The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) remains in limbo after effectively stopping its Parker Road (NW 122nd Street) expansion project that ran into large trees.  

The live oak trees didn’t stop the project alone. The BOCC also received comments from the public concerned about removing the trees to make room for the new roadway. But the trees might already be too damaged to survive, and the county’s Public Works Director Ramon Gavarrete said the contractor is unable to work as efficiently as they’d like because of the delays.   

Meg Niederhofer, a former Gainesville arborist for over 20 years, told the BOCC in an email that the best way forward might be to use the project to revamp procedures and prevent a repeat.  

“Live oaks will withstand abuse, but it would be miraculous if these trees could recover from the degree of degradation they have suffered,” Niederhofer said.   

Niederhofer added that the trunks, branches and roots have been damaged by machinery. She said the county is typically conscientious of environmental concerns on projects, but the Parker Road extension has been an exception.   

The BOCC is known for holding developers to its development code for heritage and champion trees, even expecting roadways to be redesigned and trees with impacts to roots to be unimpacted.   

The County Commission asked staff to review the design and try to save the impacted trees. Returning to the commission, staff said eliminating one of the two multi-use walkways could do the trick, but it took years of negotiating with Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) for easement rights to build the road in the first place.  

The BOCC sent a letter to GRU CEO Ed Bielarski asking for approval of the new plan. Bielarski said the county could send the revised design plans for GRU staff to review and potentially approve.  

He said GRU has worked on the current iteration of the Parker Road project for more than two years and doesn’t want to see the work wasted. He said he also understands the concerns of community members for the urban forest.  

“At the same time, it is important to recognize that construction crews have cut down hundreds of trees along this easement and road construction crews will surely cut down many more,” Bielarski said in the letter. “The five trees we are being asked to change our standards to save have, unfortunately, already been damaged by construction equipment and determined to be in a declining state by GRU’s foresters.” 

He also took exception with County Commissioner Mary Alford’s characterization of GRU’s standards as “crazy.” She and Gavarrete noted that GRU could shut down the roadway temporarily for utility construction when needed without a full 50-foot buffer zone. 

At a special meeting on Tuesday, Alford agreed with Commissioner Ken Cornell that the county needs to correct or add safeguards to make sure the situation doesn’t repeat. Alford said the county needs to hold itself responsible, just like with developers.  

She made a motion, which passed unanimously, to include the arborist and environmental staff in the design phase for county projects.  

Cornell said red flags should have gone up when staff first put together the design plans. The BOCC could have changed the project over a year ago and reduced the multi-use paths for that section, he said.  

The BOCC asked staff to continue working with GRU on a way to save the five trees. The county manager will give an update at next week’s meeting, but Gavarrete said the county will need to move on, considering its agreement with the contractor. 

“I don’t know how long we can keep holding on for a definite ‘yes’ or a definite ‘no’,” Gavarrete said.