- The Gainesville City Plan Board approved increasing The Verve's density by 23 units and 125 bedrooms, totaling 227 units and 682 bedrooms.
- The Verve will include 24 affordable housing units and features a unique L-shaped design with a carve-out allowing traffic under the building.
The Gainesville City Plan Board voted Thursday to give higher density and more rooms for a 12-story planned development initially greenlighted in 2023.
The amendment to the 2023 land use and zoning allows 23 more units and 125 more bedrooms, bringing the totals to 227 and 682, respectively. That will include 24 affordable housing units at 50-80% of the area median income. The changes also include moving the minimum number of parking spaces from 90 to 100.
The proposed building (1026 SW Second Avenue) is called The Verve and is just south of University Avenue and east of SW 13th Street near the Innovation District.
The developer behind the 2023 proposal backed out due to rising costs, according to Gerry Dedenbach, planner for NV5 and agent for the new developer. Dedenbach presented the item in 2023 as well.
The 1.1-acre project site has two main constraints: a historic buffer zone and SW First Avenue splitting the parcels.
The University Heights Historic District – South surrounds the site on three sides, but far enough away in areas to only place roughly half the site under the 100-foot buffer zone.
Dedenbach said the new developer worked within the same framework that the City Commission already approved, including no more than five stories within the historic buffer area. It forces the building to have a unique shape, a skinny 12-story section that transitions to five stories, along with a nickname of “the blade.”
The size of the building next to the five-story Infinity Hall across SW 10th Street and the two-story buildings on the other sides drew concern in 2023. City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said the building would be quite a sacrifice for citizens to make.
Board member Stephanie Sutton reiterated those concerns about compatibility at Thursday’s meeting. She said when the 2023 proposal arrived, there was talk about the dysfunction of such a narrow 12-story strip of the building and moving to eight stories across the whole site.
“It’s a monstrosity that’s going to be across the street from something that has a maximum of five stories,” Sutton said. “We talk about these canyons and the unevenness that we’re creating on University Avenue, and I’m afraid this building, as it’s designed, is going to do something very similar here.”
But with the 2023 approval, the city already ruled on the issue. The City Plan Board could only address whether the added density would be allowed within The Verve.
Dedenbach said the new architect was able to find efficiencies to allow the new units, and while the ground-floor blueprint is the same as in 2023, the big difference also requested on Thursday was to allow the two sides of the building to attach with a carve out for SW First Avenue.
Under the current request, The Verve would be shaped like an “L” with a 60-foot-long, 21-foot-wide, and 17.5-foot-tall opening for traffic to pass through. The overpass lets the building add at least 20,000 extra square feet, and that’s where most of the new units would go, the project architect said.
The board members had no issues with the new units, but three members expressed concerns with the idea that the developer may make a cash payment instead of providing the 24 affordable housing units on site.
Dedenbach said the City Commission and staff were figuring out how the inclusionary zoning would function in practice.
“But it is feeling like the commission would rather have cash than the units in the building,” Dedenbach said. “So, at this juncture, that’s not an element that you are approving into the land use or the zoning, but we are going to be continuing that discussion and maturing that with the City Commission and how that mechanism actually works.”
The Verve is a zoned planned development, so it doesn’t fall within the inclusionary zoning policy. But the application in 2023 voluntarily put forward affordable housing units for bonus density.
Board members said they would want the units to actually be occupied at The Verve. Sutton said a payment in lieu seems like paying for extra density, and Board member Robert Ackerman said the city would use the payments to build affordable housing all in one area, creating segregated housing stock.
The rules of inclusionary zoning try to avoid this and require the units to be scattered through the complex with access to the same amenities.
Ackerman made a motion to approve staff recommendation but said he didn’t want to add an amendment recommending on-site affordable housing units instead of a payment. But the motion failed 3-3.
A new motion passed 4-2 that approves the density request and recommends that the City Commission require the affordable housing units on site instead of a payment. Board members Joshue Ney and Sutton were in dissent.
Sutton said she thought the issue should be separate from The Verve application.