>> mayor: all right. Good morning, everybody. It is 9:40. We do have two brief meetings
this morning before our regular meeting starts. And so we're going to call this first of those to order.
this is the board of trustees retiree health and trust fund. And we so one item on the agenda.
is there a motion to adopt the agenda, commissioner hayes-santos. >> second.
>> mayor: all in favor say aye. [chorus of ayes] all opposed? That motion passes.
the only item on here we1 is the 2022 gainesville retiree trust fund update. With that we will recognize you.
welcome. >> williams johnson, investment officer for the city. Board members.
just some background on this item. Earlier this year the board met and requested that staff update
the investment policy statement for this retiree trust fund to restrict investments in russian and bella russian securities.
that is the main update in this investment policy statement in accordance with the board's direction.
there's also an update to the investment rate of return assumption. We're reducing that from 9.9% to
9.75% in line with the city's pension plans. And really that's a come by nation of input from the state
division of retirement, our actuary and our investment managers. There is sort of a more
conservative trend in investment rate return assumptions that the state pushes on local government plans, and this reflects that.
>> mayor: okay. Thank you, mr. Johnson. Appreciate the update. Commissioner hayes-santos.
>> thank you, mayor. I move that we adopt the new policy. >> second.
>> mayor: motion and a second to adopt the new policy. Any members of the public here to speak to this item?
back to the commission. All in favor say aye. [chorus of ayes] all opposed?
that motion passes unanimously with commissioner duncan-walker absent. We will reconvene our next
meeting at 9:45. We are adjourned. . >> mayor: good morning.
this is the meeting of the board of trustees for gainesville general employees pension plan. September 15th.
we have three items on the agenda today. Is there a motion to adopt the agenda?
>> so moved. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second to adopt the agenda.
all in favor say aye. [chorus of ayes] all opposed? That motion passes unanimously
with hayes-santos and duncan-walker absent. The first order of business is fy21 actuary evaluation report
for the gainesville employee plan. Mr. Johnson, welcome back. >> board members, thank you.
just an overview of this. We prepare or we have an external actuary prepare an evaluation of the pension plan
every year. The intent is to evaluate the plans, assets and liabilities. And a funded status for the plan
and then also to develop the contribution rate required by the city for the upcoming fiscal year.
it's two. Year lag. This is the fiscal year '21 actuarial evaluation.
it will term the fiscal year '23 employer contribution rate. The employee contribution rate is fixed at 5%.
according to this, the fiscal year '23 employer contribution rate is being reduced from 5.53% to 5.09%.
the actuarial report discusses the reasons for that. The primary reason is very good returns in fiscal year '21 and
that affected the funded status of the plan. And caused a slight reduction in the contribution rate required.
>> mayor: good news all around. Thank you, mr. Johnson. Any questions or is there a motion?
commissioner arreola. >> mr. Mayor I'll move the recommendation. >> mayor: is there a second?
>> second. >> mayor: motion to approve the 21 actuarial evaluation and employee the contribution rate
of 5.09% based on that '21 valuation report. Any members of the public wish to speak to this motion.
back to the commission. All in favor say aye. [chorus of ayes] all opposed?
that motion passes unanimously with duncan-walker absent. Next is gainesville investment policy update.
we'll go back to you, mr. Johnson. >> this item is very similar to the retiree health fund
investment policy update. The only change here is again the restriction of russian and bella russian securities.
and that issue was made at the request of the board back at their june 16th meeting. >> mayor: very good.
we have two recommendations that are identical. I think that was a cut and paste sort of duplication there.
are there any questions or is there a motion to approve the recommendation. Commissioner saco.
>> mr. Mayor, I move staff recommendation. >> mayor: is there a second? >> second.
>> mayor: motion and second to approve the recommendation which updates the direction given from the commission regarding russian
bella russian investment. Any members of the public wishing to speak to that? All in favor say aye.
[chorus of ayes] all opposed? That motion passes unanimously with duncan-walker absent.
last is application for disability retirement for connie tomlinson. >> good morning.
[inaudible] director. And I am going to present your ability to review and hopefully approve the application.
she's worked for the city for about 18 years, been a component of the employ retirement plan is a disability retirement option
for those due to an accident or injury, no longer able to perform the essential functions of their job continuously.
ms. Thomson's file was reviewed. Due to progressiveness of her illness, it's unlikely that she'll be able to return to do
her job and the disability review committee recommends acceptance and approval of the application for ms. Thomson.
>> so moved. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second that we approve the application
for disability. Are there any questions or any members of the public wish to speak to this?
okay. Back to the commission. All in favor of the motion say aye.
[chorus of ayes] all opposed? That motion passes unanimously with commissioner duncan-walker
absent. Do we have anybody here for general public comment? Okay.
any member comment? All right. We will then be adjourned. We'll reconvene our regular city
commission meeting at 10:00. . >> mayor: so just remove that from the agenda.
>> and refer it [inaudible] >> mayor: thank you, commissioner. Commissioner duncan-walker.
>> that you, mr. Mayor. That was one of my concerns so thank you, commissioner chestnut for that.
I would like to pull d2 and d5. I nona there were a couple of questions. We wanted to have them get a
little bit of clarity. >> mayor: okay. Pull and put on regular. >> the modifications shown on
the screen and also move to the agenda and placed on a future general policy committee meeting.
and that d2 and d5 from consent -- I guess in the end of the afternoon? >> mayor: I expect those to be
short. I don't expect them to be long. Let's try to put them at the end of the morning agenda.
>> mayor: we'll move to the commission to approve the agenda as modified. All in favor say aye.
[chorus of ayes] >> mayor: all opposed? That motion passes unanimously. Madam clerk.
anyone here for early public comment? >> no. F1 boss sum creek state lighting
with the recommendation that the commission award the project to musco sports lighting. >> mayor: any comments or turn
it over to ms. Wade. Ms. Wade, welcome. >> good morning, mayor and commissioners.
thank you for the opportunity to provide you with a short update on the possum creek skating project.
all right. Perfect. So this past april you asked me to explore what it would take to
light possum creek skate park. I hired a lighting designer who is local and we worked with them and the sports lighting company,
musco sports lighting to gather that [inaudible] in the amount of $152,000 to light possum creek yum creek skate park.
we would have to light the parking lot and we thought it would be responsible to light the path to the rest room as
well if we were going to extend the hours of the facility. So we would [inaudible] install the infrastructure so we could
have gru rental lights in the parking lot and that lit path to the rest room. >> mayor: look at that.
>> delayed a little bit. >> here's an image. A lot of people are not familiar with foot candles, an odd even
of measure. If you think about the lighting you see in your average baseball field, it would be similar to
that. We would be averaging about 24-foot candles. And a lit path to the rest room
facility on site. There are some long-term operation maintenance costs that would be associated if you were
to approve this project. We're estimating that would be $15,000 a year, which could be paid for by wild spaces at least
for some duration. That cost would include the gru rental lights, the bulk of the cost and then the additional
electricity cost for the musco sports lights and then the additional trash pickup because we think this facility would get
a lot of use. Maybe some additional rest room cleaning as well. We need to feel that out.
about $15,000 a year is the long-term cost. So staff is recommending to move forward with this proposal
pending your discussion, of course. And we are looking at lighting the park and that parking lot
area to about 9 p.m. That obviously could be extended with permits and other authorizations.
we were thinking that 9 p.m. Might be a good starting point just to kind of get the neighborhood used to having that
facility with the expanded hours of use. I did take a measurement of the southern edge of the skate park
and we're about 430 feet away from the closest neighbor to the south, just do give you a head's up.
and with that, pending your questions. >> mayor: okay. Thank you.
commissioner hayes-santos. >> thank you, mayor. When would you expect it to open up with the new lights?
>> so there are some delays right now with some electrical equipment, hand holds and junction boxes.
we're seeing four to six months lead time in getting those items in. So this projects would not take
place overnight. I'm thinking probably, because of the manufacturing delays on those specific gru-required
item% the rental lights, we're looking maybe six months after we execute the contract, worst-case scenario.
>> I would like to move that we adopt staff recommendation. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second
that we approve the recommendation. I think you covered this but I want to make sure for people who
are listening or go back and watch this. The lighting will be sensitive to light pollution, correct, so
it will be downward facing and very directional lighting. We're not lighting the whole park.
it will be very focused and directed at the skate park, correct? >> that is correct, mr. Mayor.
so if you look at this slide, this shows the foot candles. You can see 50 feet outside of the skate park or even a more
truncated area, the lighting level goes basically to zero. Those lights would not extend past the skate park and the
parking lot. >> mayor: I want to make that clear. That's a big priority and I'll
let you know in some of the neighborhood walks aye had, people are supportive of improved lighting and lighting
on some areas that we don't have it, like the rail to trail areas. But they also don't want their
entire sort of neighborhood lit. They want it very focus on the areas where there would be, you know, activity.
so I think this is an important sort of standard to set as we're looking at expanding lighting opportunities and going back
retroactively and improving lighting when we have an opportunity to do so. Commissioner duncan-walker.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you, betsy. I wanted to ask if there was any kind of plan at this time to
light other parks. I know that as I've driven, you know, throughout the city at different places, we do have a
lot of opportunities to provide lighting in other places and I'm just curious if we have thought forward, if there's some sort of
plan in that regard. >> yes, ma'am. That is a great question. So we actually have a lighting
overhaul project that has an approved budget and we're currently working with a consultant.
we're looking at eight different facilities. A lot of that work would be updating and upgrading our
current infrastructure and then we have a handful of multipurpose fields and other facilities that we want to add
lighting to. So that is in the works. We'll be bringing that to you soon for that discussion.
>> wonderful. Thank you for that, betsy. The newly-brought-on unity park is one I pass frequently.
I get a lot of calls from constituents to respond to that area. And that park gets a lot of use
which is a good thing. I cannot remember the hours of operation but I can tell you that I've seen some of our
younger neighbors utilizing the park space kind of as it starts to get a little dark. That will be interesting to see
what this overhaul project entails as we move forward and what projects you have listed on it.
>> yes, ma'am. >> thank you, betty. >> mayor: commissioner ward. >> thank you, mr. Mayor.
thank you, ms. Wade. I appreciate you listening to the community. I know one of the first meetings
I had as a commissioner back in 2017 was with some folks who really passionately were trying to get some additional hours for
the skate park. And I'll say additional safe hours for the skate park because one of the issues is that it
gets used anyway after dark and it's exceedingly dangerous to have a bunch of young people who are fairly well convinced that
they are invincible out riding skateboards in the dark at one of our parks. This is a safety measure frankly
and one that I think will be well-received from the community. This is not part of the general
government budget and it's another highlight of the value that wild spaces public places brings to our community.
thank you. >> mayor: thank you. Madam clerk, anybody from the public signed up to speak toe
this item? We have a motion on the floor to approve the recommendation. All in favor of the motion say
aye. [chorus of ayes] all opposed? That motion passes unanimously.
thank you, ms. Wade. Appreciate it. Excited for this. I really am.
all right. So up next, madam clerk. >> we have our f2, distributed solar generation intake to gru
system item with the recommendation that that the commission hear a presentation from staff and accept a memo
confirming the validity of gru's distributed solar generation intake policy from the interim general manager.
>> this is tony carol, our acting officer and will give a brief presentation. In addition in the backup is a
memo that will give a broader scope of the motion from the uab, their understanding and recommendation to continue with
the policy that we have in place and with better understanding for the community and for people that are interested in this
topic, that there are exceptions to our two megawatt limit per circuit. And so mr. Carroll will give
that update and be available for questions. >> mayor: welcome. >> good morning, mr. Mayor and
city commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to present this topic to you. During today's question we're
trying to answer the question of why does gru have a limitation of 2 mega watts per distribution circuit.
we'll also talk about the results of a third-party study where we hired a third party to validate our assumptions or tell
us what we should be doing. And thirdly, we'll be talking about the legal requirements and limitations.
and then finally we'll discuss the conclusions. Okay. First of all, we have an energy
deliver service guide which has been adopted as a city ordinance. I think it was done back in
2011. And so in our energy delivery service guide, in section 8, we addressed the fact that the
maximum amount of pv generation, which is the total aggregated output of all pv generation interconnected to gru system
that can be interconnected on any gru feeder shall not exceed 2 mega watts. This was based on a study done
in california about 11 years ago. I won't go into all of the details of reading all that's
written up there, but basically the study that was done in california 11 years ago suggested that 2 mega watts was
a good limit to have on a distribution feeder. As an example, last year we were contacted by the big store,
target, where target was wanting to install 900kw of solar pv on their roof top. And on that particular circuit
we already had 1.4 mega watts of solar pv connected. And that was on the circuit feeder number 936.
and so we told them that impact study would be required and they asked us how much it would cost. And so during this time we were
also coincidentally contacted by university of florida and they were interested in showing us what their capabilities were and
what they could do in this area. And so we entered into a, just sort of a gentleman's agreement with the university of florida
department of electrical engineering and they performed a study on this particular circuit.
and that study showed that the maximum amount of solar pv that could be added to the 1.4 existing solar pv was 700kw
instead of the requested 900kw. With that additional 700kw added to the mega watts, that brought the total solar pv on that
particular circuit to 2.1 mega watts. And university of florida study indicated that anything
exceeding 2.1 mega watts would cause an overvoltage during lightly loaded conditions. That made us feel much better
and for the most part validated our 2-megawatt rule that that was a good starting point. And it was a good rule of
measure. >> mayor: okay. If you could please pause for a question from commissioner ward.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. So would you back up one -- I want to get the wording right. Can you explain to us -- I think
I know but I want to make sure that we're clear. What is overvoltage during lightly-loaded scenarios mean?
>> okay. We have -- are required by the public service commission to keep our service that we provide
plus or minus 5%. So for an example in a typical residential home, your voltage is going to be 120 volts at the
wall outlet and then at places where you have your clothes dryer and your stove you're going to have 240 volts.
all right. So plus or minus 5% is what we are required by the public service commission to keep our
voltage limits within. And so in this case, during a lightly loaded condition on that particular circuit, say on a
cool night when air conditioners aren't running and, you know, no heat is on, then adding more than the 700kw and exceeding 2.1
mega watts would cause an overvoltage and in that case it exceeded plus 5% of 120, 120 volts.
>> what is the effect of that to the system and to users? How does that impact? >> it could damage equipment
consistent -- overvoltage would damage equipment, just like consistent undervoltage. >> it's a safety issue and an
equipment load issue. >> mayor: reliability. >> it isn't just a -- it's not just a number on a spread sheet.
it's an actual thing that can damage equipment, reliability and safety, my understanding. >> yes, sir.
that's correct. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: thank you. >> okay.
so now we're going to be talking about the results of a third-party study that we had performed on our system.
and during this discussion I'll be talking about, you know, what the actual third-party request from gru, what gru provided the
third party and then we'll be talking about their modeling and analysis criteria, the results of their study.
and then we'll use some examples of how we're applying the study to our system. Okay.
now this slide is showing -- shows three different things. On the far left-hand side we're looking at the total number of
customers, solar pv customers that we have throughout our entire system. And we've got 262 customers that
are solar feed customers which we no longer offer that option. And the remaining customers are 860 net emergency metering
customers. That's what people apply for today, is net metering option. In the middle we're looking
at -- we've got it broken down into the number of customers per phase. At the top it shows we've got a
153 three-phase solar pv customers. And then on phase a, b and c, it's 327, 307 and 329.
we try to keep it balanced. It's not the same circuits so sometimes we don't have the ability to balance as well as we
would like to. I'll talk about that later. And on the far right-hand side, that is the total number of mega
watts that we have in solar pv generation that's connected to the system at this time and it's 31.2 mega watts total.
keep that number in mind. I'll bring that up on the last slide when I talk about the conclusions.
32.2 mega watts. Okay. Now part of the challenges that we have when we're performing a
study and whenever we're using solar pv is the fact that solar pv can affect, you know, our primary wires, our main feeder,
our laterals. It can have effect on loads, both residential, commercial and industrial.
it can have an effect on voltage regulation. It can have an effect on our protected devices, such as fuses
and circuit breakers and relays and reclosures. It could also affect our scada ems system, the system fault
current and also can cause reverse power flow. Whenever the third party was developing their model, what
they requested from gru, they wanted to know, okay, just as a question that you asked, commissioner, was that -- they
wanted to know, okay, what are your voltage limitations. We told them plus or minus 5%. And they wanted to know what's
the balance on the circuit. So we had to provide them -- for every circuit we had to provide them what our balance -- how
well-balanced are these circuits. We have some single phase load and some three-phase load.
different circuits are balanced differently. I got ahead of myself there. Sorry.
so after we provided all of this information, we work hand in hand with them. We provided them a model that we
use for load flow and then they tweaked that model and added all of the solar pv that is connected on our system and then
they ran their study. All right. And I'm not -- I don't have time to talk about all of the
circuits, but what their study showed was that we can actually -- some circuits are not -- shouldn't have more than
2 mega watts connected to it. Actually should have less than 2 mega watts connected to it. But our other circuits can
handle more than 2 mega watts. It all depends on the load that's on the circuit and the configuration of the circuit.
for example, I'm going to talk about two different substations here. The first one is kellie west
substation. We have two transformers there. T-30 transformer is size dollars at 33.6mva.
and two of the feeders connected to it are feeders number 280 and 282. On feeder 280 we have a negative
number there, negative 4.7. And the reason that's a negative number is because that number is actually one of the backup
circuits that feeds shands hospital. And it actually has generation connected to it.
that's why that's showing up as a negative number. We can't add any more -- any solar pv to that because it's
got existing generation connected to it. Circuit number 282, it can host up to 3.19 mega watts, which
obviously that's greater than 2 mega watts. So we learned something there. And then we talk about the other
transformer out of kelly west, t-29, that's a larger transformer and it's 56mva. And you can seize thousand four
circuits connected to that transformer, the hosting pv capacity range anywhere from 1.01 mega watts up to 2.02 mega
watts. And so again, we're seeing that 2 mega watts was a pretty good number as a starting point
before we had a more detail study performed. Ironwood substation, that has three feeders coming out of it.
and the solar hosting capacity at that location would be, it ranging anywhere from 2.55 up to -- no 1.44 up to 4.17 mega
watts. Those are some examples of what the study showed us. Now this is a map that shows
gru's entire distribution system. And what we're looking at here, as you can see there's three
different colors. And the blue color are the circuits that have up to five mega watts of solar pv
connected. Those would be the circuits that have the feeding customers connected to them.
all of the yellow, those are the circuits that have up to 2.5 mega watts connected to them, or less.
and so we would have to do, on those circuits, depending on the feeder, we would have to have an impact study done on that
particular circuit if a commissioner requested to add any more load to those. All of the area that you see in
red, those are the lightly-loaded circuits that have small amounts of solar pv connected to them.
those are the areas that would easily host more solar pv connection because they all have less than 0.5 mega watts
connected to them. Okay. Next we're going to talk about the legal requirements and
limitations. And the florida statutes require the city to develop a standardization interconnection
agreement and net metering program. And so this section 366.91-2d defines net metering as billing
where customer owned renewable generation is allowed to offset part or all of the customer's electricity consumption on site.
27-37, a gainesville code of ordinances establishes the city's net metering program. And section 27-36 is the
gainesville code of ordinance which adopts the energy delivery service guide which I mentioned before has been adopted as an
ordinance. Okay. The city ordinance on net metering states that it is the
intent of this section to promote the use of customer-owned renewable generation to offset part or all
of the customer's electric consumption. And the net metering program is only available to the city's
electric customers who have constructed or are willing to construct customer-owned renewable generation at no cost
to the city and willing to execute an interconnection agreement in the form and substance as provided by the
city. Okay. Reference the energy delivery service guide before.
section 8 establishes the process and requirements for solar pv connection. Section 9 is allowed to protect
the gru system while allowing solar connection. Any studies or upgrades to gru's transformers or distributions
are at the expense of customer-owned. And this is interpreted by the florida public service
commission. Gru service guide is a living document. Okay.
here we list some examples, benchmarking examples where other utilities in the state of florida also have a 2-megawatt
limit on their distribution feeders. Jacksonville electric authority, florida power and light and also
ocala electric utility. I'll add that ocala takes it a step farther. They do not allow their
customers who want to install solar pv to exceed their existing service rating. Gru is willing to allow
customers to install larger units that exceed the rating but they would have to pay for the upgraded of the service and the
transformer if it is over 90% of the rating. Okay. Conclusions.
gru energy delivery service guide follows the utility's best practice and allow pv solar and distribution circuit feeder.
the host capacity results indicate that some circuits or feeders can only host less than 2 mega watts while others host
more than 2 mega watts. If a customer wants to connect to one of those circuits that's going to exceed 2 mega watts or
exceed what the study shows would be allowed on that particular feared, the third-party study, then the
customer would have to pay for an impact study to ensure that other customers and gru equipment would not be
negatively impact. In addition if it is determined that the utility distribution system upgrades are required to
connect the additional solar pv, the customer developer would have to bear the cost of that also.
and just as an example, we ran some recent numbers just to throw out there. A typical impact study would
cost, for a 500kw or larger, say for a commercial installation, it's going to range anywhere from 15,000 to $46,000,
depending on the complexity of the study and what all is connected to the circuit and the type of inverters that the
customer is proposing to install, et cetera. Now for a typical, say a residential customer, maybe less
than 10k w, we're looking at around $5,000 for an impact study. And in those cases if the
transformer, say a single-phase transformer that serves a typical home needs to be upgraded, that could cost about
$6,000. And if it was a commercial or industrial customer where a three-phase transformer was
going to have to be upgraded or replaced, that could be as much as $30,000. Just to throw out some numbers
for you. All right. Lastly, what I'll talk about is -- well, what we plan to do
is we plan to have a new hosting capacity study ran and performed every three years. So we stay on top of this.
because we're constantly receiving interconnection requests. We probably receive seven or
more per week from customers. This data was based on numbers back in june. And so even these numbers aren't
accurate today because we've had that many solar connection requests since that time. And remember when I talked about
the 31.2 mega watts of solar pv that's connected today on our system, on the distribution system?
now in 2019 we had an area control era study performed by the same company who performed the hosting capacity study for
us. What that study showed is that for gru's entire system, the way that our dynamic generation is
today, that the maximum amount of solar pv that gru can host on its entire system is somewhere between 40 and 75 mega watts.
and this is due to the dynamic generation capacity and recovery resources and also the requirements of the balancing
authority. And so you could take 75 and subtract 31 from it and, you know, at some point, unless we
change the generation portfolio, you know, we're going to reach a limit where we're going to have to stop allowing connections,
you know, in future years. >> mayor: okay. Thank you very much. Do you have another slide with
the recommendation? >> let's see. I think... >> mayor: thank you very much.
we do have some questions. Stick around. I'll start with commissioner arreola.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. Can you go back one slide, please. >> yes.
>> thank you. First, thank you for the work. About a year ago a lot of what you said would have been foreign
to my understanding. But after installing these for about a year, a lot of it makes sense.
but what I want to ask about is really this last page, because, number one, when you say the customer must pay for an impact
study. You were throwing out a bunch of numbers out there. What did you say was an estimate
for an impact study for 15-kilowatt, 1500? >> that could be between 5,000 and 15.
we've tried to nail down some estimates. We were told that anything less than 10k w would be around
$5,000. But then the other number jumped to 100kw. >> so my concern here is we
don't want to deter folks from setting up solar array systems because of an impact study. And those -- I mean, that's part
of the cost. And I get that. But there has to be -- well at least from the gru's
perspective, we have to have a set schedule for what those studies are going to cost. And we need to try and keep them
as low as we can. Because some of those costs are very, very high that you mentioned.
secondly, my other question was, are we still having meter delivery delays and things like that?
is that still affects -- >> yes. >> that's city affecting our getting out to completed sites
and things like that. >> mayor: mr. Cunningham, you want to jump in? >> yes.
I'll start reverse order. I'll hit the first. So we are -- everybody is still experiencing world supply chain
challenges with different materials and different things like that. We are getting a lot more of the
electric meters and the pieces of the patter meter in the next several months to really start the mass deployment for the ami
project. But -- so a lot of that is coming. But we are still seeing those
delays as those things occur. Second thing is kind of talking about the cost of the impact study.
just to contextualize it, this is the -- the impact study is only required if you're exceeding the 2-megawatt limit.
so until we start bumping up against that there isn't an impact study and we're connecting them.
but as we're getting more and more, that is going to become an issue. And I want to give a big
picture, you know, an electric distribution system wasn't initially designed and built for generation at the end points.
and that's why you have some of these limitations. One of the things we're -- you know, this is really a part,
customers putting in solar pv is part of working toward net zero for the community and very good, as you're stating.
we want that to be a part of the overall path forward. But we've got to balance that with how we operate our system
and we've got to balance it with -- we can't have those systems costing other customers more money.
so we have to be careful about the cost there and we have to balance the quality of power and our ability to provide power to
other customers. That's why these impact studies, that's what they do, allow to make sure that we're not
impacting power to the rest of our existing customers. So couple more things I just want to touch on.
one is our office of sustainability, one of the things that they're looking at in this coming year is really
looking as this grows, as solar pv is going to grow, how do we bring that into the system in a way that balances both of those
elements, both the cost and the ability to provide power. And then lastly, we're still -- it's sort of on a slightly
different note. We're pursuing getting 50 mega watts solar in the system that will be system solar as well as
pursuing other options going forward if there are other ways to expand our system solar. I wanted to give that broader
context. This isn't a recommendation slide but the recommendation really is for us to continue on
the path that we're on now using that policy with the exceptions of the impact studies when we start bumping up against those
limits. >> thank you. No, I appreciate that. It's very important because, you
know, one of the worst-case scenarios that I've seen is folks, they're excited to get solar on their roof, they pay
for an array,it gets up and never passes inspection because of any number of technical issues.
one of those things would be the dcs. So thank you for getting this back to us.
I think it's important information for us to have based on the direction that we're trying to go for renewable
energy and the dynamic generation capacity may change, you know, in any given number of decades here in the future.
thank you. >> mayor: thank you. Commissioner ward. >> thank you, mr. Mayor.
a few things I wanted to clarify. When we say between 40 and 75 mega watts, that's a
conglomerate system-wide, but it breaks down by circuit. So a lot of that could be in one -- if we -- if archer road,
if every business suddenly put solar on their roof top, that maximizes, way overmaximizes what's possible there.
and it's that up while other circuits around town could be nearly empty, correct in. >> yes, that's correct.
>> so that's a conglomerate, 40 to 75. But it really doesn't break down across the city in a specific
sort of way. So if you would go back to the map that showed where the current installs are, it's not a
neighboring issue. Going down waldo road, those are all businesses for the most part in the blue.
those are, I'm guessing, apartment complexes down in the butler plaza area, may be targeted and that sort of thing,
right? Very bottom of the screen there. >> I think that's correct, yes. >> and yeah, like the mall and
other -- so it's commercial that is -- that has over 5 mega watts on the system right now for the most part.
>> yes. >> because those red areas, those are neighborhoods. >> yes.
>> and I don't know where the -- I have no idea where the circuits are on the system an how that breaks down and I don't
need to know right now. But my guess is that we're a good little way for a lot of neighborhoods from reaching that
maximum. Is that fairly accurate? >> if memory serves me correctly, commissioner, I think
we've got seven circuits that are presently either already at 2 mega watts or, you know, very, very close to 2 mega watts of
solar pv connected to them. >> and how many circuits do we have? >> 70.
>> 70. Okay. All right. And we can probably count those
seven just looking at the map, where the blue stuff is, right? >> well, the blue stuff is our -- part of them.
and the yellow are up to 2.5 mega watts. Some of the yellow are going to be --
>> they're starting to get close. >> yes. >> okay.
all right. Well that helps me. I appreciate this. This is all good information.
>> if I had to guess -- excuse me -- I think that the majority of our requests, and my colleagues can correct me if I'm
wrong, are on the west side of town. Is that right? >> yeah, because that's where
the request would be for, particularly with a spike in build this summer, people want to take control of their system.
>> right. >> in at all possible. Doesn't mean it's possible to do that.
it's interesting how that works out. There's more yellow east of 13th street than I would have
thought. So that's great. That's good news. This is manageable.
we can come up with a way to do this going forward. But this is the conversation we needed to have to figure out
what's next as we go through the process mr. Cunningham was describing. It's not that it's not possible.
it's just that we have to understand it better. >> yes, sir. >> and I do think it's really
important for people to understand that -- it was important for me to understand, let me say, that it's not an
arbitrary number. That we're not just saying oh, that's the maximum you can have just cause.
but if they plug too much in -- just like if we plug too much into this, something bad is going to happen.
>> correct. >> and maybe that means that your equipment breaks or maybe it means there's a fire or any
number of bad things that can happen. But it functions very much like -- we all know there's only
so much we can plug into one of these strips. But we don't think about how that relates back up the system.
so it's important for me to make that connection, no pun intended. Thank you.
I appreciate it. >> mayor: one quick question. I'm going to play the role of the selfish neighbor here.
let's say that you know, I just want to put a 10k w, you know, rooftop array on my home. Do an impact study.
shows that the transformer that I'm on needs to be upgraded. Don't my neighbors also benefit from that upgrade?
>> in certain situations. If your neighbor -- if you have neighbors who have served from the same transformer, yes,
that's correct. >> mayor: and look, it's not a reason for me to like move this thing in a sideways direction,
but that's something, mr. Manager, I think we need to talk about. If I go in -- what would be the
cost of a typical transformer upgrade in a residential neighborhood. >> for a residential
neighborhood, around $6,000. >> mayor: so if I pay for that to get my solar and then my neighbors next to me, now they
have capacity and can put their solar up without that, you know, I mean, I don't know. That's maybe a tragedy of the
commons kind of thing. But, you know, I think we need to think about that, like how do we assess that upgrade.
everybody benefits, right. So typically when there's a private benefit to something, we try to equitably distribute that
to all of the folks impacted by it. I don't see an easy way to do that right now.
it's sort of going to be up to me. I really, really want solar. And frankly with the $6,000 it's
still going to be a net economic benefit to me over a 20-year period. It will.
just not as much. But there is a front-end cost there that unless I can sort of finance that or do, you know, a
property assessment, you know, at zero percent. Anyway, I think we need to try to figure that out.
because it really could be a barrier to entry for folks that are, you know, that are looking to do it for the economic
benefit, not necessarily some social good or environmental positive impact. I don't have an easy solution to
that. I'm not pretending to like figure that out from the dais today.
but, you know, it is something we, I think, should talk about. You know, I do have some -- I think with some -- I think there
could be some cooperative agreements or other things like that. If you're friendly with all of
your neighbors and they're into it, I don't know. Not to ramble too much. But I recently built a fence and
the fence that I erected benefits two of my adjacent neighbors. Before I did it I spoke to them,
would you be willing to split the cost of the portion of your fence. And they were both gracious and
say yes, absolutely. I'm benefiting from this as well. Good neighbors will do that but
we can't craft public policy hoping that people are nice to each other. If that were the case we would
not need government. If we were angels, we would have no need for government. So we have to remember that as
well. But anyway, I think, you know, if we can put a pin in that. Get the people that are much,
much smarter than me at gru and that are, you know, part of this industry out there to be thinking on ways to account for
that, you know, because I don't think there's any way in the next couple of years we don't need to come back and really
revisit this and figure out how are we going to make it much more -- just how can we reduce the barriers to more and more
distributed generation. Because that's just where we're going, right. I mean that's just the sort of
long-term truth of the industry. So I just kind of wanted to bring that up. >> mr. Mayor, can I comment just
briefly on that? >> mayor: yeah, of course. >> yeah, I don't have the solution today.
but this is very common in the utility city, extension policies and how you deal with this issue that we're describing here.
a developer puts in a certain size line, other people benefit from that size line. That developer puts in a lift
station, other developments in the future benefit from that lift station. So there are some things that we
could do that are out there. It's not always clean and perfect, but I think there are solutions like that that we will
definitely evaluate and be recommending. And this is why we are really putting this on the goals and
objectives this year of the office of sustainability is to try to figure out what is this going to look like going
forward. And especially as we're getting a lot more inquiries into this realm, how is that going to kind
of fold into the utility as we march forward. We will be addressing those issues as part of that
evaluation. >> mayor: great. Thank you. Commissioner hayes-santos.
>> move staff recommendation. >> mayor: I don't -- I think it was just informational. Oh, there is a recommendation to
accept the memo. Okay. Thank you. Motion to accept the memo.
is there a second? Second. Okay. Thank you very much.
madam clerk, anybody signed up to speak to this item. Back to the commission. All in favor of the motion say
aye. [chorus of ayes] all opposed? Motion passes.
the uab also heard this item and sort of approved of the current policy but also the future sort of intention to look at this
more deeply and come back with some recommendations. Madam clerk next item. >> f3, status update of the
department of financial services and the fiscal year 2021 annual audit with a recommendation that the city commission hear an
update on the status of the department of financial services and the fiscal year 2021 annual audit.
>> mr. Mayor, members of the commission, this is a financial update. Ms. Wong is here, the acting
director of the finance department. This item is here, mr. Mayor, because I thought it was
probably appropriate at this time to give the board an update. We're approaching the end of the
fiscal year. I think when we spoke to the board last clearly we were not going to make the june deadline
to finish the financial statements for '21. We were fast forwarding of course towards the end of the
fiscal year to complete. We're not there. Why are we in this predicament. I just thought it was important
to just kind of summarize where we are relative to why we are at this point. I think back in january we had
the report from the state auditor general who outlined several findings that had been outstanding since fiscal 2018
and we also had our internal auditor do a report on our internal controls of our audit on our internal controls that
pointed at findings as well. So what we have unfortunately endured probably for the last four or five years is
inconsistency in staff. We've had a lot of staff turnover. Quite frankly even between the
period of january and now we did hire a financial services director and a controller. The financial services director
had some health issues and of course had to step away. The controller, sue wong, is now acting as our finance director.
so we've had some staff turnover, we've had some vacancies. Those vacancies have been
attacked quite aggressively. You'll hear how we've been able to fill many of the vacancies. There is a power point.
I'm not sure, but at any rate, we have some process break downs and that is because of the platform, work day as we call.
the data conversion with work day has not worked well since it was implemented in july of 2021. And the configurations and
mapping in terms of information has not worked well as we have tried to close down the audit for 2021.
and so with that I just kind of wanted to paint that background and have ms. Wong talk through where we are.
we are making progress but we will not make the end of the fiscal year in terms of having the '21 audit closed out.
and with that I will pass over to ms. Wong. >> so good morning, mayor and commissioners.
sue wong, acting finance director. Thank you for having me today. I met some of you and watched
videos of you, of the commission meetings before I got here. So I'm very happy to be here to give an update on the 2021
annual audit. And also provide a status update on the department of financial services as ms. Curry just
mentioned. Do have a power point. >> does broadcast. >> are we able to --
>> broadcast. Can broadcast pull it up, please and thank you. Oh, good.
the mayor is back. [inaudible] >> mayor: I'm out. Two minutes, madam manager, two
minutes. >> you'll have to proceed. I don't know that they are prepared.
>> sounds good. So 2021 annual audit, so I am happy to report that we made significant progress in our
areas. So that includes revenue, expenditures, receivable, payable, cash and investment,
capital assets, single audit, long-term liabilities. So it's a lot. So we've made progress in all of
these areas. So currently we are down to two things. So one is bank reconciliations.
the other one is -- there we go. So we are down to two things at this point. One is bank reconciliations.
the other one is analytics, which is the year over year analysis of all accounts. Without these two areas being
completed the auditors cannot wrap up the rest of the testing. So that's our focus point at this, at this moment.
it's the number-one priority for my department. So we are all hands on deck. And this includes the support
from our external consultant and the gru team and ms. Claudia rasnick. Without their help and support
we wouldn't be where we are today. In particular I want to give a shout out to mr. [inaudible],
the controller at gru. So he's been very instrumental in getting all of the requested materials ready for the auditors
and getting it done and checked often. So as ms. Curry said, unfortunately, you know, due to
these challenges, we cannot meet the 9/30 deadline. We know it's our number one priority.
we're working as hard as we can to get audit done as soon as possible. Once those two areas are done,
the auditors can finish up the testing and then we can start the, prepare for the [inaudible] management discussion and
analysis and then prepare the schedules in the statistical session of the book. So ms. Curry mentioned those
challenges that we are facing. I'm not going to go into that. I think the commission is well-informed of the challenges
that my department is facing. One thing I do want to point out is an erp implementation is very challenging process in the best
of times. So many government entities, you know, when they go through an erp implementation, they
encounter difficulties. And it's a daunting task. So we are not alone. I just want to point that out.
so facing these challenges, so what do we do. So I came on board on june 13th.
so it's been three months and two days, I think. So I have been thinking long and hard about this approach for the
path forward. So after discussion, this is what I would like to share with the commission today.
so we're adopting a three-prong approach. So essentially on the left side -- so the top down.
so we need to do the analytical reviews and reconciliations. Those reviews include major revenue analysis, major
expenditure analysis, major -- the budget actual analysis. We need to if do year-over-year analysis.
we need to do the bank reconciliations, the balance sheet account reconciliations. Only by doing this high-level
analysis can we catch mistakes and try to find the solutions. To the right of the chart, I call it bottom up.
so essentially workday is full of data. We want to make sure when data first enter into workday that
they are accurate. So the accounting division within my department is working very hard with the receipt side,
the cash receipt, accounts receivable, so on the disbursement side, the payables, the payroll.
this also goes to the centralized departments. We want to make sure that when data first into workday that
they're accurate. In between the high-level analysis and make sure the data entry into workday, so we want
to focus on three things. So essentially we need to focus on system, we need to focus on our people and we need to focus
on processes. So what do I mean by that. So system. I want my accounting folks to
become expert in workday, in our erp. This does not mean that they need to be programmers.
however, they need to know how data are entered into work day. They need to understand how the mapping works in workday.
they need to understand how sub ledgers flow into general ledger. They need to understand the
roll-ups, the hierarchies in workday. So to provide tending and support for my hiring folks.
it's called financial systems architect. We have made an offer to a highly-qualified individual.
so this person is certified in workday -- in multiple areas of workday. So I believe -- so hopefully I'm
not getting it wrong, but she's qualified in workday payroll, in reporting, in hr, I believe. So she's going to come and help
us in everything workday related. So to provide tending and support.
so people. So when I came on board in june -- so we had four accountants in my department and
these are the four hardest working accountants that I've ever known. So kudos to them.
since then we hired a new accounting manager and we hired a senior accountant. So they both started last week.
so my team is actually expanding. So we bring those folks on board.
it's my job to build them up, to provide tending, to make sure, you know, we -- my divisions are talking to each other.
that, you know, we understand that we work together. This is our number. This is our report.
so process. I have been really drilling down to my folks, you know, understanding the whys of we're
doing things is very important. We need to understand and document the processes. So to help us with that -- so we
hired a long-time city employee who has since retired. We brought her back. Her name is ms. Marta.
I think a lot of you know her. If you see her, run into her, please say thank you to her for coming back and give us a
helping hand. So she is tasked with process documentation. I think with her being
intimately familiar with the city's processes, procedures and policies, she is a very good choice to help us to finish up
the -- or even start and finish up the documentation. And that also will free my accountants up in focusing on
doing bank reconciliations, account reconciliations. Working with my other operations team.
so I am very hopeful by making these changes, by bringing those folks on board that it gives us a path forward.
these are the priorities that we are focusing on. Most of it is based on the previous year's audit findings.
if you look, most of them are normal accounting functions. So our goal is to make sure that those functions are functioning.
I am really happy to report that we are making progress in all of these. So we are working on it.
so, for example, month end close. We haven't closed our month in I don't know how long.
it's been a long time coming. We have a team working on it. We are compiling the month-end close checklist.
I'm in the process of drafting a memo to distribute to all departments that coming in october, the beginning of our
fiscal year, that we are going to close the month end. It is very important because once we start closing the
months, then we can start preparing and distributing the quarterly financial reports so that people can, you know,
gather reports and review them and give us feedback. So that's in progress and I'm very happy with the progress
we're making on that. So bank reconciliations. I'm devoting two to work on bank reconciliations.
I have weekly check-ins with them so if they run into road blocks or the deposits into workday do not match up to the
deposits in the bank, what do we do. I'm here to provide support for them.
and we're working very hard on it and I have every confidence that it's going to be caught up and be kept up to date.
so I'm not going to go into all of that. But I just want you to be aware that those are very important to
us. Those are the priorities. Those are our normal accounting functions that, you know, we
want them to start functioning. So in summary, so it takes time to get us to where we need to be.
it needs strategic planning. It needs for us to lay out all of the plans so that we can stay on course.
we are actually carrying out these plans to achieve our goals and we are adopting a team approach to tackle these issues
and come up with the solutions. We also need to keep monitoring the staffing level in the accounting division because I
truly feel, in my department we have momentum now that we need to come up with, you know, succession plan, the backup
plans. If there's a setback in my department -- we all know we had plenty of setbacks.
if there's a setback that we can get back on our feet very quickly and get our visions going.
so it's doing to be a long journey. It's going to be an exciting journey.
it's going to be a rewarding journey. So I see myself in this journey as a mentor, as a guide, as a
cheerleader, as a psychiatrist at times. But I am absolutely convinced I have the right team with me.
we are working on the right things. We are headed towards the right direction.
so all I'm asking is everybody's understanding and patience. I am absolutely sure we are doing the right thing.
so with that I conclude my presentation this morning and will be happy to answer any questions you have.
>> mayor: all right. Thank you very much. We appreciate that so much. Madam manager, anything you
wanted to add? >> thank you, mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say this month really will conclude the
participation of the gru staff that was working with us. Without their support we would not be here.
so I really want to thank general manager cunningham and the support that you provided through your staff with claudia
rasnick and mr. Lynn loria and others. Phenomenal. Thank you.
but they will be going back to gru and attending to the issues that they have clearly have to there.
>> mayor: thank you. Commissioner arreola. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. I want to commend you and your
team for all of the work that you've done. As the manager just said, it was a team effort.
you know, I want to say from my perspective, my view of the role of the commission, patience and understanding is a bare minimum.
we need to be proper advocates to really support all of the resources that you all are going to need, not even just in this
next year but going forward. Because obviously it was a series of years of mistakes and so in order to prevent, you
know, anything like that from happening in the future, this commission needs to be prepared to support our office and I
would hope that commissioners take that message to heart. Because it is -- it's a lot of work and certainly I don't want
it to go unnoticed that the effort that you all have put into really to get into the mind seth to be able to tackle this
issue and then be able to do it is -- it's, honestly it's very impressive. I want to commend you all for
the work that you've done. Thank you. >> mayor: thank you. Commissioner duncan-walker.
>> thank you so much, ms. Wong. I wanted to pull my mask down just for a second so you could see the smile on my face.
and I wanted to say welcome. You have jumped in, I mean, head first. And your presentation today has
been so impressive. What I noticed was the attention to detail, the spirit of team work.
and I just want to say welcome. I want to say thank you. I cannot speak for all of my colleagues but it sounds like
there may be a consensus that you will have the support of everyone here to continue in the work.
we do understand the mountain that is ahead of us. It's very serious. And we thank you for your work,
your professionalism and your optimism. So we certainly look forward to that being maintained throughout
this process. And I'll just say again thank you very much. And welcome.
>> mayor: thank you. Commissioner chestnut. >> thank you. Thank you, mr. Mayor.
I want to congratulate the manager. The manager inherited this. This audit situation.
and under her leadership we are about to solve it. We're well on the way. And I want to thank gru interim
manager and his staff for jumping in and lending the support to help us through this. It's been a team effort and I
just appreciate the effort everyone put in in tackling the issue. Thank you.
>> mayor: thank you. Commissioner ward. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. And thank you to ms. Wong, and
welcome. I am pleased to know that you watched our meetings and still chose to do this.
and I also want to thank the manager as well, as commissioner chestnut said. This is a multiple manager
issue. And we have now reached a point where I think we have, I feel like we have the consistency
that is necessary to move forward here. And consistency really is the key.
a revolving door at the top does not get this problem solved. That is important to remember as we go forward.
I'll reiterate what everyone has said. Whatever resources you need, madam manager, and ms. Wong,
whatever you need -- and any of our charters. If you need resources, we need to know.
and I think that's part of the issue going back years is nobody said hey, we need resources. So if you need the resources,
let us know before we have an issue. I would much rather hear that we need more people before we --
before it's too late. We can make plans. We can move things around to support the additional
resources. But it's really hard to do that after the fact. So thank you for being here and
for the effort that has been put in. And everybody that has worked on it top to bottom, I feel like we
are in a good place. I look forward to bringing more folks on as we have the new budget.
and I think we're going to get there sooner rather than later. Thank you. >> thank you.
>> mayor: thank you. >> we still have to finish the '21 audit so that's what we're working on right now.
that is still a task that is clearly very important. So we're driving. >> mayor: thank you.
I appreciate ms. Wong, thank you for taking over an unexpected and emotionally difficult circumstances.
that's hard to do no matter what. And you've done a superb job of that.
you know, I also want to thank everyone from the manager, ms. Curry, to mr. Cunningham and his team, as well as the
auditor. We've done everything we can to be very upfront about our situation and make sure that
we're communicating clearly. And you know, we'll continue to do that, I know. And we're in such a better
circumstance right now than we were six months ago. And so -- and it hasn't been small progress.
it's been large leaps. And there is still of course, as you've been very clear, some work left to do.
but we can see the point at which we're going to be caught up and then operating under improved standards and
expectations once we get there. So thank you everybody that's put time into this. Our city is much better off for
it. There's no action. This was an informational item. But madam clerk, do we have
anybody signed up to speak to it? Welcome. >> good morning, jo beaty.
I won't repeat what everybody said, but I was listening to this as I was driving over and I can't tell you -- ms. Wong?
do I have her name correctly? I can't tell you how impressed I was with her, especially her approach to her team building,
her wanting people to understand. As a teacher, I guess that's the way I look at things.
you know, you need to give them the picture, not just tell them what to do. But give them the tools to do it
themselves. And her whole framework and approach to what she wants her team to know and understand the
underpinnings of how this works. I just found her whole presentation very impressive. It's the first really heartening
presentation I've heard in a long time from anybody here and I just want to thank her and welcome here.
and I hope we get a lot more hires like that and that you can fill some of the empty seats and we can move forward.
thank you. And thank you, ms. Wong. >> mayor: thank you. Anybody else, madam clerk?
all right. Thank you all very much. Up next, madam clerk. >> one clarity.
do you want to go to d2 or to the resolutions. >> mayor: let's do the resolution.
and then we can get to those items pulled from consent. >> g1, acceptance of faa aip grant no. 3-12-0028-051-2022 in
the amount of $14,882,613 from the u.s. Department of transportation, federal avison ration administration with the
recommendation that the commission adopt the resolution and authorize the mayor and city attorney to execute and the city
clerk to certify the grant agreement. >> good morning. Just quickly, this is a -- we
routinely bring these faa grants that go to the airport authority to the city commission because the city commission is the owner
of the underlying land that the airport sits on. I act as your ex-officio. This is designed to approve the
taxi ways up at the airport and then also the general aviation apron. And these are all improvements
that will help build capacity for the airport. I think just so the commission has an understanding of
magnitude, I was talking to mr. Pensga the other day and over the last 20 years this city commission and former city
commission have approved approximately $150 million in grants that have gone to the airport.
it's pretty substantial investments in east gainesville and to a driver of economic impact on the east side of town.
thank you. >> mayor: thank you, mr. Bredfeldt. And the outcomes of those
approvals certainly show. The airport looks phenomenal, functions incredibly well. I've been flying out of there
off and on for many, many, many years and it's really almost unrecognizable today compared to say, 20 years ago.
that's a testament to you and your leadership, mr. Pensga and really pleased with where we are with that.
commissioner hayes-santos. >> I move resolution 2022-477. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second to
approve the resolution. Any members of the public wish to speak to this, madam clerk? >> I don't really want to speak
to. Just a comment. You said about the changes in 20 years.
the first time I came to the gainesville airport was in 1972 when I came to meet my future in-laws.
and I want to tell you at that point as I recall, it was like a [inaudible] and there was no terminal.
and so you talk about the changes in 20 years. That's the changes in close to 50 years.
and I can't believe it. It is a very nice facility. I just wanted to -- you prompted a memory.
thank you. >> mayor: thank you. Okay. Then with that we have a roll
call vote. >> commissioner arreola is absent. Commissioner chestnut.
>> aye. >> commissioner saco. >> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker.
>> aye. >> commissioner ward. >> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos.
>> aye. >> and mayor poe. >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously
with arreola absent. All right. To our pulled items, madam clerk let's start with d2.
>> all right. Item d2 on page two, southwest 62nd boulevard connector construction award 2022-345 with
the recommendation that the commission award the build southwest 62nd boulevard connector to watson construction
company, llc in the amount of 16,137,456.98 and authorize the city manager or designee to enter into a construction
agreement with watson construction company, llc and any other necessary documents with southwest 62nd boulevard
connector subject to approval of the city attorney or designee as to form and legality. Ms. Manager?
>> mr. Brian singleton is here to provide any explanation. >> brian singleton, acting public works director here to
present on the southwest 62nd boulevard connector project. The purpose of the project is to
complete the interconnected roadway grid in the southwest portion of the city in accordance with the city and
county's comprehensive plans. It also will reduce congestion on i75 and 20th avenue, newberry street and archer
roads. Here is an overview of the area just laying out some of the different projects that have
been completed in the area over the past ten years or so. West of the interstate, the county has been expanding
southwest 8th avenue grid network. That was recently completed last year.
coming over the interstate 20th avenue you, that is a future project for the county four-leaning that bridge and
providing a dedicated pedestrian connection over the bridge. Just on the other side in front of cabana beach in that coral
color, that's the roadway alignment that we're presenting today that connects into the new roadway grid that was recently
completed by butler plaza as well as celebration pointe. And then south of archer road, the city completed southwest
40th boulevard project connecting archer road down to 34th street at the post office that was opened three or four
years ago. And then on the other side of williston road, we've currently analyzed southwest
42nd terrace extension to provide an alternate alignment to williston road. Correctively all of these
projects are expanding the interconnector roadway grid so that to reduce the congestion on the surrounding roadway network.
this project was established by federal highway and fdot delivered through local agency grants.
county started it in 2007 through a pd and e studdie. We looked at 11 different routes.
ultimately the route we're presenting today is -- was determined to be the best route through the mtpo.
from 2014 to 2016 the preliminary report was put together and then from 2016 to 2022 we received federal aid
approval of the alignment, fdot completed the right-of-way acquisitions and the city completed the design.
corridor is 1.4 miles in length, right-of-way varies. There will be 11-foot travel lanes, 10-foot shoulders with a
7-feet bike lane and a 10-foot-wide multiuse path on the northeast side of the roadway.
here's another snapshot of the corridor. At the left side is cabana beach where there will be a tomorrow
water pond constructed. South where the -- about a 330-foot-span bridge will be placed coming down to the
northern end of clark-butler boulevard where that hard bend in the road is at today at the walmart existing pond there will
also be reconfigured and expanded. Prior grant awards. Internally to the city and
county has been $18.5 million to date. Total -- excuse me, 8.5 million to date.
total funding has been 15. 4 million, including all of the environmental reviews, regulations, right-of-way, et
cetera. For the construction phase, fdot is providing 13.1 million for the construction.
the city -- we're proposing the city to fund 3 million for the construction. Fdot is also providing the
construction engineers and inspections fund in the amount of about $2 million. Duration.
we're expected to start in november. There will be some lane closure restrictions.
the roadways listed there. Butler boulevard, 20th avenue, 24th avenue, 43rd street, any lane closure wills be
required to be done at night so that way it won't impact the traveling public. Then in front of cabana beach
lane closure wills be restricted from being in the peak hours for the same reasons. There will be two closures
required that vary north end of butler boulevard will have to be reconstructed through a closure. That will occur from february of
next year through july of next year. Traffic will be rerouted via southwest 25th avenue and then
a section of cabana beach will be closed september through december. This was coordinated with cabana
beach and the butler boulevard closure was coordinated with butler enterprises. Our recommendation is to award
the bid to watson construction in the amount of 16.1 million and to authorize the manager to enter into the agreement and any
other documents to move the project forward. And with that I'll yield to any questions.
>> mayor: thank you. Appreciate that. Commissioner chestnut. >> thank you.
well this is quite, quite impressive. It's going to be a great addition to the community.
I want to know if watson construction is a local company. >> they are based out of newberry.
so they are local to alachua county, they're not just incorporated into the city limits.
>> that's what a I'm looking for, alachua county or gainesville that we're using a local company.
mr. Mayor, I will move staff's recommendation. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second to
approve the recommendation. Commissioner arreola. [inaudible] >> mayor: madam clerk, do you
have anybody signed up to speak to this item? [inaudible] okay.
>> hello. Jo beatty. This was on the consent agenda. I'm glad it was pulled off.
I don't understand you commissioners approving something like $16 million and trying to approve it on the
consent agenda. This was an excellent presentation. As I've said before when I keep
asking to have things pulled off the consent agenda, it's not always that they are controversial, it's that we're
paying for it. When somebody sees $16 million being paid on the consent agenda, no discussion, no
questions, no presentation, it's wrong. One of you when you ran for office said where is the
transparency. I spoke to you. This is mr. Arreola, by the way, he's going to bring us
transparency. Never once have you really helped get things off the consent agenda and made things
transparent for the public. I was notably to be here for the consent agenda. This was an excellent
presentation. Where the connectors are, you want people off I-75. I discovered one by accident.
I went down the street. Where does this go? Came out on archer road. Wow.
if you did this more and presentations like this more, what you were doing, how you are spending your money -- sometimes
how you are misspending it -- things like this would only benefit people. Benefit you, the traffic.
the more people that know this is the map and we have connectors and you can bypass dangerous I-75, it's going to
happen. You're not helping educate people and you're not being transparent.
I think you need to look at your rules. Commissioners, you need to stop allowing things to just be
put -- that are not routine to just be put on the consent agenda. You have times when I've asked
you to pull off a list of the meetings you were going to have. You're passing your calendar on the consent agenda or passing
that you got an award. That's nice for the public to know. So some of these things as
agenda items are really to inform the public and to let us know, give us an opportunity if we disagree.
it doesn't make sense. I would ask you to all listen to this. I think you should listen to mr.
chestnut the other day and he apologized for not scrutinizing the consent agenda more. >> mayor: thank you, miss
beatty. Anybody else signed up to speak to this? Commissioner ward?
>> thank you. I don't entirely disagree with miss beaty on much of the substance.
it's important to know we've had hours of discussion on this project. This is not new.
this is the final award of the bid. Tpo and commission meeting over the course of four years, we've
had many, many hours of discussion. It goes way back. There you go.
this is not a new item. There have been many hours of discussion on whether or not to do it more than once and what
path it would take more than once and the complexity of having to acquire right-of-way and all that sort of thing.
I'm pleased that we are nearing the end of the project. But please don't think that this very serious project just popped
up and got dropped off on the consent agenda, because there have been many, many hours of discussion on it over the years.
thank you. >> mayor: mrs. Duncan-walker. >> mr. Mayor, I want to say thank you to staff for a really,
really nice presentation and the work that is about to be done that is surely to give us a safer alternative.
I just really appreciate you. Thank you for indulging me today and showing the public what it is we're about to enter into.
thank you. >> mayor: commissioner saco. >> I want to thank staff. It's such a good presentation,
even if he hadn't been there to give it, even being in the back you could follow along. Not everybody has to get the
information on the meeting, they can go online to all the transparent materials and read it, whenever they have team, if
they can't make the meeting, find the reporting. This video is pretty hard to download and have the bandwidth
for that. You can find it online and follow along with all the materials.
I think staff made a really accessible acceptable follow along with really good maps and step by step explanation.
so thank you very much for making that accessible in the meeting and off the meeting. Thank you, mr. Mayor.
>> mayor: thank you. I'm just grateful we're at the end of this process. As you said, it's been 15 years.
we spent -- every since I've been an elected official, which is about 15 years, hundreds of hours of public discussion.
it involved massive amounts of community involvement. The chamber was very involved. Our legislative delegation was
very involved. It was not easy. There were many controversial points that we had to work
ourselves through. And to the folks that will be sitting here over the two years of this project will be under
construction, you will get more -- you will get some -- once roads start getting shut down and people's lives start
getting disrupted, you'll continue to hear about it. But I'm glad that we're to the point of awarding the bid.
I'm glad it's going to a local company. You know, so much work has gone into getting it to this point.
thank you all and look forward to letting the next group do the ribbon cutting, or whatever, dirt moving, whatever it is
that's going to happen. Commissioner arreola. >> I was just going to add to the history.
I remember there was a time when it was almost not going to happen. This commission rallied together
and was able to get one of the county commissioners to swing their vote. Here it is now.
so sometimes things come down to just one elected official voting, but it obviously takes a team effort to make sure that
these things actually happen and shovels get moving dirt. So looking forward to it. Actually used to joke the first
time I became aware of local government as an entity was when I was driving on 62nd boulevard back in high school wondering
who is in charge of this road. It's just falling apart. Now here we get to see its nature.
thank you. >> mayor: all in favor of the motion say aye. [ chorus of ayes ]
opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Our next item is d5. >> that's right.
[ reading d5 ] to the amount of $400,000. Authorize manager to execute the agreement, amendments and any
other documents for solar powered litter and containers, online monitoring, subject to approval by the city and
legality. >> good morning. These are solar powered litter containers that we plan to place
around the community. They compact, so we get up to three times more litter in them, which reduces our collecting
cost. I'm sure you're familiar with them. We have quite a few in the
midtown area and downtown area. A few years back, couple of years back, we presented a plan to zero waste subcommittee
giving an idea of where we're going to place these. We're not just going to put them in midtown and downtown.
we've identified other areas outside of those places that attract litter and have significant amounts of litter,
pedestrian traffic and things like that. We probably will revisit that a little bit.
litter does kind of tend to move around a little bit. Those are our goals and intentions.
>> mayor: okay. Thank you. Any questions from the commission or is there a motion?
commissioner hayes-santos. >> move staff recommendation. >> second. >> move and second.
madam clerk, anybody signed up to speak to this item? Okay. Come on up.
thank you. >> once again, jo beaty. I'm going to need the overhead. When did the city commission
approve this going up for bid? Was there ever a decision by this body that we needed solar-powered trash containers?
>> mayor: we've been looking at waste collection for a long time. I don't know the specific dates.
>> it was before this commission, and there was a majority vote for solar waste collection bins?
>> mayor: I cannot speak to a specific. >> no, you can't, because there probably wasn't.
okay. First of all, has anybody ever looked up these big belly waste bins to see other people's
experience? You know, this seems to me -- I guess you don't want to answer any of my questions.
I just was reviewing the agenda last night. When I saw this, I was like let me see what these are.
first of all, you could rent them. You're buying them, as I understand.
you're buying them with the maintenance agreement, a bid for $307 five essentially. You're now going to authorize
$400,000, almost a 33% increase. But looking them up, they are not all -- first of all, here is a picture out of commission with
another waste bin there. It takes up a lot of sidewalk room. There's another picture.
in this article, recycling fails. A mix of garbage and recycling getting picked up.
as part of your process, have you included the downtown business owners to see if this was good?
do you know the negatives of this? Do you know the maintenance problems?
I guess it's things like this, you know, you got the letter from deo about the way you got the decision on zoning.
I told you tonight that I saw that that decision was made. I told you, if you read their letter, what they are talking
about, this is the way you make all decisions. You don't ask questions. You put it off on the consent
agenda. My time is going to run out. But you know, do this outin the open.
please, I would appreciate it if commissioners wouldn't try to negate citizens comments and spin it.
if I had not asked for that to be pulled, if that was not on the regular agenda, you wouldn't have had the opportunity to log
staff for the years of work. Just because it's been done for years. >> mayor: thank you.
thank you. Thank you. >> somebody is looking at the agenda for the first time and
you guys are not transparent. >> mayor: thank you very much. Thank you. Commissioner ward.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. So when we are accused of doing the wrong thing, it is important to let the public know that that
information may not be entirely accurate. To this particular item, as was mentioned earlier, the zero
waste subcommittee had an extensive on this. I think it was september of 2021.
I might not be correct on that, it's off the top of my head. We had an extensive discussion right here on the commission.
it went into the 2022 fiscal budget. There were remarks about it then as well.
this is not brand-new. It simply is not. We have had extensive discussions about it, staff did
extensive work on it. It was in the public and it is on video. I appreciate that you found a
municipality in australia that had some difficulties with it. I'm glad that was made available to us.
yes, research was done on this. What's exciting about it is we're talking about putting litter containers in locations
where they have not been before. If that is not beneficial to the community, I don't understand something.
I think this is positive and we have had discussions about it. It's fine to disagree. But to say that we have not is
simply not accurate. I will correct that at every possible opportunity. Thank you.
>> mayor: commissioner hayes-santos. >> thank you, mayor. We already have these in our
downtown. We have extensive experience with it with our staff and with our community.
I know one by starbucks on the southeast 1st street but there's multiple ones throughout our community already.
also want to touch on the consent agenda. We're not a small city. We have hundreds of millions of
dollars in budget. We can't have a presentation on every single item or we will get nothing done.
we will -- everything is already 10 hours, the days worth of meetings we have presentations on every single item.
I think items that are controversial or there's people that don't want to vote for them, those are the ones to pull
but we can't pull every single item or we will shut down the city. Thank you.
>> mayor: thank you. Madam clerk, call for a vote. All in favor of the motion say [ chorus of ayes ]
all opposed? Motion passes unanimously. All right. We have reached the end of our
business for this morning. >> mayor: all right good afternoon. We're going to call this meeting
back to order. Regular city commission meeting, september 15th, 2022. And madam clerk, I will turn it
over to you. >> I believe our first item is early public comment. >> mayor: do we have anybody
signed up for early public comment? >> I do have one name for early public comment.
I'm not sure if it's for the morning issue -- already spoken? Oh, hi. >> mayor: speak from the heart.
[laughter] >> sorry. >> so sheila pane with the labor coalition.
we helped push through the rental rights ordinance, and I apologize, I am in the middle of cutting up a tree --
>> mayor: which item are you speaking towards? >> n-1. I'm in the middle of cutting up
a tree, it fell down in one of my client's yards. So good thing I didn't have one of y'all's [choppy audio].
so, up because it was something that kind of didn't get taken up when all the other property renters' rights ordinance was
being passed. And it's become more and more apparent, especially during covid, that it's super
important. And when we met with you all the last few years, you all said that your security deposits and
other issues had been stolen, no one ever gets it back. And, I hope this is mediation process between landlords and
tenants will be robust enough to cover other issues also that come up between landlords and tenants.
that will keep it from going into the courts. Because, tenants just give up at that point.
and my last -- so I'm hoping it can have the kind of robust element that like the wage recovery, wage theft ordinance
had. They've collected over $100,000, and they predict that perhaps twice as much as that was
recovered, since when employers are contacted, and they know they're in the wrong, they just go ahead and pay without it even
going through. And pine ridge. This has come up a lot. So, when all that stuff with
pine ridge, ongoing thing that we need and organize with the tenants there. They, when the last landlord
sold those 84 units, they had no -- nothing was passed on, so there would be no record if they paid.
even if they were trying to figure out if they needed to move from pine ridge they did not have a way to recover their
security deposit. There was no lease, and they're in a bad problem. I talked to miss geneva this
week. She couldn't get some stuff because she can't prove. So for people that have to pay
for another security deposit, first and last, when they already have it somewhere, keep them in bad housing.
that's what we're finding out at pine ridge. They don't have another security deposit to come up with.
so thank you very much. >> mayor: thank you, ms. Pane. Anybody else kind up for early public comment?
okay. Then we will move on to general public comment. >> we have ms. Jo beaty.
>> good day again. Two things. I read with dismay the article about the arrest of somebody for
alleged e-mails and threats and stuff. Read the articles. And in there, this person
clearly said he suffers from ptsd, was a war veteran, and I don't understand. You sit there and pass ordinance
so the homeless anywhere in this whole town can have an open container anywhere because you don't want people getting
arrested over things like that. You have civil citation so people who have pot and small enough pot, young people don't
get an arrest record early on. So you also have a mental health team with the police department and I don't understand why a
good upstanding person in the community is arrested when clearly he says he's got ptsd. It seems to me that you've got a
mental health team that, why does he need to be arrested, and have a mug shot and stuff, why is he not granted similar kinds
of privileges? You know he could have been baker acted. To see if he was really in a
mentally stressed, you have a mental health team that could go out. And I don't understand, you
know, for the hypocrisy of the way the city works, and the way you work and allow these things to happen.
so, I would really like to hear a little bit of comment on that and I'd like to never see something like this again.
I'm sure this probably happens often. It may be that this person frequently speaks against some
of the things you all would like to see rushed through. But I'll stop on that. I wish you'd think about it.
I'd sure like to hear you discuss how something like that goes on in this welcoming city. The other thing is that I really
have a problem with, you know, every time citizens speak, we've got to have it spun by the commissioners.
you can't just accept our comments. You determine what the truth is. Commissioner ward who soon hopes
to be our mayor needs to set the record straight. You know, I ask for things to be off the consent agenda not for
myself, but for the public. You certainly took the opportunity, when things were pulled, to thank staff and that.
look at these things as an opportunity and a public service announcement. We pay your salary.
we pay the taxes. We pay for these projects. >> mayor: thank you ms. Beaty. >> please be more considerate of
the citizens. >> our next speaker is tana silva. >> hello.
of all the many items on today's agenda the most consequential issue is why isn't the commission discussing the letter
from the state deo and the three options it outlines and the objections it raises. The mayor is not an executive.
seven people are elected to represent the city with equal votes. The mayor has no authority to
decide issues like this. Experience tells me the mayor has an explanation of some kind, and commissioners and staff will
let it go. Please don't. The letter gives the commission opportunity to finally open a
long overdue, honest discussion of equitable development. In the process the commission can set an example of respectful
dialogue. We've experienced the opposite. And I'll spare everyone some recent examples.
don't be afraid of difference. On and off the dais. That's part of your job. So, I would appreciate an answer
to my question, really two questions. One is, the city sent a mistaken document on the first round.
doesn't that restart the review clock? And the second question is, when will the commission discuss the
state deo letter and respond to it as a body of representative elected officials? >> mayor: madam clerk?
>> I believe this is johnny booth? >> hello. Sovereign -- king johnny booth.
-- notice reminder about the campaign, human trafficking, through star and through notice. Through notice goes out through
the constituents for like the 116 congressional parliamentary congress, which is now known as the 107th king parliamentary
congress for like notice you know, notice at any kind that states decide that genocide is people in any kind of way.
I also talk about the reshaping the president -- the present in order to cause a better grander future.
not the whole going over the past acting government, what confuse from the old past [indiscernible] within this
past. Now, florida, seminole, swamp plains, territory, known as a sovereign state, not an
independent state. I was just wondering how long was florida going to go along with the rest of what's going on
with the united states where they are under that notice since 2012. I just want to see constituents
work more on what's really on their agenda and stuff. I hear everyone complaining about all this other stuff but
they got all these agencies that just want to take all these other complaints, too. Which is why I do believe that
you did create all these other agencies within the start-up of the united states. Thank you.
>> mayor: thank you. Madam clerk? Okay. Thank you.
for the person who got arrested, that was a decision made between the state attorney and the gainesville police department.
it was not a city ordinance. It was a state statute that was violated so we'll leave that up to the court to determine and
the issues addressed in the letter from deo will be part of a discussion october 4th at a special meeting for the second
reading of the comp plan amendment. With that, madam clerk? That the issues in a letter from
deo will be addressed at the october 4th special meeting. Madam clerk? >> our next item is l-1,
quasi-judicial final plat for oaks preserve phase two a cluster subdivision 2022-488. A resolution of the city of
gainesville, florida, approving the final plat name oaks preserve phase two, a cluster subdivision located in the
vicinity of 5105 southwest archer road, gainesville, florida, as more specifically described in this resolution,
authorizing the city manager to execute a security agreement to secure required public improvements, accepting the
dedication of the public rights-of-way easements and other dedicated portions as shown on the plat, providing
directions to the city clerk and providing an immediate effective date. >> mayor: mr. Castillo, welcome.
>> good afternoon, mayor and commissioners. For the record my name is juan castillo.
I'm a planner with the department of sustainable development. I'd like to begin by
apologizing. Came to my attention today that there were three items not part of the backups associated with
this item. Those are three images for the plats itself. That we'll be discussing.
those images are in my presentation. And I have them here physically. But again, those would be part
of my presentation, as well. So the item before you this afternoon is the proposal for the final plat for the oaks
preserve cluster subdivision phase two. And it is the second part following the adoption of the
oaks preserve cluster subdivision design plat. The first phase was approved back in june 17th of 2021.
so the property in question is located west of southwest 50th terrace between southwest archer road, and southwest 57th avenue.
phase two is the portion, the southernmost portion of the proposed -- that is this portion right here.
you can see it more clearly here. This is what we will be talking about today.
here you can see the phase one which is the northern most portion of the cluster subdivision.
making that connection with archer road, and the second phase which is the item before you today.
the proposal is 33.36 acres in the size, and is adding 115 residential lots to the area. Most of the uses in the area
[choppy audio]. Here, you have a more zoomed in version of the northerly part of the proposal before you today.
this shows the connection to phase one, which is part of the cluster subdivision that makes the connection with archer road.
as well as the connections to abutting properties, and the majority of the residential lots being proposed today.
this is another zoomed in version, kind of moving towards the middle more. Here you start seeing the
southern connection and the majority of the single lot residential cluster right here, along with connections to
abutting properties. Lastly this is the southernmost part of the cluster subdivision phase two.
again showing connections to abutting property, remaining residential lots associated with this phase.
with that, staff has reviewed the proposal before you this afternoon, and finds that it is consistent with the approved
design plat, along with the city's comprehensive plan, planning development code, zoning regulations and technical
reviews for public works, gru, fire and environmental. Thank you so much for your time, and I am here and available for
any questions you may have. >> mayor: all right. Thank you very much, mr. Castillo.
commissioner hayes-santos? >> thank you, I move resolution 22-488. >> mayor: motion and a second to
adopt the proposed resolution. Madam clerk is there anyone signed up to speak to this item? Okay then we will move back to
the commission for a roll call vote. >> commissioner saco? An sent.
commissioner hayes-santos? >> aye. >> commissioner ward? >> aye.
>> commissioner arreola? Commissioner chestnut? >> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker?
>> aye. >> mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously
with saco absent. And madam clerk, before you read the next item into the record, I apologize, I told mr. Fulton
that he could introduce a new member of his staff, and I forgot to do that before we got to our business items.
but I'm super excited about this introduction. Because, well I know what an incredible that we're getting.
and we are so lucky as a city to have him as part of our team. Mr. Fulton, if you'll do the honors.
>> thank you, mayor and commissioners. I wanted to come in and introduce a new member of our
staff in the office of inclusion. We've had the opportunity to continue to build about the
skills of the staff here in the office, and so we had a compliance investigator position that came open, had applicants
apply and we've selected our next compliance investigator allows us to be able to do as I shared with you many times in
private, inreach and outreach activity in terms of training as well as get our cases handled quicker in a more sufficient
amount of time. And so the recent why I want to bring this to you as well is because zhu is a former reichert
house kid. He's a gentleman that this city has supported, and so to have a reichert house kid come home,
and I'm going to let him tell you his story, but to allow him to be part of our family in an employee capacity I'm excited to
do it. Without further ado I'd like him to share a few words. >> mayor: thank you.
good to have you. >> thank you. Thank you, commissioners. Thank you myer.
my name is zhu. I am here from gainesville. I grew up here. My brother also is here locally.
he's a local police officer. We both attended the reichert house growing up. And that program was very
beneficial to our life, and to our upbringing. Our father was not present with us, so, we had various male
mentors in our life to kind of steer and guide and direct us in the right direction so we can become productive citizens
within our city and our county. After graduating from the east side, I eventually attended the university of florida, and I
went on to go to law school at uf. After law school I went to work for a private firm for one year.
and there was a position open at the state attorney's office and I was glad to take that position and come back to my local
community. And I served in that role for seven years at the state attorney's office prosecuting
felony cases. And I was happy when the opportunity presented for me to do some work in equity.
one of my passions is civil rights. Which is one of the reasons why I went to law school to do some
civil rights work. So I'm excited to be here with the city and help out as much as I can and be involved in our
city, as much as I can. >> mayor: thank you. And -- ma'am, we don't allow cheers or jeers in the chamber.
thank you. Despite having a mediocre economics and government professor in your time out at
santa fe you somehow persevered through all of that to accomplish incredible things. And I'm just so thankful you're
bringing your experiences to our city, and specifically to the department of equity and inclusion, you're going to be a
tremendous addition and asset, and we just hope that you really enjoy your time here. So it's good to have you
introduced to the larger community. >> thank you. >> mayor: thank you.
all right, thank you mr. Folston. Appreciate you taking the time to do that.
all right, madam clerk next item. >> l-2, quasi-judicial final plat for grand oaks at tower
phase three, a cluster subdivision 2022-504. A resolution of the city of gainesville, florida, approving
the final plat name grand oaks at tower phase three, a cluster subdivision located in the vicinity of southwest 17th road
and southwest 68th terrace. Gainesville, florida, as more specifically described in this resolution, authorizing the city
manager to execute a security agreement to secure required public improvements, accepting dedication of the public rights
of way, easements and other dedicated portions as shown on the plat, providing directions to the city clerk and providing
an immediate effective date. >> mayor: all right, thank you. Welcome. >> thank you, mayor,
commissioners, forrest eddleton, the acting director of the department of sustainable development.
and I've also had the pleasure of working as sort of one of the planners in a long line of distinguished planners that have
worked on this project. Started off with andrew persons working on it for the design plat, and then, of course,
planner lawrence calderon worked on this for several of the other phases. So, it is an honor to be able to
sort of step in to this one, and continue it here in the third phase. So this is grand oaks at tower.
this is the third phase of a development that you all I'm sure are familiar with. This has been going on for quite
some time. So the phase that we are looking at today is this top phase here. It's 83 lots, about 24 acres,
and it is the continuance of phase one and phase two that you all have seen before. As you see on your screen here,
this started with the design phase back in 2018. Which was approved by the drb, the development review board.
went on to be approved by the city commission in the design plat stage, and phase one and phase two have also been
reviewed and approved by this body. So this is the survey of the entire area you'll see on this
screen. The northern phase here. We have g-2 and g-3 which show you in more detail the lots up
close. And of course, as you are all familiar, really, this is the final plat approval stage, as I
said, comes in a long line of reviews and approvals that have happened over time. And, the staff's really
responsibility for this final plat stage is to review it for compliance and consistency -- consistency with the
construction plans that have been reviewed and approved by several agencies and departments and staff, and of course, that
those construction plans are in consistency and compliance with the design plat, the comprehensive plan, and the land
development code. So with that, staff finds that this phase three does meet the requirements and standards of
the comprehensive plan, and development code, and is consistent with the previous phases and the design plat.
and are recommending approval. >> mayor: okay. Thank you very much. Commissioner hayes-santos?
>> thank you, mayor, I move ordinance 2022-504. >> second. >> mayor: thank you, motion and
second to adopt the proposed resolution. Madam clerk, anybody signed up to speak to this item?
okay. Then move back to the commission for a roll call vote. >> commissioner ward?
>> aye. >> commissioner chestnut? >> aye. >> commissioner saco?
>> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola?
>> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos? >> aye. >> and mayor poe?
>> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously. Next item, please. >> resolution number 2022-346,
sixth budget amendment to fiscal year 2022 general government financial and operating plan budget, with a recommendation
that the commission adopt the proposed resolution. >> mayor: okay, madam manager. >> okay, members of the
commission, this item is the sixth budget amendment for fiscal year 2022 operating budget.
susan boyd is here, acting budget manager. This item went to finance committee on august 31st, and it
was recommended for approval -- for consideration and approval by this body today. And with that, ms. Boyd?
>> good afternoon. This is -- >> mayor: I'm sorry to interrupt, can you pull that mic
up a little? >> this is the sixth amendment to our fiscal year '22 general government financial operating
plan. The last amendment was done in april, on april 21st of this year.
and I'm just going to kind of summarize things. General fund amendments, revenue appropriations of $630,000, this
included $230,000 from the florida department of corrections for the inspire program with the police
department which funds four violence interrupter positions. It was also -- sorry, general capital project funding.
expenditures under this were movement of some funds from public works, which should have been capital for some hvac,
roofing, plumbing and electrical work. And then there was $40,000 that was allocated for the busing
program. Expenditure adjustments between departments included $150,000 for some extended assistance for
the finalizing [choppy audio] between departments for positions that were made from different departments back and
forth. This also included the addition of 5.5 new positions. City manager had added a special
events coordinator and communications and assistant director and the city auditor, this was dilution of a position.
this is one that she had previously added as her charter authorization at the beginning of the year, and after some
looking at it decided she didn't want to move forward with that so we were removing that. The compliance manager and
equity and inclusion and then four positions that were approved by the city commission. Special revenue fund amendments.
this included allocations of approximately $800 in the american rescue plan, and then some funding from the
transportation mobility program. Sorry. So the expenditures for american rescue there was roughly 7.8.
there was funding to new programs and then some funding for some programs that's closed, and then reallocated to
different programs. This also included $1.1 million that was tmpa funding for the 62nd boulevard arterial
connector, and some weatherproofing at the parking garage. And also $250,000 for a
southwest 62nd boulevard rts hub. And then $90,000 for medieval fair.
under special revenue, there was allocation of $1 is.2 million in new awards and grants, and then reconciliation of some grants to
reduce the fund balance by 1.2. New grants included 10.6 million for the fta for the bus and bus facilities for east side
transfer station, and $300,000 from fta for the american rescue plan as well as planning restoration with rts.
under debt service we allocated an additional $38,000 of interest earnings for those funds.
and under capital projects we utilized the fund balance and transfer between multiple projects for about $4.2 million.
this also included $1.7, which was funding that's transferred from various different projects for additional funding required
for southwest 62nd boulevard. This includes $683,000 for a couple of wild spaces, public places programs.
and let's see, under the proprietary funds, enterprise funds, this was rts this was funding for a vehicle, and also
we had corrections to the fund balance from previous. And we returned some funds to fund balance.
under internal service, we had allocation of primarily this allocation of 842,000 for operating expenses for fleet,
and then there was an addition of 695,000 from other departments for purchase of various vehicles.
and that was it in the budget amendment. Then we had, ms. Curry handed this to you guys, we had a
revision to this, we were requesting to amendment attachment a to move $52,700 from the feasibility studies
under the arpa program into the human rights coalition program. >> if I may, members of the commission, this is a revision
to attachment "a" on page 7 specifically the human rights coalition was initially allocated $35,000 by the board.
we are asking for a revision for that to be up creased to $87,713 directed from the commission a couple of meetings or so ago in
order to accommodate that in the arpa funding and we are asking that the feasibility study line be reduced from 250 to 197,288.
>> mayor: okay, thank you madam clerk -- I mean madam manager. Ms. Boyd thank you, I appreciate the presentation.
turn to commissioner arreola. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you. I'd like to go ahead and move
that we adopt resolution 2022-346. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second to
adopt the amended budget resolution with the updated attachment "a" that the city manager just referred to.
commissioner chestnut? >> thank you. This amendment is part of the whole resolution?
>> mayor: yes, ma'am. >> okay. Well, I want to vote against this amendment because of the
manner in which it was done. At the end of the budget process, we moving forward, this particular entity has not been
recommended for funding. There were other people that have come to us for funding that -- who were not recommended
by -- agency and they were turned down. I just don't like the way this was done, preferential treatment
for one group but not all and I don't think that was fair. It's not fair to the taxpayer. It's not fair at all.
so thank you. >> mayor: okay, thank you commissioner chestnut. Madam clerk, do we have folks
signed up to speak to this item? Okay. Then, this is a roll call vote. Madam clerk?
>> commissioner hayes-santos? >> no. >> commissioner ward? >> aye.
>> commissioner chestnut? >> no. >> commissioner arreola? >> aye.
>> commissioner duncan-walker? >> no. >> commissioner saco? >> aye.
>> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes 4-3 with hayes-santos, duncan-walker and
chestnut in dissent. Next item, please? >> our next item is land use change of 13.943 acres of
property located northeast of the intersection of southwest williston road and southwest 13th street and west of
southwest 13th street and 36th place. Ordinance 211146 a-an ordinance of the city of gainesville
florida amending the future land use map of the comprehensive plan by changing the land use category of approximately 13.943
acres generally located northeast of the intersection of southwest williston road and southwest 13th street and west
of southwest 13th street and south of southwest 36th place more specifically described in this ordinance, the city of
gainesville urban mixed-use, providing directions to the city manager, providing a severability clause, providing a
repealing clause and providing an effective date. >> mayor: thank you. Mr. Simmons?
>> mr. Mayor, commissioners, I believe that item was moved to the evening agenda because of a notification.
I have an agenda -- >> mayor: is that correct, madam clerk? Per our update?
we did move a couple things I know. N-1? >> mayor: okay.
thank you, mr. Simmons. All right. Then next item, please. >> item -- our next item is n-1,
ordinance amending the residential rental unit permit program, ordinance number 211438-a.
an ordinance of the city of gainesville, florida, amending the residential rental unit permit program by amending
chapter 14.5, article one titled residential rental unit program providing directions to the codifier, providing a
severability clause, providing a repealing clause and providing an effective date. >> mayor: okay.
thank you this is the second reading. Commissioner hayes-santos? >> thank you.
mayor, after our last meeting, at that last meeting we gave direction to staff to draft some amendments, adding the rental
mediation program and also adding some checklist. With the aclc, and state attorney's office to have a
version of that, and I would like to move ordinance 211439-a, and the version. >> second.
>> mayor: okay motion and a second. And can you read the attachment? Number in the backup so we --
>> 022 -- >> 220- -- >> it's second reading -- >> mayor: okay.
[inaudible] okay so it says "a" on here mr. Attorney pip just want to make sure for the record we're
referring to the right version. >> the version I think that's been moved would be the one that was added by commissioner
hayes-santos with the slight modification to the first reading [inaudible] reading we endeavored to encapsulate those
revisions, and I think [inaudible] commissioner hayes-santos of the agenda, which is the -- motion.
>> mayor: is it possible for you to pull that up? Madam clerk? Supposed to call during dinner
time. Yeah, if that's faster. Madam clerk, the attorney has a paper copy.
I think it's important if there are modifications before the second reading that we show them clearly.
okay, so no changes on that page. I think page three is where -- >> that was the first of the two
changes. Right, commissioner? >> yes. >> mayor: yeah, I think --
>> taken out the requirement to also attach the entirety of the ordinance itself. Concern with that with the just
sort of an overload [inaudible] and the other slight change -- >> mayor: page 6, line 203. >> the noncodified part of the
ordinance, section 3. The effective date of the ordinance -- shall create [inaudible]
>> mayor: thank you. Just want to put it on for the agenda. Commissioner hayes-santos made a
motion to adopt the ordinance as amended, that we just were presented. And that is included in the
backup as the hayes-santos version. Who was the seconder of that? Okay.
saco was the second. Madam clerk, who do we have signed up to speak today? No one.
>> our first speaker followed by jen powell, followed by tyler ford. >> hello.
I wanted to mention that the affected parties do not know about this. People were just sent their
landlord permits a few weeks ago. And there could have been a notice in there saying that
there was a revised ordinance being discussed. Nobody knows about this. It's just a fluke that I saw
that on today's agenda. And it could have been easily included. So I think this is improper
because the affected parties do not know about it. And yet they were build $140, instead of $122 like last year,
for their permits. And it could have been included. So there's no excuse not to include it.
I also want to know, is air conditioning, central air conditioning required by code? I don't think it is.
and yet you're requiring people who do spend several thousand dollars to put programmable thermostats in.
I tried that, and it's too complicated. So we're spending $50, and then we're told the tenant doesn't
want it. Why are you telling what kind of permits -- what kind of programmable need to be put in?
I think that's improper and should not be required. Also you're requiring us to have an air conditioning man look at
every two years. For those of you who are homeowners, do you have an air conditioner man look at yours
every two years? They're going to know that it's required, and they're going to say oh, it's $100 for 15
minutes, if that much. I think that's wrong, as well. In terms of showerheads. You're revising that in the new
ordinance. Showerheads and faucet aerators. In the old ordinance it said 2.2.
that doesn't even exist in gainesville. I had a friend buy 20 online and now it's changed to 2.5.
because he was following the old ordinance. Now this is -- it's all wrong. You're making people spend money
they don't have to spend. Even raising the permit to $140, you know, you say you want affordable housing.
and then you want housing that meets all these luxury standards. Well, which is it, affordable or
high priced houses? Because right away $140, to make the same amount of money, the landlord has to charge another
$10 or $11 a month rent. And the tenants say why are you raising our rent? I'm saying I have to do it
because I'm being forced to do these things. One guy I told them I have to put more insulation in your
attic. He said why, my insulation is great, my temperature once it gets there, it stays there.
I'm being forced to do that. So I'm just saying, this is not proper. People are were not noticed and
you're putting provisions in here that were not identical and people spent money trying to meet that and now they can't use
it. He actually said to me, well maybe I'll send them the box of 20 aerators and charge them.
>> mayor: thank you. Madam clerk? >> jen powell, followed by [indiscernible].
>> mayor: welcome. >> hello commissioners. My name is jen powell. I am a citizen of gainesville
and I am also a renter. Nobody is forcing anybody to be a landlord. That's a choice.
I am here to speak in support of the rental housing mediation program. I believe it's a good start, and
I support creating a venue for landlords and renters to resolve their dispute amicably. But city staff must inform
renters seeking mediation of their options in the courts if they're landlord refuses to cooperate as well as provide
renters with the names and numbers of free or low cost legal clinics for the vulnerable, such as three
rivers. Finally, city commissioners and staff should look to the county's wage recovery program
as a model to add teeth to this mediation program. I have been very lucky in my 25 years of being a renter in
gainesville. I've had some excellent landlords. None of the landlords that I
have had would have a problem with any of the things in this ordinance. It's just basic -- basic safety,
basic health, and also yes, we need to do something about the extreme electric bills that some of the properties, so, yes,
insulation does make a big difference. I've lived in a house with excellent insulation.
I've lived in a house with none and the one with none my electric bill was equivalent to my month's rent.
granted this is years ago, but that just was the case. So I am in support of these modifications.
and I feel that we could even go further than that but this is a good start. Thanks.
>> mayor: thank you. >> tyler forest. >> good afternoon, commissioners.
first, thank you for voting on this. And for passing it the first time.
and thank you for making these very minor adjustments, and I hope that you all vote for it again.
just to be clear, these are not luxury standards. These are basic housing standards that are recognized
across our country. Indeed, I would bet that not a single one of you would buy a house that didn't meet these
same standards. That's why they're deserving of everybody. Right?
so, also, I want to support the rental housing mediation program and note that it's a good start. But I also support creating a
venue for landlords and renters to resolve their disputes amicably, but city staff and commissioners must make sure to
inform renters seeking mediation of their options in the courts, if their landlords refuse to cooperate.
as well as provide renter with the names and numbers of free or low cost legal clinics for the vulnerable such as three rivers.
finally commissioners and staff should look to the wage recovery program as a model to add teeth to the mediation program.
I would just add that we learned that the wage recovery program has returned over $100,000 to the pockets of workers who were
robbed. So it's clearly a successful model. And I hope you'll do so.
thank you. >> I want to just double-check, rick stransky did you want to speak to this item?
>> mayor: okay. Thank you all for your thoughts. Ma'am, if you -- >> I just wanted to say that
section 8 demand sense electoral heating -- >> mayor: hold on. >> section 8-
>> mayor: ma'am. Hold on, hold on, if you want to speak to our items, right next to where you're sitting there's
a sign-up sheet and we'll tell you which one. You can of course speak to this one now but that's how our
process works. Take that card and fill it out. >> thank you. >> mayor: go ahead.
commissioner hayes-santos? >> yeah, thank you, mayor. I just wanted to address the showerheads and the 2.2 to 2.5.
the 2.5 change means it's actually higher. So you can still use a 2.2 gallon or 1.8 or anything below
2.5. Just can't use above 2.5. So those showerheads are still useful.
thank you, mayor. >> mayor: commissioner saco? >> thank you, mr. Mayor. I'm of course in support this --
this -- of this ordinance and the changes we've made to it. I do want to add just how important it is to have another
option for security deposit recovery or other issues. I helped one friend pro bono, he had left the house in better
shape than when he moved in, after a couple years the landlord refused to return the security deposit.
didn't really follow any of the regulations or statutes, statutory requirements of, tell me within so many days why I'm
not getting it back. So, I helped him file in court. I had to tell them that if he made less than a certain income
you have the option of indigent support, the courts don't often tell you there. Often folks think they have to
pay several hundred dollars just to recover $1,000. So programs like this at give an option to our community and an
opportunity to be as many of our neighbors has said I think is worth whatever we are putting into it.
that really is invaluable to those who think they don't have an option to think that they need an attorney [choppy audio]
and even with an attorney advising him, filing for free, helping him look over everything that he was filing, it still
took nine months for this friend of mine to recover the security deposit. I think at that point, he was
going to use that as a security deposit in the second place. So, this is -- this is an important thing that we're
doing. And I hope you all -- >> mayor: thank you. Ma'am, you don't have to fill
out a separate card for each item if you just want to put the items you want to speak to on your card.
however you want to do it. Did you want to speak to this item? Sure, yeah, that's fine.
I saw you grab a few cards. You can do one and just put the different items on the agenda that you'd like to speak to, and
the clerk can call you up. If you want to speak to this item before we move on, come on up.
tell us who you are. >> thank you so much. Mayor poe, my name is wendy noone.
I'm a researcher, therapist at helping hands. So I'm a researcher. Hrs does two things.
one, they demand ac and heat but it doesn't need to be central. And the second thing, they demand nearly inspections to
care --. >> mayor: thank you. And once you have that filled out give it to the clerk here
and she'll call you up. Real quick, this is kind of looking down the road with this. Obviously this is a really
important first step. I want to thank everybody who has been really intimately involved with this process for a
long time, including some folks sitting up here on the dais, and out in the community, it's taken a lot of work, a lot of
collaborative effort. But this isn't an ending point. We're going to have to pay attention to how this is working
and if there are things that can be improved a year or two years down. Come back and make this
modification. And I think the aspect is one of those things. Once the mediation process is in
place, it's a lot easier to sort of add to it, and augment it. So I agree I think definitely the wage theft mod s&l a great
one, it really helped quite a few people. We're about to talk about fair chance hiring in the next weeks
and months here, and there's a similar conversation going on with that. The sort of silver lining there
is once the process and the mediation is -- has been in place for awhile, folks quite trying to file it.
because they know that they're going to not only get caught, they will be held accountable. And so I expect there are going
to be a small number of landlords who choose to not comply, or to abuse the system. They will get held accountable,
and then it will become common knowledge that you just have to follow the rules, and we'll see a number of mediations drop
quite a bit after this. So it's an important time of year to come up here, but it's going to add such value to our
renters which make up about two-thirds of our community. Each group of our neighbors that will be positively impacted by
this. So, with that, madam clerk, we do have a motion on the floor to adopt on second reading the
modified ordinance, which was shown on the overhead by mr. Nee and labeled in the backup with commissioner hayes-santos' name.
please call the roll call vote. >> commissioner chestnut? >> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos?
>> aye. >> commissioner saco? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola?
>> aye. >> commissioner ward? >> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker?
>> aye. >> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. Passes unanimously.
thank you, all. Thank you. All right. Now go out there and do more
good work. Or take a nap and do good work tomorrow. All right, madam clerk.
>> next item is ordinance number 2022-343 repealing of the student community relations advisory board.
an ordinance of the city of gainesville, florida, repealing division 15, student community relations advisory board chapter
2 of the city code of ordinances, providing directions to the codifier, providing a severability clause, providing a
repealing clause and providing an immediate effective date. >> mayor: thank you, commissioner hayes-santos?
>> thank you, mayor. I move ordinance 2022-343 second reading by title only. >> mayor: motion and second to
adopt the proposed ordinance on second reading. Any members of the public wish to speak to this?
? Okay. >> commissioner arreola? Commissioner chestnut?
>> aye. >> commissioner saco? >> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker?
>> aye. >> commissioner ward? >> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos?
>> aye. >> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously
with arreola an sent. Next item. >> noise ordinance amendment 2022-275 an ordinance of the
city of gainesville amending 15-2, 15-3, 15-5, 15-6, 15-7 and 2-339 code of ordinances relating to noise, providing
directions to the codifier, providing a severability clause, providing a repealing clause and providing an immediate effective
date. >> mayor: commissioner hayes-santos? >> I move ordinance 2022-275 on
second reading by title only. >> mayor: motion and a second that we adopt the proposed ordinance on second reading.
anybody signed up to speak to this? ? >> yes, we do have one speaker,
mr. Rich stransky. >> mayor: welcome. >> my name is rich stransky. Thanks for giving me the option
to speak. Mayor, commission, I live-I own a house about 20 years, about ten blocks, a couple blocks
[inaudible] and it kind of turns out coincidentally I kind of have this personal noise issue and it kind of came up right
this month, and I thought this might be an appropriate venue -- anyway I'm asking a question, where do I go?
what can I do? I look at the current regs and as of a few months ago it seemed applicable to the current code.
and I was looking at particularly the fact that I was a person with sensitivities and I thought, I realize now that
portion of the code was unconstitutional in the state. My inference is, and I haven't done a lot of research, my
inference is the changes are associated with the need to delete that portion of the code. It looks like primarily the
change is associated with what I just have to infer is probably about the biggest noise problem that the code didn't really
directly address quantitatively is noise in cars. Mine's different. The regulations say for my
concern, I'll get to exactly what it is in a minute, I think what they say is it's like readily curable within 200 feet
of the property boundary, then the code applies. Now that doesn't apply in my case.
I'm talking about my neighbor across the street have a really loud air conditioner, and really loud for years.
I e-mailed code enforcement, they said the police enforce that. I called the police, they said
they're not going to be a problem, they drove their car around the block. This house is kind of in the
middle of the block. They drove around the block, didn't really hear any noise that they thought was -- I left
that there. And I go well maybe I'm not a reasonable person. So I started talking to all my
neighbors. Does this bother you? And so I think there are nine houses that border the street
around the subject property. And I've spoken to seven of the nine, and I was really surprised, I've never spoken to
any of them about the noise before. They're as irate as I am. I hear this noise, it doesn't
meet the 55 decibels at night 200 feet of property but it's 55 decibels at property boundary. It's 40 decibels where I sit on
my patio. The average noise on my patio is like 24 air decibels. It's an air conditioner, it's on
24/7. Doing this for years. It's only become a big concern to me because now I sit out
there, my mom moved in a couple years ago, the virus, she has dementia, this is what we do. We sit out by the street to
greet our neighbors. That's social. It's really personal. So it seems like this new
changes to the regs don't really apply to me. I'm wondering is there any place for me to go.
I called the landlord -- the landlord of the property -- >> mayor: sir, sir -- >> they have no concerns at all.
>> mayor: okay I think to answer your first question probably not. If it's not meeting the
threshold legally, that doesn't give us a lot of options. But, based on our last item, and what you're telling us, if it's
a rental property, that landlord is absolutely bound by our new tenants right ordinance, and air conditioners are, as you just
heard, an aspect of that. And so, can he just give his information to you? Or do you want him to give it to
one of those five gentlemen behind? Who do you want to give it to? [inaudible]
[laughter] our newest senior member. So, the gentleman in black right behind you, give your
information to him, and he'll follow up with you, because it does sound like if there's an inspection of that property, and
specifically that air conditioner, it will not be in compliance. I can't make that determination
from the dais. But we certainly can administer this new process we just approved, and possibly get you
some relief through that process. Since the noise ordinance is probably not going to help you.
give your an tact information to andrew and he'll follow up with you. And someone will come out.
okay, thank you. Madam clerk, anybody else? Okay. With that we'll move to a roll
call vote. >> commissioner saco? >> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos?
>> aye. >> commissioner ward? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola is an
september. Commissioner chestnut? >> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker?
>> aye. >> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously
with arreola an sent. All right. Next item, please. >> our next item is voluntary
annexation of 25.38 acres much property on west side of I-75 and northwest of southwest 8th avenue, ordinance 210956.
an ordinance of the city of gainesville, florida, annexing approximately 25.38 acres of privately owned property
generally located on the west side of interstate 75, north of southwest 8th avenue, as more specifically described in this
ordinance, as petitioned for by the property owners pursue and to chapter 171 florida statutes, making certain findings,
providing for inclusion of the property in appendix one of the city charter, providing for land use plan, zoning and subdivision
regulations and enforcement of the same, providing for persons engaged in any okay ration, business trade or profession,
providing directions to the city clerk, providing a severability clause, a repealing clause and immediate effective date.
>> mayor: thank you, madam clerk. Commissioner hayes-santos? >> thank you, mayor I move
ordinance 210956 on second reading by title owned. >> second. >> mayor: motion and second to
adopt the ordinance on second reading. Anybody signed up? >> no, sir.
commissioner ward? Commissioner chestnut? Aye. >> commissioner saco?
>> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola is
absent. Commissioner hayes-santos? >> aye. >> and mayor poe?
>> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously with ward and arreola absent. >> voluntary annexation of 9.945
acres of privately owned property generally located northwest of intersection of southwest williston road and
southwest 13th street. Ordinance number 210734 a. An ordinance of the city of gainesville, florida, annexing
approximately 9.945 acres of privately owned property generally located northwest of the intersection of southwest
williston road and southwest 13th street as more specifically described in this ordinance, as petitioned for by the property
owners pursuant to chapter 171 florida statutes, making certain findings, providing for inclusion of the property in
appendix a of the city charter, providing for land use plan, zoning and subdivision regulations and enforcement of
the same, providing for persons engaged in any occupation, business trade or profession, providing directions to the city
clerk, providing a severability clause, repealing clause and effective date. >> thank you, mayor, I move
ordinance 210734-a. >> second. >> mayor: motion to adopt on second reading.
roll call vote. >> commissioner hayes-santos? >> aye. >> commissioner ward?
commissioner chestnut? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola? >> aye.
>> commissioner duncan-walker? >> aye. >> commissioner saco? >> aye.
>> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously with ward absent.
n-6 was removed and referred to a future meeting. >> comprehensive plan amendment, transportation mobility element
2022-522. Ordinance number 200732-a, an ordinance of the city of gainesville, florida, amending
the comprehensive plan of the city of gainesville by amending transportation element number policy 10-2-1, relating to
vacating city rights-of-way providing directions to the city manager, providing severability clause, providing a repealing
clause and an effective date. >> mayor: thank you, commissioner hayes-santos. >> thank you, mayor.
I move ordinance 200732-a on second reading by title only. >> mayor: is there a second? >> second.
>> mayor: motion and a second to adopt the proposed ordinance on second reading. Anybody signed up to speak to
this? Roll call vote. >> commissioner duncan-walker? >> aye.
>> commissioner arreola? Commissioner saco? >> aye. >> commissioner chestnut?
>> aye. >> commissioner ward? Absent. Commissioner hayes-santos?
>> aye. >> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously
with ward absent. Next item. >> our next item is text change amending the land development
code relating to right-of-way vacations. Ordinance number 200731-a an ordinance of the city of
gainesville, florida, amending the land development code, relating to vacating city rights-of-way by amending
section 30-3.41, right-of-way vacations providing directions to the codifier, providing a severability clause, repealing
clause and an effective date. >> mayor: commissioner hayes-santos? >> thank you, mayor, I move
ordinance 200731-a by second reading by title only. >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second.
anybody signed up to speak to this item? >> no, sir. >> mayor: roll call vote.
>> commissioner chestnut? >> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos? >> aye.
>> commissioner saco? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola? >> aye.
>> commissioner ward? >> aye. >> commissioner duncan-walker? >> aye.
>> and mayor poe? >> mayor: aye. That motion passes unanimously. We have reached the end of our
business for this afternoon. Is there any commission comment at this time? Okay.
then we will be in recess until 5:30. >> mayor: okay. Welcome, everybody.
let me get this on tight. Okay. Going to call this meeting back to order.
madam clerk, I believe the first order of business is the pledge of allegiance. >> yes, sir.
>> mayor: if all would join me if they're willing and able for the pledge of allegiance. [ pledge of allegiance ]
>> mayor: thank you and please be seated. Okay. Madam clerk, our first
proclamation, please. >> our first proclamation is peace takes practice 365 day. >> mayor: okay.
thank you. We are in the midst of welcoming week this week and we also have the international day of piece
and just use this opportunity to remind everybody that they're invited to join us this sunday at the martin luther king jr.
center for the international festival and longest table event. It goes from 11:00 to 6:00.
it's free. There's going to be music and food and dancing and just an overall good time.
and at 4:00 is the longest table. It's an event we've been holding for several years where folks
show up, actually intentionally are seated with folks they didn't show up with, break bread, talk about their life and
their ideas. We do ask that you sign up for that. It's free.
but if you go to the city's website and just sign up, because we want to make sure we have enough food and everybody
has a place. But we hope you can be there for that. It's going to be a wonderful
event and we are glad to be back doing it again. This proclamation peace takes practice 365 day.
whereas, people in cities, communities and villages worldwide have engaged in the international day of peace in
diverse and meaningful ways since 1981 by participating in various activities such as a noon-time moment of silence,
festivals and community events. We speak peace. And whereas, the united nations has declared stress a global
epidemic that is costing the american economy $300 billion a year. We seek a peace practice.
and whereas, each year the international day of peace is observed around the world on the 21st of september, devoting
this day to strengthening the ideals of peace through observing 24 hours of nonviolence and cease-fire.
we embrace a peace practice. And whereas, climate action for peace brings a clear message that the global climate
emergency is a real threat to security and stability. We light the path for peace. And whereas, members of the
gainesville civic groups, individual and at the wellness network have come together to foster a peace takes practice
365 initiative by welcoming all citizens to become peacebuilders, establishing a peace practice in every moment
of every day. I am peace. Now, therefore, I, lauren poe, by the authority vested in me as
mayor of the city of gainesville, do hereby proclaim september 21st, 2022 as peace takes practice 365 day in the
city of gainesville and invite all our neighbors to join me to speak peace, embrace peace, light a path for peace and
become peacebuilders by establishing a peace practice 365 days a year. In witness whereof, I have
hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the official seal of the city of gainesville, florida, this 6th day of
september, 2022. Thank you so much. And please say a few words. [applause]
>> thank you very much, mr. Mayor, fellow commissioners. This work of peace does not require any funding, it does not
require any legislation. All it requires is a desire to greet the eyes in the mirror with a determination to find
peace and harmony within so that it can be your act in every moment of the day with all those that you interact with.
I'm so pleased to have the organizations that have embraced this message of peace and we welcome all communities, all
groups to participate in this national event. I am pleased that park run, which has been happening in
gainesville for the last four years, and your wonderful kristin who facilitates that park run at depot park has
embraced this. So on saturday morning we invite everyone to join us for an international day of peace
sidewalk/run, depot park, arriving about 7:15. It will start at 7:30. Sit a 5k.
and I will ask chris ten if she will come and tell us about it. Is that okay, mr. Mayor? >> good morning.
or good evening, everybody. So chris tan bryan. I'm here as the event director for park run in gainesville.
as many of you know I talk about park run all of the time. But it has been an honor to partner with the wellness
program to hold this international day of peace workrun. Parkrun is a misnomer, it is a
run, walk, jog, a combo of anything. Your fitness level and ability. We're going to have a lot of
festivities on saturday. 7:15. I understand there's going to be a beautiful song of peace sung.
one of my friends is coming to do -- help people do a chalk art on the sidewalk of peace so that you can come and just add your
colors and your message to have peace. We're going to have people cheering everyone on no matter
if you're just out there to get moving or if you're there to, you know, try to get a personal best.
you'll get cheered on to the very end. And no one finishes last at parkrun.
we have tail walker to come behind everyone. So everyone -- no one will finish last.
so please come, get your walking shoes on and join us, getting moving. We'd love to have you out there.
thank you so much for your time. [applause] >> on the 21st is the international day of peace.
we'll be making an announcement at the gtec, gainesville technology and entrepreneurial center throughout the year.
when I found out that venus hit a minimum of a thousand balls a day, I realized I was playing tennis at the level that I hit
balls. We want to encourage a peace practice 365 day as week. We're very pleased and we're
asking everybody to rise early that morning and take a pause, 70 seconds and just say the word peace.
I'm so happy top ronnie here from moms demand action who have joined us. Your fellow former commissioner
helen warren with the climate action for peace, sue blight who is home watching this on television and many other
organizations who are joining in this effort because we know that peace takes practice 365 and in every moment.
and mr. Mayor, thank you so much for this opportunity. We thank you very much for that proclamation.
thank you. [applause] >> mayor: thank you, pamela and all of your supporting
organizations, individuals. We really both appreciate it and need it. Madam clerk, our next
proclamation, please. >> our next proclamation is ronald mcdonald house charities day of action.
>> mayor: who is here from the ronald mcdonald house. You, buddy? Okay.
we're going to still read they proclamation. We'll make sure that they get it.
whereas, the mission of ronald mcdonald house charities of north central florida is to create, find and support
programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families. And whereas, since 1982, ronald
mcdonald house charities of north central florida has been keeping families close to their seriously ill children,
providing comfy beds, home-cooked meals, and all of the comfort of home to families seeking medical care for their
child. And whereas, volunteers are the heart of our organization and play a vital role at our ronald
mcdonald house. Whether it's coordinating a family activity, cooking a meal for our families through our
visiting chef program, or committing to a weekly shift, our volunteers make a tremendous difference in the lives of our
families. Now, therefore, I, lauren poe, by the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of
gainesville, do hereby proclaim september 30th, 2022, as ronald mcdonald house charities day of action in the
city of gainesville and invite all our neighbors to join me and observe this day with activities and acts of kindness that
demonstrate and celebrate selfless giving as we work towards our mission to keep families close to their
seriously ill child. In witness whereof, I have here unto set my hand and caused to be affixed the official seal of
the city of gainesville, florida, this 17th day of june, 2022. [applause]
all right. Madam clerk. >> our next proclamation is essential workers' appreciate
month. >> mayor: who is here for this proclamation? All right.
welcome. Whereas, the city of gainesville, florida, like all cities throughout the world, has
gone through a deadly pandemic crisis the likes of which have not been seen for a century. And whereas, essential workers
kept the critical parts of our economy running during the pandemic. And whereas, while many of us
were told to stay at home, these workers had the responsibility during an outbreak to continue operations, putting their lives
in danger. And whereas, the city is deeply indebted to its essential workers, those people who put
themselves at risk to get us through the worst of times these last two and a half years. Now therefore, I, lauren poe, by
the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of gainesville, do hereby proclaim october 2022 as essential
workers' appreciate month in the city of gainesville and invite all our citizens to join me along with our businesses,
churches, and civic groups, to honor and thank our pandemic heroes during the month of october.
in witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the official seal of the city of gainesville,
florida, this 7th day of september, 2022. Please say a few words. >> I'm glen terry, representing
the essential workers' project here in gainesville. And this is, this is like a big, big thank you card to everyone
in our city who has been an essential worker these last two and a half years putting theirselves at risk, like it
says, to get us through real bad times that we're much too aware of. What it will be, a series of
events that essential workers are invited to. Restaurants giving essential worker discounts and what not,
creating a series of events during the month that we're going to invite the essential workers too.
and of course there's a wide range of those. So they can have a good time. We're going to recognize and
thank them. It is very important and I appreciate your support for this project.
thank you. >> mayor: thank you, mr. Terry. [applause] madam clerk.
>> our next item is early public comment. >> mayor: anybody signed up for early public comment.
>> we do have a few. The first is alex posa. >> mayor: tell us which items you're speaking to.
if it's more than one you have five minutes, fit's one, you have three minutes. >> this is about the planned
development on southwest 2nd and southwest 10th street. >> mayor: okay. Thank you.
>> I'm alex posa. Gainesville needs more dense, transit oriented housing. There are those who complain
this is just luxury housing, but luxury housing is just a marketing term for new. Expensive apartment is still
cheaper than a detach single-family home. Additionally, this development contains set aside for
affordable units. This week the county commissioner voted down a proposal for affordable housing
and the city commission should step up. Besides access to affordable housing, the carbon footprint
will be much smaller. The difference between carbon usage between high and low-density living is
astounding. Those in the dense areas have a quarter of the footprint. Thanks to having a barrier in --
mostly cooling, heating are significant lower than detached homes. Further, carbon savings come
from a low car burden. Instead of the two units per ache, this will continue more than 180 per acre.
climate change is our most pressing issue. Any government that has any interest in averting disaster
must make density part of its plan. This development would sit on four bus routes and about a
tenth of a mile from two more. This is the sort of density that is necessary to help rid our city of car dependency.
unfortunately for the planet and the 1 point human lives lost to tragic violence every year, people generally take the most
convenient form of transport, which unfortunately is almost cars in america, rather than the safest or cleanest, which might
be pedestrian, biking or bus. Opponents will say that this needs more affordable housing or other things to kill it by a
thousand cuts. It's true, a proposal can always be better. But gainesville isn't looking at
this or another density proposal. It's looking at this or the status quo of surface parking
lots and one-story buildings. Thank you. >> mayor: thank you. Madam clerk.
>> early comment speaker is jason sanchez. >> mayor: could you go to the next person?
that's it? Okay. Thank you. [inaudible]
>> mayor: did they call in? No. Okay. Thank you.
okay. Appreciate that. And those items will come up in just a moment.
but next, madam clerk, our next item. >> our next item is resolution 2202-479.
resolution supporting dual naming northeast 25th street dual name in honor of willie fred powers I with the
recommendation that the city commission adopt the resolution supporting the
request to dual name ne 25th street between ne 8th avenue and ne 10th ave as willie fred powers I way.
>> mayor: boy, that looks good. Do we have anybody to present this? [laughter]
>> mayor: well, I mean, just a little description would be good. >> we have a dual naming policy.
it's in your backup. Anytime that there's a community member that the public would like recognized, a petition can
be circulated. One was submitted. It's in your backup. The resolution has the
information reporting mr. Powers. >> mayor: excellent. Thank you.
I think we have the family of mr. Powers here. You want to come on up? Come on up.
everybody. Everybody. So I want to thank the family -- sorry about that.
that was a little close. I want to thank the family of mr. Powers for bringing this to us and allowing us to
memorialize him in something that will be lasting and endure in the community. It's very meaningful for all of
our neighbors and I know it's meaningful for you. We would just love if one or more of you would like to share
a little bit about him and give our community a little deeper understanding of the contributions he's made to our
community so we can celebrate along with you. I'll leave it up to y'all. >> I guess, I guess being his
son I get this honor. But I want to first off thank the city commission for this honor.
it will probably make it a little easier to ride down this street again. Thanks for my sister, katherine
scott, for bringing this to us. Because he meant a lot, not only to us but to a lot of the people in the duval heights area.
I guess I'm stuck for words. I haven't been that way before. But I'm humbled for a young black man from pelham, georgia
to make an impact in the city that he made not only in duval heights but, you know, the east side and also southeast side of
gainesville. So with that being said, I just want to thank everyone for this honor and I know my family would
want to thank everyone for this honor. I guess that's about all I have to say.
thanks. >> mayor: thank you. [applause] >> mayor: thank you all for
being here. We're going to make this official real quick, if you don't mind.
this is an official resolution. Commissioner hayes-santos. >> I move the resolution. >> second.
>> mayor: motion and five seconds there to approve this resolution. Commissioner duncan-walker.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. I wanted to acknowledge the legacy, the importance, the brilliance, the human being that
mr. Powers was. And to be able to sit here and look out at the living legacies that are a part of him is so
incredible. And I want to thank my colleagues, I want to thank staff for making this possible.
it is important for us to remember and commemorate the individuals who have sacrificed and given so much to our
community and mr. Powers did that. Did that. This is a wonderful and
important way to immortalize his memory as we drive through east gainesville, duval heights, my home, will remember and
celebrate him always through that naming. Thank you everyone who made this happen and thank you to the
powers family for being here. His memory lives on. >> mayor: thank you, commissioner.
[applause] so we have a motion. Was there anybody else signed up to speak to this?
we're going to move to a roll call vote. >> commissioner saco. >> aye.
>> commissioner hayes-santos. >> aye. >> commissioner ward. >> aye.
>> commissioner arreola. >> aye. >> commissioner chestnut. >> aye.
>> commissioner duncan-walker. >> aye. >> and mayor poe. >> mayor: aye.
that motion passes unanimously. It is now so named the official willie fred powers street. Congratulations.
[applause] y'all, we've got a bunch of other interesting items on our agenda.
you're welcome to stick around the whole night with us if you would like or we'll let you get on and celebrate with
yourselves. Thank you for joining us. All right. Madam clerk, our next item,
please. >> okay. Our next item is the petition pb-21-00219, amendment of the
future land use map from urban mixed use high to planned use district 2022-536 with the recommendation that the city
commission approve petition pb-21-00219 with conditions. >> mayor: thank you. >> thank you, mr. Mayor and
welcome. My name is forrest, planner with the department of sustainable stable development and currently
the acting director for the department. I'll be presenting both positions pb-21-219 and later
pb-21-220 which are requests by chw on behalf of ca ventures. The petitions before you this evening have a land use change
from urban mixed use high to planned use development coupled with associated rezoning from urban 9 to planned district or
pd. As you are all away were the pud and pd designations are intended to provide a means for property
owners to propose unique or innovative projects that the existing comp plan and land development code language may
not have contemplated or addressed directly. This proposal requests relief from several criteria and
regulations in order to facilitate providing workforce rate housing in perpetuity. And workforce rate is defined as
households earning between 50% and 80% of the area median income. Specifically this proposal
request, increase to allowable height, increase to allowable density, changes to building placement, modification to
compatibility requirements related to historic districts which I'll describe many in more detail on some following slides.
just to give some description real briefly through the next couple of slides to orient you to the site, you can see here,
the yellow is the subject property. We have the invasion square area outlined here.
and then the sort of brownish reddish you see here is the university heights south historic district.
it is immediately to the west, as you can see here, of the existing infinity hall development.
and this image is showing the existing 100-foot compatibility buffer that is associated with the university heights historic
district. So you can see up in the northwest corner here of this image that this is the actual
district itself that aligns with some of the property boundaries. The 100-foot buffer limit is right here in the blue, sort of
blue dotted. And shows you overlaid with the black and white dotted area here the project outline itself.
and that will orient you to some of the main issues or topics of discussion here going forward. So the current land use is the
umuh, urban mixed use high. And you can see the areas around it. To the west is the same land
use. To the east is the downtown land use, which is the most intensive land use district.
and then you can see in the sort of coral or pink here that it is the lower intensity land use district that is associated with
the historic district. Here is the existing zoning. It aligns or is consistent with the underlying land use, which
of course we are discussing now and currently. But also just to give you an idea of the overall discussion
of the land use and zoning at the same time. We have the most intense district here to the east, which
is downtown, and the u-9 district here which is existing. And we have this district that goes along with the existing
historic district. So some of the building details. I'll leave a detailed description of the building to
the applicant and their team. I'll give a brief overview. You can see we have the east elevation.
and this would be looking from infinity hall. And you have on this portion of the project, the 12 stories.
and then to the north here on this portion is the five stories. This would be the south
elevation. So this is of course looking from the south to the north. This is the longest facade
proposed for the project. This is the roundabout area that you may be familiar with here. And then over to the east is the
infinity hall. You can see on this, this is the 12 stories. There's a brick facade on the
first floor. The entrances have direct entrances to units with stoops and primary entrances that
connect directly to the sidewalk. This would be from the west elevation.
this is looking from what is now the swamp 2.0 restaurant that's coming online right now. There are buildings and
structures basically where we would be looking here. But this is looking, again, towards the east.
and you can see what is trying to be depicted here is a recess in the building. This is empty space, if you
will. It's a little bit more shaded here to show that the building has been lowered in these areas
in an attempt to address compatibility with the historic district. So in effect really, that
creates this cutout on the building itself. And this taller, skinnier section here, which has been
referred to or discussed certainly at the plan board meeting as a blade or something to that effect.
a skinny portion, skinny and tall portion of the structure here. And then this is looking from
the north towards the south. This gives you a better more close-up view of the smaller building that is closer to the
historic district here from that direction. So here are some of the details at issue here.
so the baseline buy right information is made more complicated that typical development due to the historic
district compatibility buffer. And this table attempts to lay out the existing buy right uses or land use and zoning
designations here and criteria. And it also attempts to put that historic -- the historic district compatibility buffer
directly next to some of these parameters or figures that we're looking at. And then of course all the way
on the right-hand side here are really what would be the proposed maximums. So I'm happy to go through each
one of these numbers if you would like. Or if there are questions on them.
but I'll avoid going block by block slide by slide here unless you all would like me to. Policy 4.1.3 of the comp plan
outlines the criteria for changes in the future land use. And typically I wouldn't go item by item here since a larger
discussion is included in the staff report that was presented to the plan board. And of course the plan board
discussion itself is available as a record. But of course as ever, I'm happy to answer any questions or go
through this line by line or item by item if you would like. Generally speaking, staff has found that the proposal is
generally consistent with the comprehensive plan in that it directly addresses several goals and policies of the
comprehensive plan, including the future land use element, the housing element and the transportation element.
and more specifically in speaking directly to section 30-3.17 of the ldc, the proposal is consistent in that it
provides multiple housing options, including workforce rate and student housing. It adds increased density to a
mixed-use area with protecting and promotes transit options through closing curb cuts and adding pedestrian access.
the proposal conform to the pd purpose by offering a unique development in that 10% of the units will be dedicated to
workforce rate housing in perpetuity with equal access to finishes across the units that will be provided.
staff has provided an analysis of code and comp plan language requirements. However, whether a proposal is
unique or innovative enough is largely in the purview, of course, of the plan board when the was discussed before the
plan board and now of course before you all here this evening. By offering workforce rate
housing in perpetuity, staff believes that the threshold of innovative has been met. Internal compatibility largely
refers to how uses relate to each other within the project area. And since this is two buildings
in one campus, if you will, with equal access to user, the proposed internal compatibility is consistent with code
requirements. External compatibility refer to the proposal's relationship to the surrounding neighborhood and
area. Several improvements are proposed that will enhance the external compatibility, such as
street level pedestrian access to units, closing of curb cuts and increase in density and intensity in an area between uf
and downtown. However, there are significant concerns with the proposal's compatibility, massing and scale
with surrounding properties. Particularly within the historic district compatibility buffer. The northwest and south sides of
the project, as you saw in the previous images, are within the compatibility buffer and are adjacent to one and two-story
single-family structures and small-scale multifamily structures. The image on the slide shows a
top-down street-level view of the proposed building from 2nd avenue. And you can see this is the top
down section here. And this is looking more from the street level. In attempting to address this,
the applicant has worked with site to reduce height and massing on the portions of the property that are within the
compatibility buffer. This is why the building has been designed with the cutout or the blade shape.
the significant increase in density and intensity should be strongly considered by the commission as a part of any
final decision, of course. The project is located at the meeting point between the invasion square district and the
university heights south historic district with the primary entrance and the prominent roundabout at
2nd avenue and 10th street. At the time the district was designated in 2002, the area that was left out that you saw
of the historic district, this sort of blank space in the center or in the middle was done so due to the buildings not
being historically significant in this area. And as noncontributing structures would have resulted
in a weaker proposal for historic district designation at the time. Today the district contains 150
contributing structures and 32 noncontributing structures. That is within this entire darker area here.
150 contributing structures. And the 32 noncontributing structures. By establishing the district the
city commission found that the area is significant to city planning, architecture and local history.
the staff report goes into much greater detail on the district and we have the city's historic preservation man planner here to
answer any specific questions you may have on the historic district. Again, here is a slide showing
where the building is and where it is proposed. And its relation to some of these structures that within the
staff report have additional images of the structures themselves. Again, here's the slide showing
the 100-foot compatibility buffer. Just to refresh. It sticks out here and extends
from the historic district that is to the north and then of course as you saw, there is portions of the historic
district that are down here to the south that are not shown on the image. But this is the portion of that
district that is affecting the parameters for development on the site here today. The buffer was created to limit
directly adjacent development that's out of scale with the districts, either visually or through the intensity of use.
in addition to limiting height to four stories, the buffer requirements also limit multifamily development to no
more than six dwelling units per building and shall be in the form of single-family attached or small-scale multifamily.
so these are some of the pictures that go along with those structures within the historic district that had the
designation of being contributing structures or noncontributing. And I'll just go through these
to give you an idea of the surrounding properties in that historic district. So these are moving along the
southern side of what we showed in that image there and are really concentrated along that sort of cutout area that you saw
from the historic district. So I'm sure many of you are familiar with this area and are likely familiar with many of
these structures because it is a big throughway or avenue between downtown and of course campus. And you can see some of the
brick facade on many of the structures here. And this is the roundabout you can see on the eastern side or
the right-hand side here, the existing infinity hall. And this would be where the building is proposed today.
another short of infinity hall gives you an idea of the existing massing and use of the street here.
and a look down the avenues that we're discussing, down the thoroughfares here. So in reviewing the proposal,
staff also reviewed priest planning efforts and the existing architecture of the area.
as you can see from the images, the existing character and primary corridors in the invasion district is largely
that of three to five-story buildings with more modern materials. The proposed project proposed a
nod to the historic district by crowding most of the ground floor in brick. However, above the ground floor
the majority of the facade is clad in materials that are not typically found within the historic district but within the
invasion district. So while these images show what has been built, it's important to point out that this is not
necessarily the limits of what is allowed by right today. Also important to point out are the previous planning efforts
that have been undertaken in this area. Specifically the 2018 multimodel corridor's visions study and the
2012 invasion square master plan. The visioning study was largely geared towards planning for
creating ideal conditions along the corridors but also analyzed existing densities and recommendations for potential
infill. The study recommended providing careful infill developments with residential neighborhoods and
that care should be taken to not provide development that will overwhelm existing neighborhoods.
the 2012 innovation square master plan focused on a innovative research committee. The goal was to 0 combine the
two motivation to provide a highly-walkable and livable neighborhood. It's important to point out that
previous planning efforts do not carry the weight of law on code or regulations. However, these efforts provide
insight as to long-term vision for the area. These are planning tools but should not be construed as
sources of requirements of restrictions. And you can see some of the imagery and 3rd graphics that
were put together to discuss this invasion square. And so of course as I mentioned before and as you are all aware,
the comprehensive plan and the intent of the pud and pd elements of the comprehensive plan are intended to allow the
consideration of unique, innovative or narrowly-construed land use proposals. Because of the specificity of
the land use, regulations can be found to be compatible with the character of surrounding land uses.
and the pd districts are intended to provide a particularized zoning district that recognizes unique
conditions. And this proposal provides for the 10% of proposed units to be reserved for households earning
50% and 80% of the area median income in perpetuity. So despite challenge to compatibility and surrounding
character, by offering 10% of the units as workforce rate units in perpetuity, staff believes this proposal meets the
tension of unique and innovative. Staff reviewed it as it relates to the comprehensive plan and
code. And where there are conflicts, the proposal asked for relief from the conflicts and proposed
a unique future to offset. Whether it's unique in the mind of you all, of course, is entirely up to you all.
and with that staff recommends the approval of both pb21-219, also the associated of pd21-20 with the conditions that you see
here. And with that I will answer any questions or I'm happy to turn it over to the applicant to
discuss the project in further detail. >> mayor: thank you. Commissioner arreola, did you
have a question before we turned to the applicant? >> I guess my question was the order of operations for
presentations. >> mayor: we'll get the applicant. So we'll invite the applicant
up. >> thank you. >> thank you and good evening, mr. Mayor, members of the
commission, madam city manager, mr. Cumming ham and our clerk. I'm executive vice president of chw professional consultants and
I'm here tonight, happy to be here with our client ch ventures. Tommy is in the front row, jay
who is an architect and patrice boyce behind tommy as the project attorney. Also my favorite introduction is
seth wood, the newest professional planner and graduate of the university of florida who has work directly on
the application and we're proud to employ our gator graduates in this effort. We're here tonight to talk to
you about a proposed project -- I'm going to harken back to a few years ago and a few commissions ago where a seated
commissioner named warren nielsen said something that is salient. Parking lots are place holders.
and we have a project that's been proposed on a parking lot on the northwest corner in the invasion district.
as a bit of mechanical background, I want to talk about the land use, those will apply to the zoning in some cases and
back into the land use. We had public notification of this project as part of the application process.
we had a couple people attend it from the university of florida and one gentleman actually attended the actual neighborhood
workshop for this project. The timeline that you can see here, we started this not quite a year ago but pretty close to a
year ago. Was our first step meeting, the neighborhood workshop before the holidays.
we submitted the application before christmas break. And through the months of february through april we worked
with staff on several different designs for this project. And we were at the plan board back in may.
seems like a lifetime ago but it was earlier this year. And we've glad to be here tonight because we feel like we
have a really great opportunity. This would be the second project that had a mandatory perpetual workforce housing component in
the city of gainesville in effectively the innovation district with walking distance to campus, the jobs and the huge
investment that santa fe college has made downtown and to the burgeoning district itself. I said at the plan board and I
will repeat that tonight. We could take 15 to 20 acres in west gainesville and build an apartment complex with hundreds
of parking spaces and deforest a tremendous amount of land. Or we could take a parking lot and turn excite an urban
residential building. And I don't know him other than tonight's comments, alex posa said, this has a tremendous
impact on the carbon effect. This has a tremendous impact on the energy efficiency and the safety of our city by placing
people within walking, bicycling, scooting and transit distances of many features, education, recreation, jobs,
employment, social and cultural opportunities. We would probably not be here if we had the zoning across the
street which is where the dt zoning is. And having walked the streets of new york last week for several
days, one of the things I noted is things can live harmoniously. And when people are on the ground walking from block to
block, they don't go, I just transferred from one zone to another. They just look at the space
created there. And I would offer that these parking lots here, their time has come where they're no longer
being needed as parking lots but they're place holders to infill or city with residents and employees of our downtown
university and santa fe college features. This is key because we are proposing two multistory
buildings that would sit here next to infinity hall right kiddy corner to the I district. Residential amenities will be
across the entire development. Everybody will live in equality with equal access to the features of the building with
such as the gym, and the ride trip program, the zip cars, the vehicles, and the ability to get from here to any destination
easily and comfortably. Placing people where they can build off of the resources of the existing sidewalk network.
the existing transit network. The existing bicycle lanes is so important in our community. That being said, we are taking
aged sidewalks and turning this into enhanced pedestrian realm which will also increase the safety of not only the residents
in this building but the residents of the entire community. When you bring in crime
prevention with environmental design techniques and more eyes on the street and residential stoops to the street, you're
creating a window onto the world to improve the quality of life in this area. This of course adds additional
urban housing where it is needed in town and it adds a diversity of housing. Because we are placing market
rate and in perpetuity through the mechanism of the pud, the planned use district and the planned development zoning one
those will occur in perpetuity. Some of the opportunities that we see as I stated a second ago is to improve the form and the
character and safety of the pedestrian realm in the urban core. And increasing this housing
supply in our most redeveloping portion of the city, the I district. And what it does that other
projects have not yet done is added workforce housing right downtown which is walkable, bikeable and transit friendly.
so here's the context area that we're looking at here. And you can certainly see, here's the invasion district,
the site of the former alachua county general hospital. This sits right across the street, right next to infinity
hall. This is the university of florida campus, just a few hundred feet to the west.
these are all projects that are in play in this portion of town that's building between the university and downtown and
along the 13th street corridor. In the last several years each one of these spaces have come
forward and have been candidates for redevelopment. As part of the data and analysis we looked at the walk score of
the community. We have a tremendously high walk score because we are so close to campus, so close to santa fe
college downtown center, so close to the I district and so long to the downtown along what I call the hipster highway,
which is 2nd avenue here. In fact, our walkable score here is a walker's paradise and a biker's paradise too at 93 and
99 points respectfully out of 100. Some of the multimodel strategies that go along with
this project are as follows. There will be a shared vehicle program for all residents. Unlike in other buildings that
have but in an abundance of parking with there will be only a hundred parking spaces here because most people will rely on
their shoes, their bike, skateboard, scooter own other means like transit to get along here.
this will allow macro ability solutions. If you're working here in the I district, it's across the street
or just down a couple of blocks. We're going to put in preferred parking for green vehicles and there will be electric charging
stations built in this building. The building will have mechanical parking in it, ground-level parking and
residents who don't want to use their cars, they will be placed in the air of the podium of the structure.
there will be a scooter share program and a charging area for scooters. We will have a bicycle actual
locker area and a maintenance area that will be built in for residents so that they can work on their bike if they need to
change a tube or tighten up a chain, it will be built into the building. And of course this is on
existing transit routes. So these an example of one of the maintenance frames and maintenance stations.
so looking at this project we have just over one acre of land here. And again, really the zoning
density and intensity that we seek is right across the street. What the dt is. And we'd like to selectively use
it on the portion of land which as you can see is a single-story building, and a parking lot and primarily a parking lot and
single-story medical building. These are the views here today that you see. Older but still functional
sidewalks and there's a good tree line that's in here. We will be building this should you approve this, to the urban
transect standards. And these things, like the aged alley, will be brought up to more modern standard where that
will be clearly delineated. And what we will be doing also is removing all of the curb cuts on 10th and on 2nd in favor
of access off of this alley. And that is what the alley looks like from the reverse angle looking east toward infinity
hall. This is the single-story medical building on the north side and you see infinity here in the
background of this shot. And then this is again looking down that alley here. In addition, all of these
utilities will be undergrounded. They will no longer be [inaudible] based utilities and we'll be cleaning up this area
from an urban design perspective by getting rid of the curb cuts. So effectively we have the second highest land use in the
city. We would like to have the ability to have the density that exists right across the street
here and cons trait I along 2ened and portions of 10th here. That's why we're requesting the
planned use district which also in turn then would encode the perpetual workforce housing in the project in perpetuity.
we would like to remove the u9 zoning in favor of a planned development zoning which would effectively give us similar
rights as to what's already across the street here on this side of the intersection. As forrest showed you in his
presentation, that buffer district extends through and causes what we call a blade-like form of this building.
and I'm going to show you several iterations of designs that we considered through the course of this application and
how we got there. But most importantly, what we're asking for is very little in form and increased density.
the maximum building height that would be allowed under the current future land use and zoning is 116 feet.
we could make this building work with about four feet of additional height. It's not a tremendous height
difference that we're asking for. The historic district limits it to four stories and 60 feet.
we can build the building within 60 feet but we would like to have five floors in that building instead of four.
for density we are looking for a boost here. We would like to see the density raised up so that we can
effectively have that one acre of land be what would equate to as a complete full apartment-scale project.
so we would have 379 beds going up to 557 beds. And of course under the buy right type scenario, there's no
requirement for workforce housing, but we were proposing to place in here 10% of the units interspersed throughout
the building in an equitable manner, workforce housing in perpetuity. So as you can see, this aerial
shows you here that the standards are really the jump in the density. The pud is requesting the
approximate density allowed on the other side of 10th street. A seamless transition from what one would see from the ground
here as possible on this side street. We'd like to see it on this parking area here.
when we talked at the plan board, we talked about the setback and currently what the code requests.
the code says that within 100 feet of the district you have to have a step down in the building.
and we understand that. There's also another portion of the code that says there shall be no more than six dwelling
units per wild spacing and it shall be in the form of either single-family dwellings, attached or a small-scale
multifamily. That has not been consistently applied around the area. So we are requesting relief from
that because that is important. On the block north of us, this is the back of hub 1 in about the 10 to 1200 block of
university avenue. You see there are eight stories out here and they are a little step-down, but they did not
design that in the form of a small-scale apartment nor single-family nor attached dwellings.
I'm going to speak about the land use in the presentation. We have another presentation that deals specifically with the
zoning should we go there. But I want to let you know that a full set of pd development standards have been included
that staff reviewed, twice now, prior to the plan board and prior to tonight recommended that you approve for this
project. Relative to the workforce housing with, this will place a rent limit tight unit at 50% of
the adjusted median or area median income of $686 for a one bedroom or $823 for a two-bedroom in perpetuity.
and that means forever in this building. We know that workforce housing is needed and we believe this
brings an answer to that. There's a constant' diverse demand. While there are people -- and I
think mr. Mayor stated this to me -- that make six figures or more at university of florida, there are folks that make well
under four figures or five figures. And you reminded me, mr. Mayor, as commissioners, we're in that
category too. So this enables the administrators and the staff members and the custodians and
maybe the single moms and single dads to be able to live problem mate to uf or santa fe college or in any of these spaces and
not have to live and spend a tremendous amount of time in time and transit or a lot of their income in getting to town.
this allows this workforce to live proximate to key jobs such as uf health and the va center. This forces people to live where
resources don't exist. It forces people to have longer commutes which places more pollution in our environment and
more congestion on our roads. That's unnecessary when we can take a parking lot next to tin no vegas district and two blocks
from campus and turn it into housing. And what it does then, because some people can't get over these
impediments, it creates underemployment in our community. And so I would argue very
strongly that urban infill is a way to solve a lot of the problems that we see. The workforce housing here will
increase the city's ability to retain and attack essential workforce because they can live right across the street from
where they work. It will encourage more pedestrian bicycle transportation right downtown
and facilitate the existing transit routes. I'm glad that mr. Posa said there are multiple routes that
serve this. And it reduces the strain on our system and public utilities by using existing water lines,
electric lines, gas lines, fiber optic because that system is built right there. We're infilling a piece of the
puzzle. This is not taxes resources and placing people out in western alachua county.
the pud conditions include 10% of the units to be constructed in perpetuity. There will be antic wit cabal
market rate, equitable access to all amenities for all tenants. There will be subsidy vouchers that have been put in place with
the gainesville housing authority and the memorandum of understanding is the legal document that has been tested,
adopted here at the city and will be used. And we're proud to say that prior to getting to the plan
board we actually had the mou adopted and we have that document already prepared for this project.
so when looking at a comprehensive plan amendment -- and this is a single acre -- we are creating a unique,
innovative and narrowly-construed land use proposal with unique design features that might otherwise
not be allowed in the underlying land use category. We've had to come up with an innovative way to make this
building work and to bring all of these components of land on one acre of land. There's consistency and
compatibility with the surrounding land uses. I wanted to stop there for a second.
we want to talk about additional data and analysis we've done since the plan board. There was discussion of
unraveling the thread of the neighborhood or the character of the land. I've done some work to show you
how this does strongly not impact the character of the area and creates what we would like to call the halo effect.
when those new residents live there, they will support the next restaurant, perhaps a clothing store or another type
of business and bring the fabric closer together. The environmental constraints are major.
you have no floodplain, you're not deforesting any portion of the city. We're converting asphalt to
land. And we're creating it in the urban core which is where it needs to be.
moreover, this affects affordable housing in a positive manner and affects our transportation system in a
manner by using nonsingle occupied vehicles as a primary way of getting around in the community.
we have looked at the facilities of water, sewer, obviously gas and electric and everything, and this is fine.
we don't have to have any additional acreage in this category created overall on the future land use map by merely
doing a pud. This certainly discourages urban sprawl because it gives folks an area to live on one acre in
town. And the need for job creation, capital investment and economic development, this has positive
effects on the future land use element, the housing element and the transportation element of our comprehensive plan.
and there's no need to modify the land use categories and development plans with antiquated subdivisions because
this is not a subdivision. It's a parking lot, effectively. So let's look at a little bit of what we did in the process.
we had three primary design consideration. The first that we submitted in december, when we began to work
with staff, proposed an e or reverse e-shaped building that was 12 stories and 172 feet with 327 units and 810 beds.
infinity hall is here and this is the only ca ventures project here at 931 west university avenue.
we began with work with staff after we submitted this and we came up with a refined design when trying to make this
building have a little more articulation. And we sculpted the top of the e off and flipped it along
2nd avenue to modulate it a little bit more. Staff still wanted us to come back with a proposal that had
less massing on the building itself. And so while we were working with architectural revisions, we
did adopt the mou from the housing authority with their expectation of 32 units in this building being delivered.
once the plan board saw and what forest presented in our presentations earlier here is what we call a blade, which
makes and brings the billing height down here on the north side -- we are looking to the east here, toward downtown, to
60 feet here, adjacent to the historic district. But with five floors in it as opposed to four.
and what it does, where that blue line sculpt through here, it takes this portion of the massing of the building and
brings this down to 60 feet. It was a long evening at the plan board. We had tie votes.
and there was a 3-3 vote on the land use and a 3-3 vote on the zoning and we asked somebody, please flip your vote one way or
the other so we can come to the commission and talk about this. Because this wasn't a full board that night.
it with us a really long discussion and we didn't have this slide where we can kind of look at comparison and contrast
of the full massing reversed e, sculpted out e and what I'm considering the step-down design here.
this is what's being presented to you this evening. It reduces the number of affordable housing units from 32
down to 20. So it's about a 50% reduction was we've lost a good mass of the building.
unbeknownst to us that evening, there was a presentation and resolution from the historic preservation board that came
from. They had heard this project about a month before we got to the board, unbeknownst us to.
and what this resolution contains, you see my pdf notes on here. This talks about wide spread
reinvestment being harmed here and setting a dangerous precedent when in fact similar height, mass, scale and number
of floors exists in every direction around this project. And we're glad that we saw this. It's little ironic that that was
notarized the day after the plan board meeting and we had not known about that happening or we would have gone to the hpb and
talked to them about this project. This is the historic district and it does have a unique notch
in it, which presents a really interesting thing. Because when you come off of here with a hundred-foot buffer,
it creates a buffer where you can really utilize the height of the zoning district but elsewhere along the edge you
can't. It's a little easier to see it like this. We took the historic district
and google earth and made it oblique of that district. Here's 13th street, here's the university of florida campus,
here's norman hall, here's 2nd avenue, here's the hub one under construction and here is the site of the old alachua
general hospital here. The core of the I district. This is how the district looks. We carefully went around the
entirety of the district. And right across the street from this proposed project is infinity hall.
infinity hall has five stories a I cross the street. To the north of the project is the hub.
and the hub, the 100-foot penetrates well into that portion of the building. Here's another example on the
north side of the district where there's a 4/8 story building into that red area which is the buffer -- I did that color-wise
so you can see how it clips the building. The college manor building here, that old building, that's five
stories in height. To the south here is the lynn court apartments, it has five stories or five floors within
the 100-foot area. And then over here on the south side is cascades. And cascades, as you can clearly
see here, sits inside that hundred-foot buffer with five stories. So my argument to you all is
that what we were proposing now, looking from the northwest to the southeast across the historic district, that has five
floors within a hundred feet. This has four and eight floors within the hundred feet. That has five stories within the
hundred feet. That has five stories within a hundred feet. And that has five stories.
our proposal was to step down and bring the height down inside that. But we'd like to have the fifth
floor in there as opposed to four floors. We don't think it's tremendously detrimental to the area.
this pocket is a really unique, challenging area. But the context area has multiple examples where an extra
height lives in that buffer without detriment to the neighborhood or to the historic district.
when you look at the property values -- and we went back after the plan board and took 2016, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21 and the
current assessed values of these problems in here to see if the increase of these newer buildings like infinity or the
hub or cascades has had a negative effect on investment in the district. This is what we found.
we investigated dozens of property that exist in this portion of the district. Out of all of those properties
we grouped them as to where they were, whether they were adjacent to the hub or to infinity or college manor or cascades.
our results show that in every instance, every one of those properties continued to appreciate in value.
because of the halo effect of investment in the district. In other words, a taller building in an area of downtown
did not take the value out of people's property. Moreover, we did find a couple of anomalies in there.
but when we looked at the average assessed value of all of the properties in this area, this is when the hub -- excuse
me, when lynn court came online, the y axis represents value, the x axis represents time. Each time another building was
brought in there, you can see values overall in all of the properties continue to appreciate.
this is not the detriment. The halo effect of urban investment is noted and a stabilizing effect on this area
of the city. So when talking about investing in historic properties, one thing did change from the plan
board tonight's meeting. One of these properties here was homesteaded. Every single property that
exists on the north side of 2nd a, the south side -- excuse me, 1st avenue. The north side of 2nd.
every one of these properties is a piece of commercial-owned real estate. I greatly value the fact that
neighborhoods are an important component because they are where neighbors are formed. Do understand the reality that
this is rental commercial property and yet it is all appreciated in value. So there is not one homesteaded
residential home in here and they have all still continued to rise in value because of the effect of the innovation
district and the university's investment here, c a's investment here, the hub's investment here and this will
not harm the district one bit. From a perspective of safety these existing curb cuts in common with the sidewalk will be
removed and the access to the building will be off of the alley making these continuous sidewalks here with the only
opening left the existing public alley here east-west. This shows you the floor plan. And on the ground wu can see the
parking spaces where they will have mechanical car lifts above them. That's how we end up getting 93
parks spaces in this building is by lifting cars off the ground. And that's a small number of parks spaces in here.
I don't like elevations. They don't really tell a good story. They very much look very blank
and kind of ghostly. But what I do like is when you look at the way things look like today, sweger have an existing
road network on-street parking. We need a little relief to allow this ground plain to go to a three to four-foot sidewalk to a
pedestrian realm that is appropriately scaled for people to walk side by side with a building set back with
protective zones, with adequate lighting underneath the canopies to illuminate the streets. And then residential doors and
nodes that are created all along 2nd avenue. And then there's actually little coves in here where people can
have friends over and utilize those as social recreation-type spaces. But this today, while
functioning as a sidewalk, is different than transitioning to an urban design space. Looking across that parking lot
today you see this view. Hopefully tomorrow or I'd say in a couple of years you would see this view.
this corner was cafford here along this edge to mirror what's on infinity hall. This was a skateboard recreation
area. But we put in all of this glass lighting to provide eyes on the street to improve the safety as
well as letting light transduce from this balcony and canopy here to keep this as a well-lighted portion of our
urban area. This view shows you, looking to the north. This is the outdoor congregation
space as someone would come into the main entrance of the building. On-street parking would remain.
and that's the future view along that area. Stoops going up to balconies and then cove areas for groups to
gather, study and enjoy each other's presence. For these reasons your staff have reviewed this across all of
the professional departments of the city and to the plan board they recommended approval. We truly believe that infill can
and does occur without detriment to the fabric of the city. And that's why your staff have once again reviewed this and
provided to you in their staff report this evening a recommendation that this land use amendment be approved.
I thank you very much for your time. I know that was a tremendous amount of information.
we've been working on this for just about a year. So a lot of things have happened.
thank you. We're here for any questions you may have. >> mayor: thank you very much.
I appreciate the presentation. Let's go to the commission. We're going to start with commissioner arreola.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor. I appreciate the presentation and all of the thoughtfulness that's gone into it.
workforce housing, affordable housing, it's got a lot of promise. It does.
mr. Mayor, I see a few lights but I'd like to go ahead and put the motion on the floor to accept the staff's
recommendation. >> mayor: is there a second? >> second. >> mayor: motion and a second to
move the staff's recommendation with the attached conditions. Thank you, commissioner arreola. Commissioner hayes-santos.
>> thank you, mayor. I heard the motion on the floor but I believe we should go forward with one of the original
two proposals that had more housing. We have an opportunity to give over 800 people homes.
that's homes over their houses. We have over 80 people who will get subsidized affordable housing.
that is incredibly needed in our community. And this is where it should be. This is a high-opportunity area,
public transit, work, schools, daily necessities, grocery stores, a doctor's office directly across the street.
everything you want is here and this is where we should be putting as much as possible the sites of affordable housing.
and the proposer wants to build more and we should let them build that. If we go with the smaller
version that's on the current motion, we will tell 300 people that they can't have a home here.
and it will also mean there will be 50% less affordable housing as part of that -- close to 50% less affordable housing as part
of the project. I hope we don't let our -- there are definitely some people who are going to speak out against
this. But 300 people can have homes here where they want to live. Over 50% increase in the amount
of affordable housing that can be in this project. This project should move forward for a variety of reasons.
it will reduce pressure in near. By neighborhoods. I represent district 4 and university park and one of the
biggest complaints I get is students moving into that neighborhood. This will reduce the amount of
pressure. University is not increasing the number of students in their school.
so they will be able to go here. It will let people live close to school and employment. And also we shouldn't just
have -- I've heard we should only have tall building along the biggest major corridors. I don't think we should just
have them there. Our biggest corridors 13th and university have the most noise pollution and the most car
pollution as well. Southwest 2nd is a major corridor, doesn't have a lot of traffic but it the most biked
street in our city and amazing transit opportunities there as well. I mentioned many times on the
environment, this will reduce urban sprawl, climate change. I think this will probably be the most climate-friendly
building in the city when this is built when you look at a per capita basis with the very limited amount of parking per
building and with how walkable and bikeable this area is. That's the development we have to have.
we do have a climate crisis. Talking about affordable housing is not just for ten years or 20 years.
this is for the life of the building. And people on the gainesville housing authority's list, close
to 3,000 people are on that list. There will move them forward. They're going to directly get
that property. And I don't know what the market rate is going to be but looking in this area already, this will
be at least a thousand dollars off the monthly rent for a one bedroom. That's a significant difference
in people's lives. We can give more people that opportunity. This will make safety better,
better lighting, less cars. These same people are going to be here. They're moving here.
they'll move further out and have to drive in. Walking distance. Looking at this area within a
five-minute walk there's a bus that goes by almost every five minutes. This is one of the most
transit-rich areas and we should put as many people here possible as we can. For compatibility, within a few
hundred feet there's a 12-story building under construction on the corner of university and 8th street.
there's a building on construction on university avenue. You this is a tall building area
and it should be. It's next to the university, between downtown where we should have density and capacity for
that. While it is in that hundred-foot zone, this project is not the historic district.
but historic buildings can be tall. And I think you can create amazing mixing between modern
next to historic. And we don't have to set our city just in amber. We can make amazing kind of
changes there. And people make neighborhoods not buildings. Commissioner duncan-walker, I
read in the "gainesville sun" about alachua county's vote that they had yesterday or two days ago about the project on
southeast 15th street. You wrote -- you said I believe the only way you set up people for success is to put them
directly in an environment where it already is. This area is accessible. There are doctors' offices,
grocery stores. But we have to be intentional about where we put it and put people close to where the
resources are so they can thrive. This is where we should be putting affordable housing.
and I hope that we move forward with the larger version. Thank you, mayor. >> mr. Mayor, could you put the
staff's recommendations back up on the board. >> mayor: yes, we can. Do you have that?
or we could go back to the staff. Madam clerk, do you have control, madam clerk?
folks in the back, yeah, if we could go back to the staff presentation and then the staff recommendation slide towards the
end. That was written a little bit bigger. Thank you, commissioner
chestnut. Commissioner saco. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. You came up and I was going to
ask you to come up anyway. Thank you. I have a question. Why did -- why did staff reject
the first two options in greater detail, just why. >> the main reason was because of the extra extent of the
massing and scaling. So we didn't really reject them at that stage. We went back to the applicant to
say here's what are some of the consideration and concerns that we expect our community to come at us with.
what can we do to address that. What are you able the do to address that. And to their credit they went
through several iterations to move to where this proposal is today. >> so this is already trying to
take into consideration some of the concerns, although in theory it should have been fine. Like technically fine prior.
>> I'm not -- well, technically if we had gone ahead and gone through this same process and showed that building with the
full extent, yes, this process can allow or accept that also. >> we could have had the technical option of saying,
yeah, go with that one. But the applicant has at least try to -- to try to reconform to some of those standard and
preferences for the community. >> that is true. >> I appreciate the back and forth option of communication
with the community to recognize the needs and the willingness to work with it. I think we could get a lot done
around here if we did more of that. To that end, you know, I'm on a similar page to commissioner
hayes-santos. I wish we had the bigger one. It breaks my heart to know that we're cutting the affordable
units by half, more than half. That said, I do want to be considerate, as staff knew that would be one of the real
sticking points for the community. I want to be considerate of that.
and on the other hand I kind of like the look of the building now. It's an interesting focal point
of how did you get that shape. Every city has a building like that. It's the [inaudible] building in
my view which is why is it like that, why is that there, a conversation starter when people visit.
I'm mostly trying to joke about that. But I think it has gainesville level of quirk, let's call it.
that said, I do appreciate what's being done with the sidewalks and the expansion of the lighting.
those are great enhancements for the neighborhood and great enhancements for the community [inaudible].
a surface lot, the worst use of land I have ever seen in my life. I do have one kind of comparison
to offer. Growing up in miami, coral gables is not far away. And if there is a rock on the
ground, they are try to commemorate. You can't touch the rock. The rock is historic.
anything say see, they will try. That said, their downtown which is -- it's like a mile long, I want to say -- has buildings of
every height, up to 12 or 13 stories. The building next door will be five and across the street will
be a one, one and a half-ish, a stall one-story building. And a whole subdivision of housing at that one story, that
whole swath down. The city has not burned down to the ground. Or lost property value.
so I think it serves as an example of you can have a very dense and rich environment intermixed with buildings of not
identical height and it functions very well. That is very walkable. It has a variety of options for
housing, for employment. It has a little trolley that goes by. I don't think it dissimilar to
our beloved toaster that is no longer here with us. I think it has great potential and I'm excited for it.
I will go forward with staff's current recommendation out of consideration that if it were the whole bulk of it would be a
lot for a neighborhood to look at. But we aren't the first place to have something like this and I
think if coral gables can survive with their tree and green spaces with similar building ace cross the street, I
think we can do the same. Thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: commissioner arreola and hayes-santos do you mind if
I get the commissioners that haven't spoken yet? >> I honestly wanted to ask a question of staff and the
seconder but I can wait. >> mayor: okay. Thanks. We'll go to commissioner ward.
>> thanks, mr. Mayor. Lots to talk about. There are many things, I'll say to the applicant, many things to
recommend this. I will say to folks who oppose it, many things to recommend against this.
I will say to my colleagues, specifically commissioner saco, city staff has not cut the number of potential affordable
units. That is entirely up to the applicant. It's not our job to be concerned
with their finances nor will I suggest that we should be. They picked 10%, not us. And that's a reality.
I would love to see more. Twenty is nice. It's a start. It's not great.
I think we're about to prove that it's possible to do this with the building next door. Is there anybody from the
housing authority here tonight, by the way? Any representative? Okay.
>> I'm not seeing any. >> that's all right. There are a number of procedural issues that I have with this.
I'm trying to keep my impression of whether or not I think it's too big, too small, whatever, out of it.
the reality is that we have two boards that this body appointed who said don't do this, because a 3-3 vote is a failure.
so two boards that we appointed said don't do this. This body chose form base code right about five years ago.
one of the reasons that we implemented form-based code was to cut down on the number of pds.
to say that these are the rules. And if you abide by the rules, you can build. But as is fairly predictable, we
fall back into the habit -- and I don't blame the applicants for this at all for coming to us saying, hey, you can change the
rules. Will you change the rules for us. I don't hold that against you at
all. But we implemented form-based code specifically so that we would have fewer pds.
because our city is dotted with pds now and that doesn't always make sense. I completely understand what
we're trying to accomplish. I'm a fan of density where it makes sense and where the code says we should do it.
but we picked u-9 at this spot and we -- this body 20 years ago asked for a historic designation for the adjacent neighborhood.
and we can't pretend that those things didn't happen. They're realities. I'm very interested in hearing
from -- and I know this will take a little while, but because we have some folks here, I would like to hear from, from our
historic presentation staff, if possible. I know there is or was a plan board member here.
it would be nice to hear their perspective. And I would also like to hear from the chair of the historic
preservation board who is here. That will take a little while but I would like their perspectives.
madam manager, do you mind if I call up the historic presentation. >> mayor: if it's a citizen on
the citizen board, they can have the same time as a citizen. But yeah, if we want to invite ms. Coffman up, if that's okay
with the manager. >> yes, mayor. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: of course.
>> thank you, ms. Coffman. I'm just interested in hearing your perspective on this. And -- you were with the
historic preservation board when they made their decisions. I would like to hear your thoughts.
>> mr. Mayor, members of the commission, I won't take up much of your time. As you know, staff has
recommended approval of this project. And forrest actually did a really wonderful job of going
through all of the issues. Though we recommended approval there are issues and most of that is because there is a
historic district there. And I appreciate you giving me just a couple of seconds just to point out some things to you.
unlike the lorax, I speak for the historic districts. The character of that district, I'm sure you've been through it.
there's a lot of revitalization happening. Some of the developers that you know do a great job of saving
what's there and building new stuff around it. So that is happening. The thing about the hundred-foot
buffer, you know, we're talking about four stories is allowed currently and they want five stories.
this is the only district that allows the four stories. The rest of the historic districts you could build up to
three stories in that hundred-foot buffer. So at whatever time you created that buffer for the historic
districts, this was the only district that you gave four stories to. They also want to go from six
dwelling units to 204 max. And forrest has been through all of that with you. What I do want to point out to
you is that the hundred-foot buffer line that you saw the overview map of didn't show you the south side of the 12-story
face of the building, which is potentially about half a block long. So that 12-story face of the
building is directly across the street from the historic district. It is all historic buildings.
they're all contributing structures on that side, on that block. The issue is that southwest
2nd avenue is so wide with the median and the hundred-foot goes right to the property line. So it didn't go into the
property and therefore it didn't affect, you know, how they could build or what they're proposing to build right there.
but I want to make sure you understand that 12-story building, the 12-story piece of it is facing the historic
district. And that's about all I really want to point out to you. Our residents and property
owners that live there, they already live under an additional regulation because they're in an historic district.
and I think in return they kind of expect to be protected by the codes we already have in place. Thank you for your time.
>> thank you. >> mayor: thank you, ms. Coffman. >> since I have you as a captive
audience can I tell you one thing totally off topic. But last month was my first year anniversary at the city and I
love it so much. I have the best coworkers and team to work with. You're very fortunate to have
the people you have in the planning department and the sustainability department. It's been really great.
thank you. >> mayor: thank you. And congratulations. >> do you have any questions?
>> I'm good. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: okay.
thank you. Commissioner chestnut. >> thank you. Thank you, mr. Mayor.
and thank you, commissioner ward. You were leading down the path that I wanted to take as well.
I'm sitting here. Am I mistaken or is the public mistaken -- where's the 12 stories coming from?
sitting here it would seem that that's not what you're talking about. >> we'll go to the elevations.
does this help with answering the question? So we've got the first floor, one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12. >> thank you. Because I heard four, then I
heard five. But the public is talking about 12. And 12 not being compatible with
the historic district, that is the reason that the plan board turned this down and that is the reason I believe that the
historic preservation board turned it down. So as a matter of compatibility. And that is what concerns me.
now when we talk about -- I guess the greatest caveat that everybody uses now is to say that they're going to give
housing, 10%, 5% house in perpetuity. Tell me exactly how many units are we talking about of
affordable housing that we would end up with here? >> the 20. >> twenty.
so the community is trading not having a compatible structure, violating its historic preservation board
recommendation, violating the plan board recommendation to get 20 units that really may not end up being there anyway.
so I'm just concerned that if we keep modifying and not standing by our own standards, then what, what do our standards really
stand for. What does it really mean. I think that this building is out of character with the whole
surrounding area. And historic preservation is important to me. Thank you.
>> mayor: thank you. We'll go back around. Commissioner arreola. >> yeah.
I just wanted to get a clarification. So how exactly are the affordable units maintained
affordable in perpetuity? I'd like to get that explanation for the commission just to clear up any misconceptions.
>> with the memorandum of understanding and the executed agreements with the housing authority.
and deed restrictions. >> it's guaranteed affordable housing with those units? >> yes.
>> okay. So clearing that up. I understand all of the arguments being made.
there is going to be some give and take always. A project like this is going to have an impact, but that delta
going to be overall good for folks who are now going to be able to get into these homes. I appreciate folks who disagree
with me. That's okay. But the housing crisis in gainesville isn't going to get
any better without new housing. Thank you. >> mayor: commissioner hayes-santos.
>> thank you, mayor. I was wondering if the maker or the seconder would be interested in proposal number two, which is
what the applicant came back with. It still has the more housing but it broke it up and reduced
the massing of the structure and it still kind of gives that quirkiness that commissioner saco was talking about but it
provides more affordable housing. >> what is the difference. >> mayor: I think you'll have to
go back to the applicant's presentation. >> three hundred units or... >> as soon as that comes back up
I'm happy to put that back there. I think what you wanted to see was that.
and, mr. Mayor, may I add one thing? I believe these are very complicated issues and when
we're talking about the land use. I do want to state, though, this building, if you were to look at
a form-based code envelope or box, the reason that this one is sculpted is because this -- >> mayor: you pointed that one.
thank you. >> why don't I point at the one you all can see. Yeah.
that the reason this is the tall portion is because this is outside of the historic district buffer.
there is no buffer -- or the buffer I should say from the south side does not extend over and touch -- does not touch.
that's why this blade was increased in size here and here. Wherever the buffer touched, these building heights here are
within the volume of the 60 feet of the district. So the only area that is elevated up.
we call these jelly models because it shows you the plates of the floors. But that massing was placed
along because it is not in the district. I realize there are structures across the street but they do
not place a regulatory buffer in the portion of the projects. The buffer comes from the north in that little nook that's
created. It swipes through this building and these two. That's why this was brought
down. This is the second option where the e effectively was turned from a reverse e and flipped so
that along 2nd avenue there would be areas for interior setbacks, you could have amenity areas here and it gives more
playfulness. This was an interim opportunity or an option where we looked at taking that big bolt of a
building as a solid shape and inverting these areas to create courtyards and gardens. I appreciate the analogies being
made. Having watched the streets of new york and chelsea and soho last week, it's completely
normal to have two story billings next to other buildings and they live harmoniously. Neighborhoods are built by
built. This obviously we lost a chunk of the building here. Cuts the number down to 20 in
perpetuity. >> mayor: so I think the question was did you want to change your motion.
>> I have a question, then. >> I think it will depend -- >> mayor: we have a motion on the floor.
so unless the maker wants to change that, let's go ahead and stick with this which is the staff recommendation which is
represented by the third option here. Commissioner saco. >> thank you, mr. Mayor.
quick question. If you go with option two, what is the height of the that stand-alone building.
>> the stand-alone building here was taller at 12 but it can be knocked down to make it this. >> and you don't have the
numbers for that? >> I know that jay could probably tell me really, fairly quickly if he took six floors or
six plates out of there, how many units would be lost. >> so let him calculate the math.
but my question then becomes because that is inside the zone. That is inside the buffer zone. That's why we made that one the
smaller one. >> that's correct. >> I do believe in our code. I do believe making exceptions
if there is a benefit. I personally think that would be an excessive deviation at that point just because of the 12
stories. It is immediately inside that zone. And I think we should respect
this zone. >> that building is really cut very heavily by the hundred-foot arcs off of here.
>> it's a weird -- it's a weird shape. I think we've all acknowledged that one.
>> agreed. >> but that said, I'm willing to consider that second plan if the stand-alone building abides by
the buffer limitations. You know, as far as, you know, do we do what our code tells us. Yes.
are we allowed to deviate from it. Yes. >> have we followed those.
yes. >> has staff approved that. Yes. We have not done anything not
lord allowed by our code. This isn't me going up with a marker and designing with a scribble this is how we're going
to outline the city. We're doing what we are required and you have met those requirement.
you have met your requirements, we are meeting our requirements at the suggestion of staff. Our personal likes and dislike I
don't think should play much into this. Because well above that, this provides housing.
and I had someone the other day tell me, housing shouldn't have to be apartments. You're right.
fine. But an apartment is housing. And to someone who is desperate for housing, that is better than
a palace. When my family got here, we literally had nothing and didn't speak english, a really terrible
run-down apartment was home because we were sheltered and my parents could be independent and keep me independent together in
that hovel of an apartment. That matter to people. >> it does. >> so everybody likes living in
a mansion. Maybe. I wouldn't. It's a lot of cleaning.
but it provides housing. And if we could make a little modify to keep within that buffer and respect that buffer,
I'd be fine with it. I do have a question. Would you require it to be a pd to have that condition of
affordability in perpetuity? To seal it in you need it to be a pd? >> yes, mr. Mayor.
the reason we're choosing the pud-pd mechanism, not just to work on the geometry and the roundabout is to permanently
encode in the land use ordinance and in the zoning ordinance that this will have workforce housing universities forever in the
building. Not only then is there the mou and the deed restriction, there is a zoning and a land use
ordinance that mandates that that will always have the workforce housing units in it in perpetuity.
>> it's triple clad. >> yeah. Yes. Mr. Mayor, yes.
as commissioner saco is saying, the pud allows us to do that. We couldn't do u-9 with perpetual workforce housing in
it. There's in way to condition straight zoning so we have to go the pud-pd route.
>> I knew the answer but I appreciate when it helps out with the expert. So if anybody could give me that
modify -- the modification to two... >> so the delta, mr. Silverman is telling me, is that you lose
here about 50 units by taking those floors here on the north stand-alone building out. So about ten units per floor,
five plates, jay, if I'm saying that correctly. >> [inaudible] >> we're going down seven plates
and be losing about 50 units by taking the height out of here. Which you can kind of see hiding here or behind here on the
north. We lose about 50 units there. >> that's 50 units so five affordable units.
which I'm not great at math. Leaves us at 27. >> that would push the number from 20 back up to 27.
>> okay. If the maker of the motion is okay with that, that is what I am comfortable with so that we
are respecting the hundred-foot boundary. That's what I would be comfortable with if any changes
were to be made. And to just close up, I know our boards may not necessarily always agree with what we do,
but our boards weren't elected. They were picked to advise. And we can listen to that advise and then we seven can use our
own individual critical thinking skills to determine what our electorate asked us to do and entrusted us to do.
and sometimes that's build housing. Something being old might be really great.
but you can't house a bunch of families in one older building. Just because something is old doesn't mean it's important.
I'm going to value housing humans over preserving where someone stood once to tie their shoes.
thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: commissioner ward. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. Just very briefly.
you don't need a pd to build a deed restriction in. Correct? I mean, am I missing something
there? I mean I understand you don't want to. And I don't blame you.
that's not -- you're not here to build specifically affordable housing, but you could build a deed restriction in under the
current code. >> well that would be a de facto condition on the pd and the zoning.
the flip side of that coin that we encountered in the other project that jerry and I did with this very same formula was
well, how does the city -- how does the city ensure if there is some kind of breach of that deed restriction.
we don't really have any standing to enforce that. So we really need that regulatory standing in our
zoning and pud. You've got to have the whole package. And that was in discussions with
the city, with staff. We have to develop a restrictive covenant if it gets recorded and it provides ability for the city
to to -- the city doesn't really have informal rights because our agreement is with the gainesville housing authority as
adopted by this board and the pd and pud by reference. We try to knit the whole thing together for you.
so just a stand-alone deed restriction would not work for you, in my opinion. >> so we couldn't enforce but
you could build, you and the housing authority and whoever you sell or rent to could certainly have that restriction
built in. The city of gainesville just couldn't enforce it. >> yes.
and the interest was in the part of your staff, your legal staff to have enforceability because you've made a promise to the
public by virtue of your vote that you're providing these units in perpetuity and you certainly want to be able to
stand behind that. >> right. So yeah, it's a relatively minor point.
>> no. It's very important. >> you could make that deal. We just can't enforce it.
>> it wouldn't work according to your legal staff. >> it wouldn't work for us to enforce it.
>> correct. >> yes. And the public interest in having that ability.
and then, mr. Mayor, on the question that came up regarding 10%, where that came from -- and I think in the other project we
did we explained to this board that the lending community is new to this consent. They're comfortable with ten.
we try to push them to 15. We're not there yet. But we've got to have proof of concept with a couple of the
projects and then I think you'll see the number increase as we move along. So ten is better than nothing.
thank you. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: thank you. >> on that point --
>> mayor: I'll get right back to you, commissioner. Commissioner arreola. >> I'm willing to accept the
friendly amendment. >> mayor: is the staff recommendation with conditions with the exception of creating
that smaller stand-alone building under the parameters of the third option there, but then everything else the second
option. >> the second option minus seven stories. >> mayor: thank you.
does the seconder accept? >> yes, mr. Mayor. >> mayor: commissioner chestnut. >> thank you.
mr. Mayor, I have been here a short time and we've had developers come up and I want to be certain that I'm hearing this
correctly. We've had developers guarantee that we were going to have housing, affordable housing in
perpetuity. So now I'd like for the staff to answer, so you're saying that is not something that is true?
that is not something that is going to stand? Is that what I'm hearing? >> no.
>> that's what it sounded like you were saying. >> no. We're saying --
>> mayor: let's let our staff answer. That's really a question for our staff.
>> so the three projects that have incorporated -- sorry. Andrew persons, special adviser. The three projects that the city
commission has approved in the past year have all been pd-zoned properties. So there's the lincoln ventures
project which was the one on university avenue. There's archer place which is out on old archer road.
and then the project before you tonight. So those are all pd-zoned properties.
and as the discussion was -- the pd zoning is additional -- is essentially a condition to allow the city commission to put
conditions on the development, including the requirement for affordable housing. I think all told, depending on
what happens here tonight, the city will have added 68 perpetual affordable housing units between those three
projects for zero dollars to the city. So it is a little bit -- I'm not speaking about this project but
sit a prof of consent with these three projects with the pd zoning. The city is looking at how do we
take this from what it is today, which is essentially sort of an ad hoc process into something, baking it into your actual
regulations that this is a requirement for all project other a certain size. >> thank you for the
clarification. >> mayor: thank you, commissioner chestnut. >> thank you.
>> thank you, commissioner chestnut. Commissioner hayes-santos. >> thank you, mayor.
>> putting value on the cost of the unit it's around 10 million dollars. >>mayor: I will reserve my
comments until after we hear from the neighbors. I know you've been here for a while and been patient.
we appreciate that. Ma'am clerk, I will turn it over to you to hear from the public.
>> taylor simmons. >> just in case anyone is new. You have three minutes.
you have to introduce yourself. When your time starts you will see a green light.
when you have one minute left you will see a yellow. When the red light comes on that means your time is
expired. >> welcome. >> hi, I'm a junior at the university of florida.
I kind of have to speak from the heart a little bit because of what's been said. My hope is that the
commission pursues a pd. I want to build as many houses for people as possible.
I understand neighborhood character in historic districts. We also have to understand
we are talking about university heights south and the innovation district. If you've ever gone through
this area, you know, I think everybody understands it's a denser area. I don't think that this kind
of urban density is so out of the question. I think as the planners pointed out, there are
larger complexes north, south, east and west. And so too, I think we should pursue the project
it's not necessarily out of character in the area. Just across the street there's -- there's a
complex. At the end of the day what we are talking about this area is mostly a parking
lot. I want this area to be developed. I want to use it
productively. I want to use it to house people. It's a great area.
it's a great area for opportunities. It's a great area for walkability.
and I think it would be a -- I think it would be shame for the city to reject this.
thank you. >> mr. Mayor, commissioners, I'm bill warner. I'm a preservation architect
and realtor and vice chair of the preservation board. The structure located on the northwest corner of west
university avenue and 13th street is not a standard that I would like to see set in our community.
generally, and for the proposed site specifically. What the developer has proposed in terms of scale
gives the finger to the historic preservation in our community. Generally and to the
university heights district specifically. It is a failure in our code that when a right-of-way
puts the subject property a matter of inches beyond the edge of the district, that it's considered not
contiguous. We are experiencing strong developer interest in maximizing every square foot
possible. And building it as cheaply as possible without regard to the negative impact on
the setting. Fortunately we have guidelines and standards for properties within our
historic districts. It's time to develop guidelines and standards for the properties within our
commercial areas. They have figured out how to develop in historic district -- why can't the
applicant. >> next speaker is michael hill. >> he might still be here.
we will come back to him. >> vivishna maholty. >> that's okay. Thank you, mayor and
commission members for providing me and the rest of your constituents with the opportunity to speak today.
I'm a freshman at the university of florida and a member of gainesville is for people a group fighting for
housing. I'm here today to speak in favor of both petitions. This proposed development is
a much-needed part of gainesville's effort to alleviate our housing crisis.
I'm originally from tampa, florida. I had chemistry toucher in my senior year named mr. K.
he was an associate professor at the university of south florida. Despite this he struggled to
afford the increasing rental rates in his apartment. His share of the rent had soared from nearly 800 to
closer to 1400. I know that you can all empathize with his story. Why should a hard-working
immigrant teacher struggle to afford housing near his place of work. Similarly, why should anyone
in gainesville students and residents alike struggle to afford increasing housing cost?
this complex along with all other new housing developments will work to reduce housing cost in
gainesville. We should not discourage development in this already dense vibrant and walkable
area of our city. We should, in fact, encourage this development. The proposal includes 10%
workforce housing and it is located across from the already-constructed infinity hall dorms.
this housing project with affordability units located in a dense bustling area. It's replacing a parking
lot. I think that a housing building providing many units to our citizens sound
a lot better than a parking lot. This proposal will protect and prevent uf students from
pursuing housing in existing gainesville neighborhoods. And it will work to provide competition in the
marketplace and against other housing units in the area. It will send a clear message
to all constituents, we value affordability over aesthetics. Councilmembers, I strongly,
strongly urge you to approve the land changes to tune of full 12 stories to maximize this housing development and
build gainesville core into a more dense mixed use neighborhood. As well as to provide more
housing units to uf students and local community members. Limiting the number of stories of this development
is unnecessary. It will only prevent the full benefits of this project from taking effect.
thank you very much for your consideration today. >> thank you. >> madam clerk.
>> next speaker is peter mcneese followed by melanie barr. >> good evening
commissioners, mr. Mayor. >> I'm a resident and a civil engineer and building contractor and licensed real
estate broker. I've spent the better part of the last 15 years of my professional career building
infill develop development projects in the university heights south area that are compatible with the historic
building that are there now. I know it can be done right. Surely there's some limit as to what you will approve.
if the applicant came with 20-story building would that be considered too much? What we found here is that
there's a loophole that developers can use to circumvent if rules we have in place by offering a 10%
workforce. They really are getting a windfall in 184 market rate student apartments within
two books of -- blocks of the university of florida. I'm pro development. And I agree this parking lot
should be developed. And it should be developed -- I would like to have seen something more
compatible with the community. But I would like to encourage the commission not
to expect the applicants to offer more than 10% workforce housing. Because if you are willing
to accept 10% that's all they are going to offer. Where I as I think you should ask for more in
return. Because this is a big ask. And that 100-foot buffer put in there by code to prevent
these large multifamily projects from being built. This is the specific purpose of that buffer zone.
the other thing is that developers are often very shrewd how they present this to you.
they talk about market rate housing. But formula, that they use includes tioga and hale
plantation which have high incomes. When you use the metropolitan gainesville
area to calculate what the rents are going to be, it's almost double what they would be if you only
included the median household income in the city of gainesville. People that live inside the
perimeter of gainesville in general have -- they make half of what you make in that general metropolitan
area that they would like to use when calculating rents. I ask you consider that as well and I know this has
been recommended that you approve with conditions and perhaps that's something that is a condition that you
can ask for that they change the calculous. >> clerk? >> melanie barr followed by
jennifer murphy. >> hi. I think everybody knows who I am.
I'm a historic preservationest. Back in the day when I first got involved in that you had
to personally own historic house in order to preserve it. Because there was no
historic districts. Back in '82, 40 years ago I bought my first historic house.
I bought it to save it. Because people were closing in porches. Putting metal windows in.
taking out footed tubs. I wanted to restore this house correctly. Now historic districts are
enacted. And we hope that we can restore the neighborhoods correctly.
and I'm going to show you this map. I'm showing you a map. You did see something like
this earlier. And this is the site we're looking at today. So the historic district
circles around this site. I know exactly why. Because I was out photographing houses and
there was some lovely historic bungalows on this site. Beautiful high-quality
bungalows because this was not a historic district that could be prevented. I saw this building being
built. I saw one of the bungalows become a parking lot. Now we are here today
talking about allowing a is 12-story building there. If we only had the historic district intact at that
point we wouldn't be having this discussion. Now we have it. And I think as the staff
person for the developer mentioned that on the perimeter, it's mostly five story building with one
8-story building. I think five-story buildings would be a good choice to have that building there.
instead of what they are proposing. If you saw the picture it's a massive block.
and if you are coming up the district, you are looking at the giant wall that blocks the sky or driving along.
that's a concrete canyon. Very inappropriate for the center of the historic contradict.
you see all the little bungalows here. That's what they will be looking at.
this prompt is 100 feet from them, from the end of their property. And it's a terrible view.
think about this visually. A lot of you were raised in gainesville or lived here a long time.
and you would think you want to keep gainesville, gainesville. Another thing they didn't
mention is the large trees at the perimeter. They show a sidewalk there. We need to keep gainesville
green. We need to keep the trees and houses and the neighborhood.
this is not a neighborly building. This is a massive block wall that will block the sky, be
uncomfortable to drive-by. >> appreciate it. >> you're in a canyon. >> that's not part of the
historic district. >> thank you. >> madam clerk. Hello, I'm brigitte murphy.
I'm a master's student within the university of florida within the urban and regional planning
department. As also a member of the historic board on the student seat it's really
disheartening to see this drop for good planning ethics and community protection especially when
it comes to historic preservation. I don't know if you have ever really visited these
type of apartments, especially at night time. They are student housing apartments.
it's the same type of rental properties. And I know affordable housing is an issue.
but still it isn't being pushed for me. It doesn't seem like that's the focal point.
just developing more units that are going to go to students and I've lived in gainesville for five years,
which really isn't that long. But even during my short time here I've seen so many
of the buildings come into neighborhoods. I live in the community north of campus.
I have just -- the identity has completely changed. And now it's beginning east of campus.
and we talked about dangerous precedents and things like that. It's true and I know you
want development and it's good for the innovation district. At the certain point, the
advisory boards do advice. Because they care. They are not elected. But they do care.
that's why they come out. They why that go and take the time to do these things. Because it's important to
their community the ones that they live in. I can't imagine in another five years what it will look
like. How many more of the building and districts will be here.
if historic district wasn't protected the way that it is. It's likely it wouldn't be
there as well. The university heights south is well protected because it has protections.
because it has the laws that protects it. I fully believe without them a bulldozer would have been
in the future a long, long time ago. I don't think this should be approved.
I think there's more compatible housing that can be built. Especially architecturally.
it's sad to go with the one-floor brick and then continue up and considering it's 12 stories high and you
will be faced with a solid silver wall after coming out of canopies and trees to kind of clashes.
the mass of the building is ginormous. Across the street you have regular-sized home.
if you approve it, you should be tough with the conditions of approval. Architecturally you should
limit height. Don't be desperate spore development, because development will come to
gainesville. And I think you should be more prideful and have more faith in your community.
>> thank you. >> madam clerk. >> our next speaker is jennie tucker followed by
robert mounds. >> hi. Mr. Mayor and the city commissioners, I'm jenny
tucker. I'm very nervous. This is my second time in city hall.
the first time I couldn't find the gate. I'm here. I'm propelled to tell my
opinion. I'm strongly opposed to this project for three reasons. First, I want to acknowledge
that the developers do very good job. They have very good sales method to show you selective
picture of the historically preserved houses in the neighborhood. There are a lot of beautiful
houses in the neighborhood and the pictures you see are selective. There are a lot more
beautiful houses not shown. And also the developers present a force. They ask you between a
parking lot and 12-story new building. But this is not real choice. The parking lot has been
there because it has been waiting for a good opportunity to be developed. The default is not remaining
a parking lot. The alternative could be a four-story beautiful house, beautiful building, also
providing housing to the neighborhood. I don't think the developers presented feasible
alternatives here to present their project. The second reason they talk about 10% house workforce
housing. But the reality is that only students -- or mostly students live there.
the 10% workforce housing given to how be students live there, very few other people would choose to live
there. We know what students are. They are very active. And sometimes are loud.
I just want to keep this in perspective. The second reason opposing it; this is a beautiful
prehistory preservation area. Gainesville known for own speciality and beauty.
it's not a miami. We don't want gainesville to become miami. Generations of faculty and
students remember their time they have had at florida. One of the most important schools in the country and
the best in the state. And they remember the memories that are spent. They didn't want to come
back to see this brick wall. The third reason I'm against it. It's not fair.
we have the historical preservation code. And houses in that area have been observing the code
following the regulation. We have been trying hard to preserve what is there. To have new roofs and now
you have a 12-story building just half the distance from here to there. That's a new 12-story
building. >> that's your time. >> thank you so much. >> followed by jason
sanchez. [inaudible] first, process. Very disappointed with an
issue of this high public importance that you took a motion and tally-whacked your vote before you heard
from the public. The meeting included nothing about the plan board. They didn't tell you today
that the plan board voted this down by 4-2. Some of you know it. The backup didn't include
citizen comment from the plan board. It didn't include the blistering critique of this.
another developer. Who owns property across the street. I don't understand that.
the developer tried to tell you there was three times. No it wasn't. Yes.
partly but it was 4-2 against it. Dismiss it if you wish. They voted unanimously to
oppose it. That wasn't in the back up either. Process, my god.
the real thing boils down to the fact that you know if we were talking about building condominiums here which
people in their 30s and 40s need which incoming faculty need and by the 2016 u.s. Strategic plan says what is
needed in order to attract high-quality faculty. It might be a different story in terms of height and
density. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the
standard with two additional floors, with 10% workforce housing. Mostly filled with a student
rental. Would a nurse or young professional couple want to live in that standard?
is that realistic even at the cut rate? Why aren't developers motivated to build housing
that people your age actually need and not more student housing. It's greed.
under the existing zoning there's incentive for affordable housing for workforce housing and they
could get the two extra floors from six to eight. Why is that not enough? Because of greed.
going to 12 just to get what you would have gotten if you were building a six-story building.
you can get eight. There's a reason why stepped down from downtown zoning to the one to two-story
historic district. It's amazing to me that no one has mentioned that. They've acknowledged that,
yes, we're marketing it to students by the bedroom just like every other student apartment building.
are they selling condominiums. Is anyone going to live is there with a family and
children? >> thank you. >> madam clerk. >> next speaker jason
sanchez followed by thomas hawkins. >> thomas. I don't think mr. Sanchez is
here. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. >> that looks good. When it sit up there on the
plan board. Don't understand why people can't get it straight. I only brought a couple of
copies. I knew I would have slides up here. I want to thank you
mr. Mayor. I didn't know before romes meant what it meant to not be home in the evenings.
thanks for what you have been doing for the last two terms. We in development code have
this provision. Multifamily development adjacent to the historic district cannot have more
than 6 dwelling units per building. We been talking about height.
as though we're just asking for a little bit more. The height is not the limiting factor in this
area. What guarantees a reasonable transition between the historic district form and
the form allowed adjacent to the historic district is the transition area with the number of units per building
is six. I think -- I would go through this quickly. We've seen this historic
district. Land adjacent. That's your 100 foot buffer looks like.
see the area shown in blue is the area where development is limited to six units per building.
the proposal in this comp plan amendment is to allow up to 204 units per building.
I know the applicant will split that between two structures. The comp plan amendment
doesn't say how many per structure. But the change is not minor. It's absolutely blowing out
of the water the standards that everybody else with a similarly situated property has to deal with.
it's absolutely not a minor adjustment at all. That change is 3,300% increase.
it's going to be split between two buildings we may look at something like 400% in 2000 and 800%.
it's still absolutely massive increase. We have a legal term for what's going on here.
it's spot zoning. When you destroy the zoning scheme that everyone else has to follow to give
special preference to one property owner. That's spot zoning. It's a quote from the
florida supreme court. I want to appreciate you commissioner the last time I was here.
like three years ago you emphasized spot zoning is something we can't do. You're absolutely not
supposed to. That's what this is. The bottom line is we can do better.
the previous speaker noted that it's not a trade off between urban development and a parking lot.
it's not like we have to take this project to get nothing. Lots of development is
happening in our community consistent with our rules. And that is much better. I would ask you reject the
proposed comp plan amendment and deny the motion town floor. I think we will see progress
in the neighborhood that's better. >> thank you so much. >> thank you.
>> just one more call from michael hill. >> thank you. >> thank you.
>> also appreciate everyone sharing their thoughts. I will for the sake of my colleagues, share mine.
I will not -- I will not start with the issue at-large, which is we have a significant lack of housing
in our community. Specifically significant lack of housing in our urban core leading to escalating
housing costs, lack of access to mobility, dependency on an automobile for any and all travel.
and I will get specifically to this particular project. The first reason I support it and you know supported
the original motion and certainly support the modified motion is that -- I'm sorry, did we
not get a speaker. >> she's an effected party which is for the quasi additional portion which is
the next item. >> to be an effected party for quasi-judicial item which is the next item.
[inaudible] the first reason I support this is because we have heard from our neighbors
consistently about their concern with displacement and gentrification in some of our historic
neighborhoods. By building significant amounts of housing on land that does not displace.
there's no better example of that than a parking lot. With this, you get significant amounts of new
housing without forcing anybody out. It is in as we saw one of the most walkable, bikable
and transit oriented neighborhoods in our city. In fact, I think probably the most.
it -- as you saw it's also compatible with the surrounding development. This type of development
exists on all sides. And we also saw that most of that development was within the 100-foot buffer.
and received approval. Those developments have not destroyed the neighborhood. They have added vibrancy.
they have added the opportunity for people to live, work and play in a compact area.
I also -- I support that the -- while this would get approved as apud and pd. They are conforming to the
standard for the zones which adds to the urban form. We have had countless hours of discussions about
affordable housing. We understand the great cost of affordable housing if done by the city.
we understand the significant barriers to affordable housing. We need to take advantage of
every single unit of affordable housing that we can add to our stock that doesn't tap into the city's
limited resources. And so that is the main reason I support the amended motion is that will include
7 families that are now able to live near where they work, where their kids go to school, where they shop and
where they can access amenities. I cannot -- I cannot allow anybody to minimize the
impact that, that has on those families that will take advantage of that. This project is not in a
historic district. It is not. Other projects are in the buffer the same as this and,
again, have not somehow ruined the neighborhood. In fact you heard many people today speak about how
much pride they have in their neighborhood. To think somehow this project would tip the
neighborhood, it will got. I think the economic data that was shown is significant.
I also just want to point out that we need much more of this type of dense development to address our
challenges with climate change. I hope that all of you have been able -- if you haven't
read the full report at least the executive summary of the cool climate project done by the university of
california berkeley. They conducted an extensive study of over 700 cities globally and looked at what
the largest impact local government and local communities can have on climate change.
by far the largest impact is greater urban density. It's not close to the next biggest impact.
we also know through and, again, I will reference a study that the university of ucla put out which was
really several different peer reviewed study on market housing cost and all new market rate housing
lowers upward pressure on rents. Whether dedicated affordable or not.
we have to stop finding ways to reduce housing in our community. We can go over a long list
of housing projects that have come before this commission, or the commission across the
street. And we have found ways to deny it. And that has further and
further and further exacerbated our affordable housing crisis. This is a good project.
you might not like how it looks. It might you know, I do appreciate the comment that
I heard from one of our neighbors that don't we want to keep gainesville, gainesville?
look, I grew up here. I was raised here. I was -- I went westwood and the university of florida.
I flung burgers for ten years before I become a teacher. Gainesville changes.
that's what I low about it. It's a dynamic city and it grows and evolves. There's no more appropriate
place to have high density urban development than between the university of florida and our downtown.
if we want to take the pressures off of our more traditional neighborhoods, the way the do that is offer
this high-density housing that I guarantee you the day they open their doors will be 100% occupied.
guaranteed. They will be preleased and on moving day every one of those including the
affordable units will be occupied. That is a clear market signal that the demand for
our housing is so much higher than our supply is able to offer, and so if you are interested in preserving
more traditional neighborhoods this is absolutely something I encourage you to support.
I know this is hard. Change is uncomfortable. It always has been. But there are far too many
benefits and advantages to this proposal than there are and I meant there always are trade offs that will cause
uncomfort or change. But not nearly enough for me to consider denial of this petition.
I will support the motion on the floor, which is for the modified with the smaller lower heights smaller
building and the larger main building. And with that, we will go back for another round of
commission comment and then we will move to a vote. Commissioner saco. >> thank you to everyone who
has commented. I have two points generally. I don't know which one to go first.
let's go with this one. All this housing is going to be luxury housing. Because of where we are, not
just in gainesville or the u.s., all housing is a luxury right now. And people don't have the
luxury of saying, well I want to live in this type of housing. You need shelter.
your kids need a place to sleep. Something is better than nothing.
and I guarantee you that people who are on the gainesville housing authority wait list, those
are hundreds of families will be incredibly grateful for this. As commissioner hayes-santos
said earlier. It's something we can keep in perpetuity by law without a penny coming from the
city. And to subsidize those units -- 27 units twelve months, at about let's say
$850 for 20 years. That's millions of dollars. That we don't have to pay and we help at-risk families
have shelter. And it's in shelter by the looking of it near amenities.
I hate that it's come to this point. But all housing is now a luxury.
and to the other point I don't like generalities. I don't like speaking in generalities.
not everybody wants a single family home. Not everybody wants an apartment.
I think some of the best times of my life living in the rental where the landlord took care of
everything and I didn't lift a finger. That was awesome. When I was in family I
wanted to different situation. People want different things.
some people live in a house in gainesville. Some live apartment. Some in a condo by the
beach. People do different things. People want different things.
and to that end, people are very different. Every individual person is different.
I say it every time. It happens in this chamber. Students are not criminals. I was a student at the
university of florida. I didn't get arrested. It wasn't selling drugs out of my condo.
I was not blasting music. I was not doing any of the things that every student -- the students that
did show up -- unfortunately you were told you are all criminals that you are disruptive and will make
noise and no one wants to be near you. That's not fair. You're not.
you all seem very nice well spoken human beings. If we come into this room two miles from the
university, please, please refrain from saying that students are a problem. Students contribute millions
to our economy. Will the apartment have students? Yes.
>> will it have families. >> yeah. Will some of the students be grad students who have
families. People can be two things. >> yeah. Housing the housing.
people who live in house ring people. Thank you, my -- mr. Mayor. >> up next commissioner
ward. >> thank you mr. Mayor. >> many, many thoughts here. For me and obviously from
everybody else. One of the things we haven't talked about that, that weighs on my mind is that
zoning map on my computer while the presentations were going on. Literally across the street
as the applicant pointed out is 12 to 14 stories. All downtown. Some of that is actually
already been raised and then they gave up on the project. Not to take the building down to build 12 to 14
stories. I know this is property that's available. I get it.
it's available because it's a weird lot. What we're trying to do -- what the applicant is
trying to do. It's not a judgment. It's a reality. You try to make the most you
can out of an opportunity on a really weird lot. The reason it's a weird lot is because this body some
years ago literally cut corners to create the most -- largest possible historic district even
though it really didn't fit. They had done what made sense looking at that map and cut the historic
district off at 2nd avenue, where it made sense, we wouldn't be having this discussion at all.
but they did. They cut corners there to try to get a little bit more and created a problem for
folks down the road. The parking lot is going to be built on. It sounds like we're going
to get 12 stories tonight. I'm not voting for that. But we've got to stop and, again, this is not a
judgment against the applicant. But just because a salesman gives us a story does not
mean that, that's the only story. The market has limitations. And it's absolutely true
that supply and demand is a real thing. I don't want to get into the supply of housing.
but there's the opportunity to build 12 or 14 stories on many blocks heading east from this very property.
this very property is by our own rules available for a mix of four-stories, and eight stories.
that's fairly dense. It's not as dense as what the applicant asking for. It's okay to ask for it.
we don't always have to say yes when someone asks us to bend the rules. It's not bending the rules.
we built the back door into the process. Because times it's necessary.
it's not always necessary. We are essentially ignoring with the of our own maps to make this happen.
when there are not necessarily available to this developer right now today, but when there are
available many, many blocks of 12 to 14 stories to be built on by our own rules. I don't think that it is our
job to guarantee profit. And I think in other circumstances you would all agree with me on that.
I'm a little bit frustrated in our willingness -- a lot frustrating in our willingness ignore the rules
that we put in place. Thank you. >>mayor: commissioner duncan-walker
>> thank you mr. Mayor. I will try to be brief. I don't want to ignore our rules.
I don't want to ignore the plan board. I don't want to ignore the historic preservation board.
I don't want to ignore existing community that we seem to always allow to slide down to the bottom of
the list whenever anything like this comes up. There are countless people who are in need of
affordable housing. I will tell you that I can appreciate what seems to now be becoming a trend of
including workforce for affordable housing in new developments, you've heard us say countless time.
we wish its more. It's not enough. And that's the truth. But this is what you are
bringing to the table. That's fine. Because it's your project. You get to bring what you
want. And we all get to support what we want. I won't be able to support
this. I want to take just a moment to say to my colleagues and thank you, commissioner
hayes-santos for noting my comments at the county. It's truly what I believe. In the spirit of the
innovation that we all cheer on and want to see, to me a couple of things. First, the inclusion of even
more affordable workforce housing in projects coming up. We will not do that.
to my colleagues and I will say and this is unrelated to this. What would really be
innovative if we actually got behind the county and supported the letter that they just wrote regarding
the affordable housing developer and relocating that. That could come right down
to the urban core on a city-owned property. Has nothing to do with this. Possibly a future
conversation. But if we're going to talk about affordable housing, to me that's the affordable
housing conversation. I appreciate it being included. Please don't get my wrong.
but when I think about it. That's how I think about it. It's more than 10%. Thank you all for bringing
it forward. I won't be able to support this tonight. Thank you.
>> thank you mr. Mayor. >> I think two things. I think we're kidding ourselves if you think that
a family of four is going to move into a project with -- that is student housing.
it's not going to happen. You're not achieving what you think you are. That's one.
two, I think going forward and I would like this going forward to staff, when people come in with the pud,
it's not 10% housing. If they want to develop here in gainesville, let's go to 20%.
let's go to 25%. Let's make it really, really matter. Because 10% does not.
thank you. >> commissioner hayes-santos. >> thank you, mayor.
>> we are following the rules and the process and our comp plan which prioritizes affordable
housing and protecting the environment and moving forward projects that reduce urban sprawl.
thank you, mayor. >> thank you. >> really do appreciate all of the conversation.
it's you know these are not simple issues. You know if they were, then they would sail through
without a lot of comment. I do appreciate folks taking time to share their thoughts and a lot of work has gone
into this. And you know, sincere and thoughtful comments from all my colleagues.
with that madam clerk, I will move to roll call vote in the motion is essentially for the middle what we see
up here the middle proposal but with the reduced height on the smaller building that we see on the right with the
other conditions attached. Madam clerk. [roll call] >> that motions passes 4-3
with duncan-walker and chestnut in die scent. >> the next item quasi-judicial-rezoning from
urban transsecond. >> we will be in recess until 8:30. >> welcome back.
we're call this meeting back to order. The item has been read into the record.
v-2 on rezoning of the urban transect zone to planned development. This is the companion zoning
for the land use we just heard for any of you following along at home. >> thank you mr. Mayor.
I don't have a separate presentation or a substantively different presentation for the zoning
portion of this. But, again, I'm happy to answer questions on it or go through any of these details
as needed. >> okay. We'll just ask you to be on standby in case there's
follow up questions. But we appreciate that. That's pretty much standard procedure when we have
companion. We don't do two different presentations. The applicant, would you
like to give a presentation? >> yes. >> thank you. Come on up.
>> I'm aicp certified planner. I've been a planner for 32 years.
we appreciate your support during the land use. I will go through the zoning.
I may go rapidly. Because this a quasi-judicial proceeding. I want the facts in the
record. And hook everything that we said from the application, the future land use
application as well as our presentation staff's presentation all combined into this quasi-judicial
proceeding. Quickly, this did go through the public notification process and the neighborhood
workshop was held. We had two representative from the university of florida and one business
owner attended. It's process began in october of 2021 and we're here september 15th, 2022
for first reading in front of the commission. The request that was before you a moment ago was a small
kale comprehensive plan amendment on 1.2 acres. And now you are hearing the rezoning application which
would be a dt. The only that will implement pud planned use district land use zone and we're
requesting the planned developing classification. We believe this is important project because it has a key
innovation district adjacent to it and with two multistory building containing exemplary
residential. Added urban housing supply and diversity. As well as market rate 10%
of the unit are workforce housing. We can't go higher because financial underwriters won't
will let us go there. We are in fact limited to 10% for our banking industry in the opportunities that we
feel are viable here this helps achieve the highest best use of innovative urban location which is currently
a parking lot. We seek to improve the form safety and the pedestrian realm of the corridor along
2nd avenue and 10th street and the alley way that is between the two structures that will increase the
diversity in gainesville urban core and workforce housing which transit friendly.
it's located approximately 2 blocks from the university of florida. One block to the northwest
of innovation district. And about three blocks from santa fe college downtown center.
this is in an area tremendously redeveloping over the last several years. And, in fact, this project
sits in between several other projects of similar size, scale and mass and number of stories.
this area of town is a very highly mobile area meaning that it supported walkability on said walks.
bicycle lanes, transit. It has the ability to not be dependent on single occupant automobiles.
in this building we will be putting several multi-modal strategies related to this. Scores a 93 on the
walkability of the walk score looking at city's all over the united states of america.
there will be a shared residential vehicle program. Which will be partnering with zip car, car to go and
other similar services here. And there will be preferred parking for green vehicles. The structure will
incorporate structured mechanical parking lifts in there to get vehicles into the building.
and electrical vehicle charging station. There's a scooter sharing and charging program
associated with this and generous bicycle amenities including shared and maintenance facilities for
the resident. This adjacent to transit routes in the urban core of gainesville.
we're looking at second avenue. We are trying in our design to preserve many of the
trees that are out there that exist in, in between the actual backup curb and the property line.
I know there was a comment during the land use phase of that. We're working to try to
preserve those because they are out further. And we also want to be cognizant of the gainesville
regional utilities system that's in there and cause the least amount of disruption stormwater and so
forth along those areas. This is looking down the alleyway which will be reconstructed.
the utilities will go underground here. That increase dramatically. The existing parking land
and medical building will be replaced by multistory structure. And this will effectively
take land that is urban, mixed out high intensity that's adjacent to turban core land use across the
street and change this to planned use district. Request then is to place the only zoning that is come
patable with the planned use district bying the planned develop over the top of u-9 underlying zoning.
the reason we request unique features about this. There's 100-foot buffer that intersects other buildings
and causes the form of the building to be as depicted in the slides previously. This will take the building
height up to approximately 126 feet, 1 inch which is slightly taller than what's allowed in u-9.
this increases the density from 125 units to 204. And at this point in the presentation I would like to
make a comment about some paper slides that were placed on here that says this is 3,000% increase.
that's improper allocation and improper application of the actual city of gainesville code.
that same language and that same discussion was proffered at the plan board and the planned board your
plan board attorney mr. Shaun mcdermott stated that not the way the land development code is applied.
if you are in the zone one touch of that zone causes only six dwelling units to to applicable across the
entirety of the property. He opined the city has twice prevailed in challenges with the department of
administrative hearing in tallahassee and in twice now has been ratified and the fact that the stepdown only
applies to the area that is within the buffer. That being said, we are seeking to effectively have
dt type land use parking adjacent to infinity hall. As you can see behind other buildings on first avenue,
one block to the north side of this their exist building that are already penetrating into the buffer and four
stories and eight stories along university avenue and not appearing. We're seeking specifically
from land development section. The proposed pd development standards are largely
consistent in terms of storefront, street treatment, set backs, a minimum set backs along here
as well as compensating for the fact there's an existing roundabout at 2nd and 12th that we have to work around.
the requirements aren unchanged so the code is implemented through this process.
this action will in perpetuity place workforce housing at 50% of the area -- adjusted median
income for the gainesville area in that building and one bedroom will be 686 and two bedroom will be 823.
about 1,000 less than current market cost. The workforce housing is needed in the community.
we incorporated that into this. We feel this is questioning to bolster the long-term
viable of the urban core. We do have an existing memorandum of understanding that has been adopted by the
gainesville housing authority. You can see pam davis' signature on here prior to
the public hearing earlier this spring. This property is consistent with the land development
code 30-3.14. That's why it heard before you in the public hearing. That's why heard at the
planning board. Because it's consistent with criteria of 30-3.14. Meets all the criteria and
twice now your staff both at the planning board, staff report and the city commission staff report have
told you that their recommendation and professional guidance is to adopt the rezoning
amendment. Therefore, under article 3 of planned development this property and this request
before you meets all the criteria of the land development code and also in section 30-3.15.81.
flexibility sustainability using land and infrastructure. Reduces transportation needs
conserves energy and maximizing preservation of natural resources because wear not working in a
greenfield. Land development code 30-3.15.8.2 allows for integration that would not
be provided for in other districts. The pd allowing us to do that across here because we
have different sized buildings as we also have different density being considered here.
land development code 30-3.15.8.3 will allow outstaying and inknow surveytive nonresidential
development that integrate housing type. We have workforce housing and internal and external
comfortable travel as we talked about here. We will be able to have people walk, bicycle,
schooler, take transit and other means to get to myriad of locations in and around the urban area.
30-3.15a4 allows flexibility to be changing needs in our society changing technologies and economics.
and consumer preference and allows forking newity and imagination in the planning and development of large
tracks. This relatively small track. These things still apply. Urban lifestyle and for
housing. The pd introduces new housing to gainesville. It's residents and enhances
access an opportunity for all. 33.15.a.5. Coordinated building in
relationship with in-fill development. Allows coordinated develop of two building on small
in-fill site. Eliminates the lack of planning or piecemeal development.
it's pedestrian scale and the major folkous of the redevelopment that follow rezoning along there and has
residential units that will open to the street front and sidewalk area. Pedestrian realm enhancement
include widened sidewalk and streetscaping. Removes redundant driveway cuts and pedestrian driveway
sidewalk conflicts around the entirety of the perimeter. Section review criteria hat
been met. City staff testified twice. This conforms with consistency with the plan
external compatibility has been demonstrated as well as the intensity of the develop.
plaza and recreational areas will be included throughout the building plan and some places on the roof.
environmental constraints there are none on the site. There's no floodplains no other environmental concerns
and external transportation access and internal will occur from the core of the site from the alley for
vehicles and then all other units and amenity will have access to public street the parking structure on the
north side. Lastly it provides for range of transportation choices because resident can use
cars, bicycles and other vehicles as well as transit lines. The reason we request this
because the historic district creates a unique little pocket and thereby places a buffer around
portions of this property and so only certain areas can be developed to the actual massing of what the
requested. We conducted research and the property value analysis of all surrounding
properties and looked at the year 2016, 27, 28, under no scenarios into any other real estate value depreciate
when larger building were built in the district. We looked cascades and also the hub to the north.
there's no evidence at all this will hurt or injure the property values of the surrounding properties.
moreover there's not any properties that surround the property that are homestead. Every single property around
there is a commercial rental property. And as stated we are be removing driveway connection
points and session point with sidewalk and only access from the alleyway internal to the actual
block. I'm showing the elevation. But now showing the street view.
parking lot will be replaced by building that has large glass front facade. It will make the second
avenue safer for pedestrians as well as having many pedestrian doors and actual residential unit that will
open on to the street. And this view shows on 12th street north of the roundabout shows how the
building designed to compliment the infinity hall across the street with railing to prevent this to
become ad hoc skateboard park. This area is looking at directly north from second
avenue from the roundabout showing there's a large gathering area at the entrance to the building
without door social places. Part of the actual pd. Then down second avenue you see there's not only doors
going into residential unit but alcoves within the building that allow additional social
interaction and people to study or invite friends over and have like a live, play, study environment right here
along second avenue here. Over the course of the project we looked at several designs.
during the course of the project we had memorandum of understanding executed with the housing authority and
the last design that was brought forward single blade along second in which we changed about 15 minutes
ago. And you are looking at hybrid alternative of this building here with the rear
building dropped down within the historic district to represent 271 units with 698 to 700 beds.
we'll have to get the math exact. This will deliver 27 workforce housing units into
the community. There was resolution adopted that brought out some language about this would
set precedent. Based on research following the planning board we looked at the actual historic
district covering this portion of the city, and noted that immediately across the street infinity
hall has five storyings within the 100-toot buffer. To north the hub on university has four story
and 8 stories within the buffer. To the west collar manor five story building within
the buffer. Further to the south, is lynn court which is five stories within the buffer.
on the outside of invocation cascades five story building within the 100-foot of buffer.
all different direction north, east, west and south that buffer has allowed five story buildings.
there's no precedent staff. City staff recommended in the planning board report they approve the project.
they had 3-3 vote. They asked for one more vote to come to the commission. And then the planning board
gave us 4-2 to come forward to you. City staff reviewed their professional staff report
and have concluded again this should be approved with conditions as you did in your last, you will support
this and I'm sorry I had to read that fast. Now I know how you feel when you ask me to read
something. >> did you want to add something? >> mr. Mayor, attorney for
the applicant, very briefly. Because this quasi-judicial hearing. I want to be clear that we
are moving and offering the chw presentation from the land use hearing this evening as well as the
zoning hearing we are in now. The staff reports for both land-use and zoning.
the land use and zoning applications submitted by chw and the record of the plan board proceeding and
the entire record of the land-use proceedings that you heard this evening. Thank you very much.
>> thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Turn back to commission.
commissioner hayes-santos. >> I move petition pb-21-0020 with conditions and modified as necessary to
meet the direction given. >> second. >> madam clerk, do you clear the motion?
[inaudible] consistent with approval from the land use item. Second.
commissioner arreola, madam clerk anyone signed up to speak for this item? >> vihsne, taylor simmons.
melanie barr, brigitte murphy. Jenny tucker. Robert max, jason sanchez.
>> thank you then we'll turn back to the commission and they will call a vote. [roll call]
>> motion passes 4-3 with duncan-walker and chestnut in dissent. Land use change 1.63 acres
of property located at 1905 south main street. An ordinance of the city of gaines, florida amending the
future land use map of the comprehensive plan by changing the land use category of approximately
1.63 acres of property generally located at 1905 south main street. As more specifically
described in this ordinance. Providing a repealing clause and providing an effective date.
>> we won't go through that yet. This is legislative matter for the land use change.
I will go right to you. >> I will be presenting ld-2200005 the land use change and then the
associated zoning that goes along with it which ends in a four there. I will be going through a
couple of slides here. But fortunately, I feel like a fair amount of my work has been done since a lot of
conversation and discussion has been pud. This is undoing a pud and some land use decisions that
were made in the past. So for the land use it's changing from office to the urban mixed use.
and the office designation really was established at the time to be underlying or supportive of the pd that
was established at that time. That pd zoning was very, very restrictive and
prescriptive and is directly written or crafted to support an office and pretty much strictly just office
and specifically what you all may remember or recognize as the george young office that has been
vacant for sometime now. And so really as a practical matter or practical nature of this it's to remove that
antiquated land use and replace it with a more current and appropriate land use and then zoning
ultimately. You can see the project location here between south main street southeast 16th.
this is wastewater treatment facility. And, of course, south main street here.
down in the southwest corner is the outer age of the kirkwood neighborhood here. Which then extends to the
south and the west of that direction. And actually on this slide, I will go ahead and point
out, I will speak to it a little bit later. There is the -- there's a water conveyance here that
is at least part creek and part manmade that then flows to the south and connects with coakley pond and
ultimately sweetwater branch which flows into the wetlands pack. There was some discussion in
the planning board and also acting environmental coordinator I will go ahead and go over some of those
issues there. This is the underlying land use. As I said it was to sort of
support the desire at the time to have the george f. Young and you will notice around it that there are
urban mixed use to the north here already which also you will see have zoning assigned to them.
residential multifamily to the east. The conservation that's associated with some of the
resource here. Conservation area that as we discussed at some previous items some weeks ago is
largely a buffer from the multifamily to the north and the single family neighborhood that is
kirkwood to the south and west here. Also important to point that this office designation even
though it's 1.63 acres the next closest office land use designation is more than a half mile away.
this is the zoning that shows the existing pd. This pd is the one that we're really discussing
here. You can also see that roughly the same time other pd was used for this site
the land was tailored and crafted to support or be associated with the repair shop that's on the corner
here as we spoke about in the previous item this simply is really not the way that planning approaches the
application of zoning or land use today. X currently established on this site, and it is one of
those zones and this becomes an important criteria for the applying zoning that I will go over.
these are the project details for the site. You can see you can see the existing land use and
zoning. It's 13,000 square feet of office space never fully built out.
there's the existing georgia f. Young site there today. Just the one office building.
and again it's vacant and has been vacant for quite sometime. The proposed land use and
zoning will go to the urban mixed use which is 60 dwelling units per acre by right.
and then with a special use permit that could be increased and then the associated zoning is the u-6
which is the 50 dwelling units per acre by right. To as a note when the applicant came to staff and
requested or sought feedback on what we would support or be supportive of in this area.
we suggested to go ahead and use the u-8 zoning that would make that one solid district in the area and
after neighborhood workshop and some neighborhood feedback the applicant came back with a request for
slightly less intense zoning districts. Just a note that there's been some of that back and
forth and listening while the project has been developed before bringing it to the planning board and
you here this evening. It is important to point out, though, of course that this is a significant
change, of course. The change in the land use will go something that's very restrictive and
prescriptive to something that is what we are more familiar with today on projects that we see
recently and currently. Some of the criteria for the changes to the land use, again, as usual.
I won't go through each one of these in complete total detail as the staff report goes over that.
but I do want to take the opportunity to go back to the environmental impacts and constraints here.
and I will go back to that first slide just to point out again that this is the beginning of a creek and the
more natural creek. It turns into what we would consider as the natural creek to the rear of this
tanglewood apartments down here. We didn't evaluate in detail what the environmental
resource is. This close to the highway. Because it does not actually go on to the property and
over time what happened here is that any of the water that did originally and I mean prior to the city being
developed, did flow to the south and east here and over time it has been developed over this intersection and
really today what was possibly in the distance past is a creek is now in a pipe and runs under south
main street. It is a man made water conveyance system. And that has different
applications for what gets protected in the comprehensive plan and the so really in effect here, what
could happen at the most, this would be treated as a totally natural creek. If we evaluated it and if that
is what the resource assessment came back as. And in that case. During that development, during
the application for development, the maximum distance from the top -- the brink and slope of brink is 150 feet of a buffer.
it can go all the way down to 35 feet and we make that an assessment or judgment when we get an actual assessment of the
feature. That would not have a direct impact on the land use change or the zoning necessarily.
we'll go back to the criteria are to the land use changes here. And we'll go for the short
version in the land development code. And then this, of course also goes through the rezoning
criteria. And one of the aspects here that I briefly mentioned is that there is a requirement that it
be at least ten acres and we have discussed this ten acre limitation and other petitions if we wanted to bring it up here
this evening. It's adjacent to a transect zone. That limitation does not apply
in this case. I did mention that there is a significant difference in the umu versus the office land use,
and the difference between the pd zoning and the u-6 zoning that's being requested. And of course it's important to
acknowledge the potential maximums. However, it's -- staff believes it's the narrowness of the uses
allowed today that's left the property vacant and we believe that the flexibility of the umu land use designation will
appropriately guide future land uses and allow things like what is being proposed in reality today, like day care, which is
not currently allowed on the site. And with that, staff recommends approval of ld-22-00005 and
ld-22000004 zoning without conditions. And if there are any questions, happy to answer them, the
applicant is here as well. And I believe has a presentation. >> thank you very much.
we'll invite the applicant or their designee up to make their presentation. >> I'm clay swagger and I'd like
to highlight a few things in addition to what has already been presented to you. This property is located at 1905
south main street. It's 1.6 acres. The old george f. Young engineering building.
there are two requests for you tonight, the land use change from office to urban mixed use umu, and the rezoning from td to
u6, I'll talk about that in a moment. There's some action needed by the city in our opinion.
there's a new owner. This pd is expired. There's really no modern zoning regulations that apply to this
property. And because of those reasons we're before you tonight asking for these map changes.
this is the existing city land use map showing the land use. You can see the urban mixed use leads to the northwest and
northeast in multifamily to the east and the proposed land use map tonight is umu in the -- I don't know what color that is
it. Lighter purple? The zoning map today is pd planned development.
this property was approved as a pd. The place up the street was also done as a pd.
that's a step down from the u8 zoning. Adjacent to the property to the north and to the northwest.
the building has been vacant now pretty much the entirety of 2022, waiting for potential action on these zoning changes.
one of the first renters could be a day care. We had a neighborhood workshop back in december.
there are quite a few neighbors from the kirkwood neighborhood that came out. And we're concerned about some
of the potential uses of the property. Because of that, we did proactively as applicant decide
to lower our request on the zoning from u8 to u6. That takes more of the high intensity uses off the table.
those are itemized and there are some others. Mini-storage hotels, car washes, vehicle sales and repair.
the pd is expired, we have a vacant building. Back in 2017 the city instituted the transect zoning plan.
and the properties to the north of us were put in u-8 zoning. Many of the old pd's were not put -- were not changed into
transect zoning, if they were it would already be zoned u8 is my estimation. There are several policies that
show consistency with the comprehensive plan. Most of them are regarding revitalizing urban areas,
discouraging sprawl. We have facilities in the area. It's really ripe for some new development activity right along
main street which is an arterial roadway. This is another policy discussing the discouragement of
urban sprawl by redevelopment in urban areas. As I mentioned, I don't want to repeat myself, but there are
multiple facets of why this is compatible with the area, with the land use and zoning pattern to the north and the step down
approach on this property. And also consistency with multiple family zoning to the east.
there are no environmental features on the property, no wetlands, no flood plains, no creeks, no surface waters, there
are potentially some of those to the south, but they're not on this particular site. If any redevelopment would come
along, they would have to comply with any set backs that would apply at that time. The application would support
the urban redevelopment concept. And there are public facilities available to serve the property. There are certain criteria as
forest mentioned when you propose a transect zoning you need to have at least 10 acres, and the pd right now has old
antiquated references to a code that's no longer in effect, none of us have a copy of it probably in this building.
and we've got the urban transect zoning to the north. So the plan board did hear this item, and I believe unanimously
recommended approval. Your staff recommends approval, we believe that we've met all the criteria for you to consider
and approve these items, and with that, I'd appreciate your consideration on it, and be happy to answer any questions
you have tonight. >> appreciate it. With that, we'll move back to the commission.
are there any further questions or is there a motion? Commissioner hayes-santos? >> thank you, mayor.
I move ordinance 2022-424 on adoption reading by title only. >> second. >> mayor: madam clerk, do you
have anyone signed up to speak to this item? >> no. >> mayor: we'll move back to the
commission for a roll call vote. >> commissioner duncan walker? >> aye. >> commissioner arreola?
>> aye. >> commissioner saco? >> aye. >> commissioner chestnut?
>> aye. >> commissioner ward? >> aye. >> commissioner hayes-santos?
>> aye. >> mayor poe? >> aye. That is approved unanimously.
the next item? >> ordinance number 211146 a an ordinance of the city of gainesville florida, amending
the future land use map of the comprehensive plan by changing the land use category of approximately 13.943 acres
generally located northeast of the intersection of sw willis ton road and sw 13th street and west of southwest 13th street
and south of southwest 36th place. >> mayor: I'm sorry I was confused.
before we do that, can we take up the companion zoning item we just heard and come back to this one?
>> okay. >> mayor: I apologize. It's simpler. We're going to come back to the
one you're interested in. >> z 1? >> ordinance number 211225 an ordinance of the city of
gainesville florida, amending the zoning map atlas by rezoning approximately 1.63 acres of property generally located at
1905 south main street. Providing directions to the city manager, severability clause, repealing clause and effective
date. >> mayor: thank you, mr. Edelston. >> mr. Edelston with the
department of sustainable development. This is the same presentation that is for the companion, I am
here to answer any questions you may have outstanding. It is. I believe it's been requested we
have a formal quasi judicial hearing. I'm going to turn to our city attorney for some guidance.
>> thank you, mr. Mayor, and I'll try to be brief. As you know, the commission sits for a general zoning case, as
opposed to setting policy, a proceeding is required. Rule 13 of your city commission rules provide the procedures for
conducting with formal and quasi formal hearings. The commission will hear all testimony offered, examine the
evidence presented and deliberate and a motion will be made. An informal hearing as we made
earlier this evening, the formal hearing is an oral order. The written order be placed on the commission agenda for
approval. Additionally, your rules, rule 13-c set forth the order of presentation a formal quasi
judicial proceeding if one is requested by a party or an affected party. That order, I'll run through it
quickly, first a, determination of affected party status, swearing-in of all the parties, disclosure of any inadvertent ex
parte communication, introduction of the matter by the staff, the petitioner's presentation, staff
presentation. Any affected party for or against the presentation. A rebuttal, presentation by the
petitioner staff and then a closing by the parties and affected parties following public comment and deliberation
by the commission. So the first order to proceed here is to determine if there has been a request for a formal
hearing by a person considering themselves as an affected party. >> mayor: can you give us guidance on what determines what
is or isn't an affected party. >> in general, someone who has an interest in property, real property within 400 feet of the
subject property. We do have one individual who has asserted affected party status.
I'm not sure if it's by virtue of owning property within 400 feet of the subject property or having some sort of
representative capacity of the organization within 400 feet of the subject property. Perhaps we could have --
>> mayor: all right, let's invite her up and then it will be up to the commission to determine whether they are
indeed an affected party or not. I want to be clear, while she comes up to introduce herself, our rules state there is only
one stipulation for being an affected party. >> you must have interest in a property within 400 feet of the
subject property. Yes. >> mayor: okay. >> mayor: just introduce
yourself, and then I think the issue the commission needs to determine is whether you own real property or have interest
in real property within 400 feet of this proposal. >> jane bowman, I received a card from the city stating that
I was an affected property because a person -- because of the -- a strip of land right next to the property.
it's 15701-50300 which you will find, from your own records. And I'm a representative of the neighborhood.
I'm also the person that pays the property taxes. All of that is on record. >> mayor: of that property
that's within the 400 feet? >> yes. The strip. >> mayor: it sounds to me like
you do meet the criteria for an affected party. Do we do that through a motion or without objection?
>> I think without objection. It's up to the commission to decide, but -- >> mayor: without objection.
we'll determine that miss holten is an affected party in this matter. >> thank you.
>> mayor: next, we do the swearing-in of the parties, and so we need the representative for the applicant.
we need our city staff representative. And the affected party. And I'll let you -- madam clerk,
that's you, yeah. Just give us a moment. We haven't done a formal quasi judicial hearing in a while.
we're knocking the rust off a little bit. >> do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give
is the truth? >> it is the truth. >> mayor: you are sworn in. Attorney, what is your next
order of business? >> if any member of the commission has had annex par tay communication regarding this
matter. >> mayor: if you'll define ex parte communications? >> communication with one of the
parties on the matter that's about to come before you on this hearing, and then if any communication has been made then
a statement as to whether or not they can still be an unbiased decision maker. An unbiased decision maker being
someone you need to meet in order to assure due process in this matter. >> mayor: does anyone wish to
disclose any ex parte communication on this matter? Seeing none, it looks like no one has had any ex parte
communications. >> we move on to the introduction of the matter by the staff.
>> mayor: the staff has done. >> we can incorporate that into the hearing. The petitioner will be able to
make a presentation or incorporate the presentation provided. >> mayor: we'll have the
petitioner up first, and then staff and then affected party? >> yes. Followed by staff and affected
party. >> mayor: very good, one moment and we'll give you a chance to make your presentation.
>> good evening mr. Mayor and commissioners I'm clay swagger. I just gave a presentation, it's on file and in your backup
material as part of the record of this hearing, all of the findings that were in that presentation and the
justification report is also in the backup material, I would submit to you for consideration on this rezoning.
I would also like to state that the rezoning proposed tonight is u6 is consistent with the umu land use designation that was
just approved by the city commission. Section 30-4.2 of the land development code indicates the
compatible zoning districts with urban mixed use umu land use. Those include umu 6, 7 and 8. I am requesting of you the
lowest density and intensity that's now compatible with the land use designation of umu. If you have any questions I'll
be hear to answer. >> mayor: thank you very much. It's staff's opportunity to make their presentation.
>> good evening mr. Mayor, same as before. I'm happy to make the presentation again if it's
helpful? >> mayor: any desire to have him do that? We're good.
and then the affected party, I think they have up to 10 minutes, is that correct? >> 15.
>> mayor: all right, it's your opportunity here. >> thank you, commissioner. I studied all the documents and
today I made a discovery of the certain area of the muni code which I had not previously looked at.
that was to do with land use and zoning next to a nature park. And what we find is the con is part of an h park, which
restricts the use of that property. I can show you a picture -- I should show you that just in
truthfulness here it says -- right there, it says welcome to nature park, city of gainesville.
I hadn't thought about that until I came across the muni code which states quite clearly if there's a nature park, the
nature park will be -- if any property lies within the 400 feet of the park or preservation area is regulated as set forth
in this section. The maximum building height shall be 35 feet. There's a comment about lighting
[ inaudible ] the main thing is to do with the height of the structure. It depends what the applicant
plans to do with the land. There are some expansions or alterations, existing uses, rules that I can draw your
attention to hear. Depending on what the expansion is, after june '92 which it will be over 2,000 square feet, I
don't know. Or 20%, the entire statute should be in compliance with this statute.
any new uses shall meet all applicable requirements of the section. The city manager has to enforce
it. This is part of the muni code I discovered this afternoon, I would have discussed it in my
piece before. What I was focusing on actually was the policy toward wetlands and buffers.
making sure that those are very carefully followed. And I ask that for a very specific reason that I will
present to you now. Is, if you look at this map, which is my -- the work -- the only way I could do it, what you
have here is on this -- all this orangey color is the city conservation, city owned land. The orangey part is a flood
plane. What you got is a whole system of water, that goes from the edge of the property as you see,
is city owned, what you have, you have a creek coming out here, it leads into what's called culper pond, a regulated
body of water. I have talked about these -- this area to the state department of protection and the
st. John's water river management district about the issue with plants. I've had the discussion with
them, those would be regulated bodies of water. There's a pond here which is highly contaminated, in terrible
condition, I have been trying for years to have it fixed. The water flows and goes into tumbling creek.
and that goes all the way around into bevins. Which goes out of prince prairie.
this whole system is very much impacted by any water flow, storm water because it moves down and through.
anything by the way, from the south of the city comes this way. So there is an interest of many
people that would -- could possibly be affected by any storm water, increasing storm water, that's what I brought up
first of all when I came as an affected party. To make sure all storm water stayed on site.
I was totally unaware of the nature park element. I brought that to your attention.
in terms of what people have said, I looked at the map, what you can see is, we have -- it appears the strip was brought to
abut. There's a tiny strip that was incorporated into -- you can't see it, it's incorporated into
the two parcels to abut. I'm not arguing with that, it's the truth, it's right there. 2 would make more sense to put a
line across here, and say we're not going to go into the transect zone. That's way up here.
that's the intention to have the transect zone up here where you have above southwest 16th. And I took a look at other
documents which are about zones and transect zones in the city. The city documents. They're very few pedestrians.
I think urban zone would be the most sensible zone to have for this as a transect zone. And urban zone.
it's not particularly intense or dense. When you go to urban zone, have you all these allowances, which
does allow a day care. I was told at the plan board meeting, no, no, no day care isn't allowed.
I was misinformed by who said no. That is that one, the other aspect of it is, let's see if I
can find that in my presentation. Certain things that were said or not done, I don't believe the
environmental impact has been done appropriately was taken into consideration for things. So in fact what happens is, the
statements are not correct. The issues. Compatibility, I would say no. U-6 is not compatible.
protection of wetlands has not occurred or considered, I would claim. Zoning, I would say u-1 fits
very well, it's part of the transect zone, it would be the beginning transect zone as it comes down.
compliance with the comprehensive plan. They take into consideration within your own rules, I think
35 feet is what I said. So the issues with zoning, buffering storm water compliance, materials.
so north and south, you can read my own things, in general, a small one story building. Some apartments in the rear.
I don't think it's justified to go much higher than that. So what else happens here? Yes, plan board, clarification
of plan board staff. I wrote down here staff errors, of any properties within half a mile, proper land use
[ inaudible ] will the proposed use of the property be impacted by any creeks, lakes, wetlands, native
plants or greenways. No. That was clearly stated at the plan board.
that's clearly untrue. There is an abutting -- [ inaudible ] there's tumbling creek, a pond,
the prairie. There are impacts. I don't think the allowance of a six story building possibly
could even have student apartments or such things is appropriate for that location. U1, urban -- the -- what we just
said here, the urban zone 1 and u-1 allows a day care which is what I believe the applicant seeks.
it is much less intense, it is much more sensitive to the use of the site. So I basically ask that -- this
is u1 here, can would be three foot. Is that 35 feet, whatever? And so the map -- so that's
basically my basis is upon what is in the surrounding area, what the code says has to be done. When you're right next to a city
park. So I don't know if there are any questions to me, does that come next or how does that work?
>> mayor: mr. Attorney? [ inaudible ] >> an opportunity for rebuttal by the petitioner and staff.