12-story building to rise in GNV historic district
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, July 6, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman. StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you. A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows Funeral Home, where compassion meets experience.
Lillian Hamman:Cremations, funerals, and memorials all in one trusted place. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care. Here's the top headlines we're rounding up. The Florida Board of Governors confirmed Stuart Bell as UF's fourteenth president. He started the role last week and will earn an annual salary of $2 million. Former interim Donald Landry is slated to also get $2 million because he wasn't selected for the permanent role, a contract condition that is being called into question.
Lillian Hamman:High Springs police chief Antoine Shepherd is on indefinite leave after the city manager said certain complaints had been filed against him. But the city hasn't revealed the nature of the complaint, even to the chief. Community members have rallied behind the chief who has been with the department for twenty five years. Also in High Springs, the new Springs Hopper Shuttle is operating every Saturday through the end of September.
Lillian Hamman:The shuttle takes patrons from downtown to local state parks and springs aiming to connect tourists to local businesses. A group of Melrose residents raised money to hire an attorney and ask Alachua County to investigate the Wildflowers Music Festival that occurred this spring. Residents say the festival violated the county permit. The nurses union at UF Health Shands Hospital ratified a new three year contract in late June. The union includes nearly 3,000 workers and the contract provides wage increases and funding to keep insurance premiums flat.
Lillian Hamman:Alachua County has a lot of really nice homes. Mainstreet rounded up the 10 most expensive homes currently for sale that could be yours if you can handle the price tag. From Oakmont to Hill Plantation and an organic blueberry farm, find the 10 most expensive houses for sale in Alachua County and more details on any of these stories at mainstreetdailynews.com. Thanks to our generous members, this news space free for the whole community with no paywall. Thanks for joining us here on StreetSmart.
Lillian Hamman:I'm Lillian Hamman, and I may not be in grade school anymore, but I do still look forward to the results. The reporting cycle is pretty endless. The news never seems insane, but, we do kinda get to look forward to commission meetings winding down and some of the heavy regular government meeting stuff, kinda getting put on the back burner. Seth, with you having to cover Gainesville and Alachua County, how are you doing with these slower meeting schedule?
Seth Johnson:Yeah. It can be really nice to hit the summer months and not have as many regular commission meetings from City Of Gainesville or Alachua County. But at the same time, that just gives more opportunity to kind of search for some other fun stories that we'd have the chance to do kind of during the busy government seasons. And even in the summer doldrums, there are still some important actions that take place. And one of those was a couple weeks ago at Gainesville City Plan Board, where they had an item concerning a 12 story building downtown.
Lillian Hamman:Oh, that's interesting. I know downtown has a couple of 12 story buildings. Which one are they talking about for this one?
Seth Johnson:Well, okay. Actually, it's a potential 12 story building that could be coming. Okay. To clarify.
Lillian Hamman:Just teasing us.
Seth Johnson:Yes. So obviously, the Seagle Building was the tallest building for, you know, decades. And then the standard came in as kind of one of the first big apartment buildings along University Avenue. And there's been several since. Very interesting to see several, you know, 12 story ish buildings there on the South Side and kind of your normal, just two story on the other side of the street.
Seth Johnson:And that's something that came up at this city planning board meeting. But this specific building is actually a couple blocks back on the South Side, kind of right on the edge of the Innovation District between UF and the Innovation District, Innovation Square. And currently, it's just a parking lot. But in 2023, the plan development zoning and land use was passed five to two back then by the city commission, and it could have up to 227 units with 682 bedrooms and at least 90 parking spaces. So a fairly significant building.
Seth Johnson:And it's also on the edge of the University Heights South Historic District. So over 50% of this property, about 1.1 acres, is within the buffer zone. So the property doesn't directly abut the historic district, but it's kind of one parcel away on, you know, three sides and there's a 100 foot buffer zone and it's within that. And that is supposed to limit building height. And so when it came forward in 2023, city commission said, well, you know, it's gonna need to step down.
Seth Johnson:And so on the portions of the parcel that aren't in that buffer zone is where it's supposed to be 12 stories and it steps down to five stories within that buffer zone to supposed to help it step down into the historic district where there's, you know, two story buildings.
Lillian Hamman:So that was all the approvals given back in 2023. Why is it all coming back up now?
Seth Johnson:So Gerry Dedenbach, who is a planner with NV5 and comes before the city and the county with a lot of different developments, Said as things get more expensive to build, the developer for 2023 kind of backed out of the project. But the landowner there was able to find someone else who wants to take forward the project. However, in reviewing it, they wanted to make some tweaks. And so they're coming back before the city to deal with some density and kind of building massing issues that they'd like to get approvals for. Now, besides the historic district buffers being kind of a unique constraint of the site, there's another one.
Seth Johnson:It's the fact that the 1.1 acres are split onto two lots. So you have kind of a normal square to the north, you kinda have a long rectangle to the bottom. So that 12 story building with five story step downs would actually be split into two different buildings on those two parcels. And Dedenbach said because of the really unique geography with the buffers and then two different parcels, the building would take on a really unique shape that had it dubbed the blade. Because it would be 12 stories in one section that would be fairly skinny before stepping down to kind of a larger five story section.
Seth Johnson:So the basic ask two weeks ago was for more density, which would be 23 extra units with a 125 more bedrooms and a minimum of a 100 parking spaces. And Dean Buck pointed out that of those units, 24 of them would be affordable housing units for the city. And Dean Buck said that some of those units were gained from being more efficient with how they designed the building, But a lot of them were made up or kind of included because of the second ask, which is that second unique feature of the site, which is SW 1st Place. So instead of having two different buildings, they wanna construct the building over the top of that road and allow cars to go underneath it.
Lillian Hamman:Oh, so a tunnel in Gainesville.
Seth Johnson:Yes. The road would essentially just be a tunnel through. And by my kind of rough back of the napkin calculations, this lets the building have 20,000 extra square feet of space. So that's where they're putting in those extra apartments. Now, the original plan in 2023 wasn't met with unanimous approval.
Seth Johnson:It was a five two vote that I mentioned and several people from the community came forward and saying this doesn't fit with the historic district. If it's gonna be within the buffer space, you know, it's really quite a step down from 12 stories to, you know, one lot over being a historic building, two story residence. And Dedenbach was quick to point out, you know, he said, I understand your point, but the city commission gave us the approval. And he's saying they're coming back and they're asking for just more density within the same building envelope for the most part, the same on the ground space that's gonna be taken up, the same 12 story height that the city commission approved in 2023. So there's not much they can really do about that at this point.
Seth Johnson:They kind of have it by right. It's just they wanna make some tweaks to let the building go forward and let the construction start according to their business plan.
Lillian Hamman:Sounds like changes to that historic district could have a real impact on University Avenue and that whole area. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor, Forest Meadows, before we get to the news forecast and events segments.
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Seth Johnson:Now for this week's news forecast. Tonight, Newberry's planning and zoning board will meet to review a site and development plan for a McDonald's proposed for Highland Park across from the new publics. Alachua County will have a special meeting tomorrow at 01:30PM. The commission will hear a summary of the 2026 fiscal year and discuss a reorganization of commissioner support staff. At 6:30 PM tomorrow, the High Spring City Commission will also meet, and it's on track to be standing room only.
Seth Johnson:Community members are holding a prayer meeting one hour beforehand in support of the police chief who's been placed on administrative leave.
Lillian Hamman:Now for our event segment covering upcoming family friendly events this weekend. Where are your taste buds? You might find them in Waldo on Saturday for the taste of Waldo food and music festival. Starting at noon, the festival will feature local vendors, small businesses, and live talent. Cypress and Grove Brewing Company is hosting a taste of the Caribbean food truck festival on Saturday from four to 8 PM.
Lillian Hamman:The free event will feature food trucks representing Haitian, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, and Colombian cuisines with music and ice cold beer from the brewery. If you like mangoes, Oaks Mall is the place to be on Saturday with MangoFest, a whole day dedicated to all things mango with over 50 vendors and a DJ. With grilled mango, mango salsa, smoothies, ice cream, margaritas, hair products, and candles, there's something mango for the whole family.
Seth Johnson:Mango Fest doesn't sound like a bad idea, but some of these events in the Florida heat can be tough.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. I sure hope it's an ice cold mango that you get to eat.
Seth Johnson:Good thing they've got that mango ice cream there. I think that's gonna be a crowd pleaser.
Lillian Hamman:Yeah. We'll have to go check that one out.
Seth Johnson:Yeah. You can dress up as a banana. I'll dress up as an apple. We'll fit right in.
Lillian Hamman:And that's all we've got for this week's StreetSmart podcast brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous members. You can access more free local news at mainstreetdailynews.com. We'll be back next week with more stories that matter to you because they take place right here in Alachua County. Take a minute to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville's ska band, Now Leaving Space.
Lillian Hamman:This episode is a production of Mark Media.
