually glad to hear that because I remember speaking with you about that, mr. Persons, when it was not a part

1603
03:48:24,257 --> 03:48:28,595
of that. So I'm glad to know it has been implemented. >> yes.

1604
03:48:28,595 --> 03:48:36,690
>> and I know it was prior to the interim manager's arrival. I remember also asking that we have a very clear and concise

1605
03:48:36,690 --> 03:48:41,508
definition for equitable development. I see that has been included. I will still say I believe there

1606
03:48:41,508 --> 03:48:49,308
is room for us to dig a little deeper. >> always. >> always, you're right.

1607
03:48:54,554 --> 03:49:04,554
I think if equitable development were at the core of us doing business, then this presentation today would have been a little

1608
03:49:07,734 --> 03:49:17,734
different. So that's one of the reasons that I mentioned that. I need us to move from just

1609
03:49:19,212 --> 03:49:28,212
talking about it. So with that being said, I'm looking forward to more meaningful engagement.

1610
03:49:37,630 --> 03:49:47,630
I'm looking forward to hearing more community members. Your degree doesn't necessarily mean that's the only thing that

1611
03:49:49,442 --> 03:49:58,418
qualifies you. But living in a community and knowing what it is that you and your family need, as you look

1612
03:49:58,418 --> 03:50:08,180
into it. So I'm grateful to hear that it's there. I want to see it applied.

1613
03:50:14,768 --> 03:50:19,472
and I'll go ahead and stop there. Thank you. >> mayor: thank you.

1614
03:50:19,472 --> 03:50:29,472
thank you, madam manager. Before I go back around to everybody for a second opportunity to speak, I've been

1615
03:50:35,488 --> 03:50:45,880
around big difficult issues. This is one of them. I have learned there's an important issue.

1616
03:50:46,990 --> 03:50:52,806
everything is moving too slowly. And if you oppose the issue, you're rushing it. That's been consistent depending

1617
03:50:52,806 --> 03:50:58,345
on what side of the issue you're on and how you support it. We cannot say we're rushing this issue.

1618
03:50:58,345 --> 03:51:08,345
it has been something that we have been working and focused on for years now. And it is absolutely rooted in

1619
03:51:12,358 --> 03:51:22,358
equity and equitable development. That is why we are doing this. The status quo has led to abject

1620
03:51:25,405 --> 03:51:35,405
in our community. The status quo is not working. I agree with my colleagues and members of the public who have

1621
03:51:37,884 --> 03:51:44,991
pointed out this is not a panacea. It's not as if the commission passes this and within six

1622
03:51:44,991 --> 03:51:50,263
months we're going to see the affordable housing crisis disappear. That's not going to happen.

1623
03:51:50,263 --> 03:52:00,263
it's going to be very gradual and incremental change over a long period of time. Because most people that live in

1624
03:52:00,774 --> 03:52:10,450
single-family neighborhoods are going to stay there. And even if somebody decides to move out or, you know, moves

1625
03:52:10,450 --> 03:52:20,450
into assisted living, the cost of razing a house -- buying it and then destroying it and building something new make the

1626
03:52:20,727 --> 03:52:30,727
economics unlikely to work out. But it will over time allow more families to choose where they live in our city and what kind

1627
03:52:35,842 --> 03:52:45,842
of housing they want to live in. And, you know, I guess we've all given our anecdotes from our youth in this conversation and

1628
03:52:46,252 --> 03:52:50,824
that's good. That grounds us. I have lived in all these kinds of houses as well around the

1629
03:52:50,824 --> 03:52:58,598
city. I've been as poor as one can get while still being housed. I've been homeless.

1630
03:52:58,598 --> 03:53:06,206
I've been so poor I was not able to afford a home for many months. But I remember one particular

1631
03:53:06,206 --> 03:53:14,214
house -- and it just brought me a lot of joy. It still is in fifth avenue. It was originally a

1632
03:53:14,214 --> 03:53:20,453
single-family home. And then at some point it got converted to four apartments, four small apartments.

1633
03:53:20,453 --> 03:53:26,559
so my brother and his roommate lived in one of them. A married couple lived upstairs in one of them.

1634
03:53:26,559 --> 03:53:34,133
a single guy lived upstairs and another couple of guys lived downstairs. All in this one house.

1635
03:53:34,133 --> 03:53:39,706
and it was a great place to live. None of them owned a car. They were able to get to work

1636
03:53:39,706 --> 03:53:49,706
and to school. They loved their neighborhood. They were active participants. And that is illegal to build

1637
03:53:51,517 --> 03:54:01,600
right now. It offered an opportunity for all of those people to live in a place and in a situation that

1638
03:54:01,600 --> 03:54:09,636
brought them joy and kept them safe and connected to their community. And it's illegal to build right

1639
03:54:09,636 --> 03:54:19,636
now. So I don't want this commission or the next to see us taking action on this and in my opinion

1640
03:54:27,530 --> 03:54:37,530
hopefully passing it as the solution to all the problems. We've got to dedicate much more of our money toward public

1641
03:54:39,632 --> 03:54:43,903
housing. And I agree. One of the things I'm most disappointed in my tenure is the

1642
03:54:43,903 --> 03:54:50,810
lack of movement in the power district. That has created an opportunity and I am so so disappointed that

1643
03:54:50,810 --> 03:54:56,182
we have started and stopped so many times. But that opportunity remains. We've got to use our public

1644
03:54:56,182 --> 03:55:05,782
money for public-private partnerships to create that significantly affordable housing for the 80% and below ami folks.

1645
03:55:06,590 --> 03:55:13,299
we have got to continue to find ways to invest more and more money in our community land trust.

1646
03:55:13,299 --> 03:55:23,420
we have got to look at how we can preserve an existing housing stock. All of those are part of a

1647
03:55:23,420 --> 03:55:33,420
framework that the city manager put together and hired mr. Harris or our housing expert, our senior housing strategist to

1648
03:55:34,420 --> 03:55:44,420
implement. But when you take 63% of the residential area in our city and disqualify it from anything, but

1649
03:55:45,698 --> 03:55:54,774
the most exclusive type of development, you are never going to be able to get -- plus you can continue very exclusive

1650
03:55:54,774 --> 03:56:04,450
housing patterns. Literally within a stone's throw -- I mean if I have like an 8-ounce rock, I can hit the roof

1651
03:56:04,450 --> 03:56:09,489
of three houses from my driveway that are all vacant. That does nothing for my neighborhood.

1652
03:56:09,489 --> 03:56:13,893
that adds no value to my neighborhood. Certainly adds value to people that own them.

1653
03:56:13,893 --> 03:56:21,968
but they have been vacant for years. I so, so wish that those were two-family homes where families

1654
03:56:21,968 --> 03:56:31,968
of modest means and their children could live there, could go to, in my opinion, the best school in the city -- carolyn

1655
03:56:34,470 --> 03:56:43,856
beatrice parker, I'm biased. That they could live within biking or transit distance to the major job hubs in our city.

1656
03:56:43,856 --> 03:56:53,856
that's not legal right now. It's illegal for that to exist in our city. So we do benefit from more

1657
03:56:55,168 --> 03:57:05,168
diverse housing stock to create more diverse neighborhoods. This is one but an important step in that direction.

1658
03:57:06,145 --> 03:57:15,688
so I encourage us to continue having the neighborhood outreach meetings, madam manager. The folks that are interested in

1659
03:57:15,688 --> 03:57:25,298
this are very interested and will continue to participate. And I fully intend to work with the clerk to schedule two

1660
03:57:25,298 --> 03:57:35,298
meetings in july, two special meetings where this will be the only item up for discussion to continue to move this forward.

1661
03:57:41,314 --> 03:57:51,314
our city must take these modest but important steps if we are to allow for, as commissioner duncan-walker often reminds us

1662
03:57:56,395 --> 03:58:05,104
-- and I'm thankful for that -- that we've got to take the action through policy to make sure we're equitable and not

1663
03:58:05,104 --> 03:58:10,676
just talk about it. That to me is exactly the next step we need to take. We'll go back around.

1664
03:58:10,676 --> 03:58:19,552
and then, of course, again we're taking no action today. So we do have another item on our agenda, believe it or not,

1665
03:58:19,552 --> 03:58:26,459
that has to do with -- I think just a recap of the workshop. So that I think will be brief. Commissioner hayes-santos.

1666
03:58:26,459 --> 03:58:35,635
>> thank you, mayor. Commissioner duncan-walker, you brought up a great point about equity being a part of this.

1667
03:58:35,635 --> 03:58:44,760
and that's why when we hired the consultant for this and we asked to look at inclusionary zoning and bring back the

1668
03:58:44,760 --> 03:58:53,486
recommendations that are before us, we asked them that equity be at the core. That was our direction -- that

1669
03:58:53,486 --> 03:59:02,161
they look at equity and have an equity lens of looking at exclusionary zoning and that they look at that equity.

1670
03:59:02,161 --> 03:59:12,161
that's what we are seeing today. I do want to kind of clarify things. I know we can't make a motion

1671
03:59:15,441 --> 03:59:21,214
but I think staff wants clear direction. I believe there are four votes for this.

1672
03:59:21,214 --> 03:59:30,223
the mayor call special meetings in july when we get back to hold the ordinance's readings, that we move forward with staff

1673
03:59:30,223 --> 03:59:37,964
recommendations with a couple of changes, the proposed changes I brought forward. And accept that we include

1674
03:59:37,964 --> 03:59:44,300
commissioner arreola's proposal to cap neighborhood multi-family scaled neighborhoods to two stories.

1675
03:59:44,300 --> 03:59:50,109
>> mayor: thank you. Commissioner saco. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. And I know we can't make a

1676
03:59:50,109 --> 04:00:00,109
motion, but I would certainly back that ask and suggestion of staff. My comment is more about --

1677
04:00:00,853 --> 04:00:05,157
okay. I can see mr. Nee. The bert harris act has been brought up a few times.

1678
04:00:05,157 --> 04:00:14,700
and the last time it was brought up, I spoke to one of my law professors who is a premiere scholar on the constitutionality

1679
04:00:14,700 --> 04:00:19,839
of it. I asked him his opinion on it after my own analysis. His analysis is it would not

1680
04:00:19,839 --> 04:00:24,443
apply because we are not restricting the use of any one property. We are amplifying the land use

1681
04:00:24,443 --> 04:00:31,550
applicable -- the uses of that land applicable. I want to confirm with mr. Nee before we keep saying this and

1682
04:00:31,550 --> 04:00:39,992
then people will be afraid or hopeful that they can do that. I wanted mr. Nee's opinion. >> mayor: mr. Nee, if you wanted

1683
04:00:39,992 --> 04:00:45,798
to opine today or at least be prepared by the next time this comes up. >> I will accept a memo at some

1684
04:00:45,798 --> 04:00:50,603
point. >> I will be more than happy to come back at a later time with a more full explanation.

1685
04:00:50,603 --> 04:00:58,711
I would agree that's more understanding that the general bert harris would stand to address a regulation adopted by

1686
04:00:58,711 --> 04:01:07,711
the government that would inordinately burden the existing right. To say it's burdening your right

1687
04:01:09,121 --> 04:01:15,795
when you up-zone, that's the issue really that you would want to look into and be more specific about.

1688
04:01:15,795 --> 04:01:23,135
I think part of the concern raised by a citizen was that if you take this action, thinking that you could then go back to

1689
04:01:23,135 --> 04:01:32,445
the way things are, then you would have potential problems. So it's a broader issue than I think a quick answer might be

1690
04:01:32,445 --> 04:01:37,483
able to give. But I'd be happy to be ready for that broader explanation I think when the time comes.

1691
04:01:37,483 --> 04:01:40,753
>> mayor: yeah, we appreciate that. Thank you. >> thank you, mr. Mayor.

1692
04:01:40,753 --> 04:01:44,490
thank you, mr. Nee. >> mayor: are those all, commissioner saco? >> yes, sir.

1693
04:01:44,490 --> 04:01:51,597
>> mayor: okay, thank you. Commissioner chestnut. >> okay, thank you, thank you. So if the broader explanation is

1694
04:01:51,597 --> 04:02:01,107
going to be that once this ordinance that you all are putting together takes place, it can be undone.

1695
04:02:01,107 --> 04:02:07,179
is that what I'm hearing? >> mayor: I think that's what he's going to come back to us with an opinion on.

1696
04:02:07,179 --> 04:02:17,179
>> so that is quite refreshing. Now, what I'd like to clarify with the manager or mr. Persons -- thank you -- is when is the

1697
04:02:32,705 --> 04:02:40,146
comprehensive plan mandated that it arrives in tallahassee from gainesville? >> we are on our -- with respect

1698
04:02:40,146 --> 04:02:45,851
to the comprehensive plan, we are on our own schedule essentially. >> so then there is no rush?

1699
04:02:45,851 --> 04:02:49,655
there is no rush to get it to tallahassee? >> not for the comprehensive plan, no.

1700
04:02:49,655 --> 04:02:55,694
>> okay, thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. >> mayor: thank you.

1701
04:02:55,694 --> 04:03:00,499
I answer to anything. [laughter] I'm happy to do so. Commissioner arreola.

1702
04:03:00,499 --> 04:03:09,842
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. I just want to make a plug for my district 3 town hall which will include this discussion.

1703
04:03:09,842 --> 04:03:17,616
that will be 2:30 to 6:00 p.m. Here in chambers. You know, let it not be said that the district 3 commissioner

1704
04:03:17,616 --> 04:03:24,957
is doing everything I can to talk about what this is, what it isn't. There is every effort being made

1705
04:03:24,957 --> 04:03:33,499
on my part. I know the staff is working very hard but it's also incumbent on us, commissioners, to make it as

1706
04:03:33,499 --> 04:03:36,902
well. >> mayor: thank you all for the discussion, including all the folks that showed up today and

1707
04:03:36,902 --> 04:03:42,708
took time out of their afternoon. We do have this other item, affordable housing workshop on

1708
04:03:42,708 --> 04:03:48,614
inclusionary and exclusionary zoning. I think this is a recap of what that is.

1709
04:03:48,614 --> 04:03:52,651
madam manager, I think we are all tired. We don't want to rush anything as we said but we don't want to

1710
04:03:52,651 --> 04:04:00,125
unduly delay things. >> no, mr. Mayor, members of the commission. We simply put a summary together

1711
04:04:00,125 --> 04:04:05,831
on the meetings that we had. Mr. Harris is here. We tried to put the summary together in a way that, you

1712
04:04:05,831 --> 04:04:13,405
know, was clear, you know. We had reasonable attendance at most of those meetings and we tried to authentically capture

1713
04:04:13,405 --> 04:04:19,845
the comments that came from everybody at those meetings. Mr. Harris, if you want to add to that, just simply making sure

1714
04:04:19,845 --> 04:04:24,216
that, you know, we included that. >> mayor: yeah. And those comments were included

1715
04:04:24,216 --> 04:04:30,923
in the backup as well as in the previous item. A lot of those neighborhood workshops were included as well.

1716
04:04:30,923 --> 04:04:36,896
[inaudible] [laughter] mr. Harris, are you going to fight for the microphone?

1717
04:04:36,896 --> 04:04:41,634
no, no. I think it was there for informational purposes. It's not -- yeah, it's not a

1718
04:04:41,634 --> 04:04:46,238
discussion point so much. But I did not want to leave it unsaid. Okay.

1719
04:04:46,238 --> 04:04:51,577
thank you for that. Any member comment? Okay. Then we have reached the

1720
04:04:51,577 --> 04:04:58,284
conclusion of our business. Y'all have a good summer, be safe out there. And we will see you in july.

1721
04:04:58,284 --> 04:05:01,884
we are adjourned. [pounding of gavel]