Growth in Gainesville, Archer Road and Newberry
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, February 23, 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 Forest Meadows, where meets experience. Go see their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center for 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.
Lillian:Here's the top headlines we're rounding up.
Lillian:The public works director for the city of High Springs has resigned. The resignation raises multiple questions about future staffing now that two departments have vacant leadership positions and the city manager has applied to a different job.
Lillian:A South Florida Automotive Group sold Audi Gainesville to a new dealership company. This will be the new company's first dealership in Florida.
Lillian:The Special Olympics Florida inducted a Gainesville woman to its Hall of Fame. Marcia McAdams was recognized for twenty five years of volunteer service to the Special Olympics.
Lillian:A retired University of Florida statistician released a new book about what the next one hundred years might look like. The book includes 20 short stories that delve into topics like science, technology, and population growth.
Lillian:All nine municipalities in Alachua County have elections this year. You can find the full schedule and timing for these elections, as well as details on all of our other stories at MainstreetDailyNews.com. Thanks to our generous members, this news stays free for the whole community with no paywall.
Lillian:Thanks again for listening to this week's episode of StreetSmart, which Seth Johnson and I are bringing to you right here from Gainesville.
Lillian:We'll be covering news from all across the county today.
Seth:And thank you to everyone who listened to last week's episode and even applied to get some Gator baseball tickets. We were happy to give away two pairs of tickets to two different listeners, and they got to go on Saturday to watch the Gators take on Kennesaw State. So we'll hopefully have some more tickets for you guys in the future at some point.
Lillian:How about we start right here at the center of the county in Gainesville? Seth, you've had a couple stories on growth this week, haven't you?
Seth:Yeah, this week and last week growth continues to be a big topic, obviously, for a growing city and a growing state. The city of Gainesville had its State of the City this week, where they highlighted a bunch of projects that they're moving forward with. A couple of them that were both mentioned at that meeting and mentioned in other stories that I've covered recently is breaking ground on two new fire stations this year. So those will be fire stations three and nine. One of those fire station three is already existing.
Seth:It's at the Citizens Field Complex, but they'll be tearing down the existing fire station and building a new one. The other station, fire station nine, is currently in a temporary building at Butler Plaza where the Walmart is there. They just purchased some new land off of Archer Road where they'll be building the new fire Station nine along with a community center with meeting space and a GPD outpost there. So two new Fire Stations and along with Fire Stations, Old Fire Station 1 off of Main Street will actually be demolished as the city is trying to sell that parcel of land. At that State of the City, they also highlighted the City Hall Plaza refresh.
Seth:All of the City Hall Plaza there in downtown has kind of got construction fencing around it as they move forward. That's hoping to be done in April. The Southeast corner is already finished. They got that done in time for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and had a celebration there with the revamped Memorial Gardens.
Seth:That's another project the city has been working on along with they just recently purchased some land in Southwest Gainesville where they hope to put a new community park, and that's also part of some infrastructure changes with some roadway networks down there off of kind of Southwest 34th Street. But they're hoping to get a new park in Southwest Gainesville, an area that really doesn't have a lot community parks or meeting space, which is why that fire station and community center is gonna have some meeting space for the public as well. Of course, the city of Gainesville is really large, so they've got a lot of projects going on besides those. Just that Citizens Field area has over $30,000,000 worth of investments the city's looking to put into it, including a new competition pool and community pool. And the city is also trying to get a deal with the school board of Alachua County to buy Citizens Field for a brand new stadium there in the next couple of years.
Lillian:And just outside of Gainesville, there's also some construction the county is pushing for along that Southwest Archer Road, Tower Road area. What's going on there?
Seth:Yeah. I just did a story this past week. It's actually an activity center within the county codes. So it's an area that the county's, you know, pushing for more dense development and connected development. And there happen to be several projects that are under county review right now from different developers.
Seth:I highlighted four in a story this past week. One of them that was just submitted actually in January is by that Publix there, Publix at Tower Square. They submitted plans to demolish the current store and to build a brand new store. You're talking 53,000 square feet of store, then also there's some adjacent suites that have different businesses there. If you will remember, that's the same thing Publix did with their store off of Southwest 34th Street and University Avenue.
Seth:Just in the last five years, they demolished and rebuilt that store, so it looks like a similar project there. Two of the projects were actually approved preliminarily by the Planning Commission of Alachua County last week. And the Planning Commission doesn't have final say, but they do give a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners who then does the final vote. And one of those projects is a 1.2 acre parcel in front of Kanapaha Presbyterian Church right there on Archer Road, and they are trying to rezone that parcel for commercial. It's not just commercial, but automotive oriented commercial.
Seth:And that doesn't mean it has to be a gas station or a dealership. It could be a whole host of different commercial facilities, from a drive through restaurant to a bank to retail sales. So just because it says automotive oriented, it's not maybe what you have in your mind of a Jiffy Lube or something like that. Just across the street from where the church is trying to rezone that property, there's a 10 acre parcel that the developer is trying to upzone, trying to get a 75% increase in the number of units per acre that's allowed there. And just a couple 100 feet north of that property, there's another, piece of land that's under review by the county.
Seth:It's for 72 townhomes that will be built on 10 acres, and that's not yet come before any commission or plan board yet. So a lot happening in that Southwest Archer Road slash Tower Road kind of activity center within, you know, several 100 feet of that intersection. And, of course, Archer Road leads us to Archer if you take it out far enough, and the county had a message for the Archer State Commissioners couple of weeks ago about growth, didn't they?
Lillian:Yeah. So, during the city and county joint meeting earlier this month, the county commission gave different presentations and brought just certain recommendations that could potentially help Archer for growth that they are expecting because of this new wastewater treatment facility that they are investing in. And that growth is still several years down the line.
Seth:Yeah, development takes several years. They've still got to connect to that wastewater system. I think there's still some question marks around the grant funding to be able to do that. But in the meantime, the city could be making some short term moves with infrastructure and facilities. You wrote about that last week.
Lillian:Yeah. So about eighteen months ago, the city commission proposed to consolidate City Hall and the Archer Community Center. There were a couple aspects about the City Hall building that aren't ADA compliant, and staff estimated that it could cost around $400,000 just to update it. In order to save that money, they started looking at different spaces around town that could serve a dual purpose and the community center came up. Some staff members also suggested selling the Archer Community Center to help the city climb out of its financial deficit.
Lillian:The move received a lot of pushback from some citizens, one including Roberta Lopez, who was a former commissioner and mayor. Just a month before she passed away in February, Lopez started a petition to keep City Hall out of the Archer Community Center, and a couple of the county commissioners also agreed during the joint meeting.
Seth:Yeah. That community center only opened in 2011 after a lot of community fundraising and grants from the state, so it'll be interesting to see if it gets to stick around or if it has to serve a dual purpose. And just up the road from Archer is City of Newberry. They also had a State of the City address and talked about some growth coming there.
Lillian:Yeah. So Mayor Tim Martin gave the address this week and gave some updates on some key projects and things that the city is working on throughout the year, including the Ag FoodTech Innovation Park, which they're going to finally be breaking ground on. Over the past few months, Newberry has received a 132,000,000 investment from its first company in the Ag FoodTech Park and also received a $5,600,000 jobs growth grant from the state. The operation is going to bring in, I think, about 50 jobs paying around $90,000 in each salary. So that's a big boost for Newberry's economy.
Lillian:At the end of last year, the city also took ownership of Champions Park again and they didn't give any specific updates that are coming, but they did say more improvements will be coming for Champions Park.
Seth:And coming back down Newbury Road into the city of Gainesville, I remember there's also an item that was discussed last week during the Gainesville City Commission meeting concerning half $1,000,000,000 of financial transactions that were signed off on for Gainesville Regional Utilities. Of course, a lot of that is just refinancing of debt, so it's not new debt or anything like that. However, a portion, dollars 150,000,000, is new debt that they are bringing on in order to pay for different upgrades to the Main Street water reclamation facility, along with some electric generating facilities and water at the murphy water treatment plant. So a lot of growth in that western survey that we did of Alachua County. And that's all for our feature story section this week.
Seth:Just a lot about growth going on here. Now we'll hear a quick word from our sponsor, Forest Meadows Funeral Home, before we get into our news forecast and events section for the week.
Sponsor:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens and glass front niches or plan ahead for cremation, funerals and memorials at our funeral home or tribute center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows where compassion meets experience and every life is honored with care.
Seth:Now for this week's news forecast. On Monday, the Alachua City Commission will discuss Tara Forest East and Baywood infrastructure plans.
Seth:The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners meets Tuesday. The commission will review a five year strategic plan for gun violence prevention.
Seth:Alachua County's Planning Commission will review its comprehensive plan on Wednesday as the county looks to update the document that guides development and future growth.
Seth:Gainesville's Plan Board will also meet on Wednesday. It will consider changes to the city's historic district buffers and continue giving feedback on the city's comprehensive plan.
Lillian:Now for our events section covering upcoming family friendly activities this The Gainesville Fine Arts Association will host its student and mentor exhibition starting with a free opening gala on Friday from seven to ten p. M. Local artists teamed up with promising elementary students to create the displayed artwork.
Lillian:UF's Department of Astronomy will be hosting a night observation open to the public on Friday starting at 08:30. That's at the Bryant Space Science Center.
Lillian:It's the twelfth annual Pints and Predators Educational Festival and fundraiser at First Magnitude Brewing Company. The festival will be Saturday from 10AM to 3PM and feature live birds of prey and creatures of the night plus food trucks and other activities.
Lillian:On Saturday and Sunday, shops at Thornbrook Plaza will have its annual Spring Arts Festival with lots of artistic vendors. That's free and happening from 10AM to 5PM in the Millhopper area where Thornbrook is located.
Seth:It'll be a fun weekend with lots of different activities you can consider. Thanks for listening to this episode. It's all about growth here on StreetSmart. And if you want to help StreetSmart grow, Lillian, what could the people do?
Lillian:They could like and subscribe and share this podcast with a friend.
Seth:That sounds like a great idea.
Lillian: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. And a special thanks to Forest Meadows for believing in local news and sponsoring this podcast. Join us next week as we round up more local news that matters to you. Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville's very own ska band, Now Leaving Space. This episode is a production of MARC Media.
