The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) voted unanimously to approve a contested comprehensive plan change for an 82-acre property near Newnans Lake, setting the stage for 149 single-family homes.  

County commissioners and many public commenters hope that the private sector investment will spur further economic growth in East Gainesville, where government-subsidized projects have been the norm.  

Several dozen neighbors disagreed, citing concerns about environmental impacts from a development so close to Newnans Lake and potential effects on sensitive lands in the area.   

“We can protect our environment, but we can also have development come and make things better on the east side of town,” BOCC Chair Chuck Chestnut said. “East of downtown, there’s not much y’all. I just have to be honest with you.”  

At a Local Planning Agency meeting in April, residents advocated for both sides of the environment-development spectrum. The Local Planning Agency voted 3-2 to recommend denial of the new land use. 

The BOCC vote on Tuesday overturned the recommendation from the agency and sided with county development staff, who had recommended approval.  

Commissioner Ken Cornell asked what basis the Local Planning Agency had used for its decision, but a county attorney said the agency hadn’t listed direct conflicts with the comprehensive plan or the staff recommendation, just a general statement that the proposal didn’t line up. 

Now, the comprehensive plan will go to Florida Commerce and other state agencies before returning to the BOCC for a final vote. Once the county takes its final vote on the project, the developer can move forward with a preliminary development plan that also requires public meetings and additional votes.  

The 82-acre site is mostly trees and open land with a few abandoned commercial buildings along Hawthorne Road (State Road 20). The northern portion dips into the East Side Greenway strategic ecosystem, and a residential neighborhood forms the western boundary. Conservation land lies to the east.  

The site falls within Alachua County’s urban cluster—a fact that commissioners highlighted in their discussion. The county created the urban cluster boundaries as areas for development, trying to restrict urban sprawl.  

The comprehensive plan change would alter the land use and allow 221 residential units, but Clay Sweger with eda consultants said the developer, Adams Homes, only wants to build 149 single family homes.  

Sweger said Adams Homes identified that number as the threshold to make the project viable. In his presentation, Sweger offered two voluntary amendments to the comprehensive plan that would restrict the property to 149 single family homes and also designate the eastern 200 feet of the property as a greenway corridor for wildlife.  

The 28 acres on the northern side, including parts of the strategic ecosystem, would be changed to a conservation land use and kept from development.  

Sweger said the current land use—a mixture of commercial, low density residential and estate residential—already allows more development by right than Adams Homes wants. He said the project is trying to balance the environmental needs with a desire to bring workforce housing to East Gainesville.  

He said the land use change would be a step down in intensity from the development to the west but a step up in intensity from the homes nearest to Newnans Lake.  

Residents along Lakeshore Drive worried about flooding impacts the new homes might cause. In 2017 when Hurricane Irma hit, the road flooded and left many stranded. The residents showed pictures of neighbors canoeing across the flooded road to collect packages from a UPS truck.  

They also mentioned increased traffic along Lakeshore Drive and the impact on the road. 

Sweger said Alachua County’s building criteria require a new development to not cause any additional water runoff than the land already produced in its undeveloped state. The county also requires developments to capture more nutrient runoff than the undeveloped site through water retention basins.

Sweger added that the entire development would be connected to sewer and water through Gainesville Regional Utilities. All the surrounding homes have septic tanks.  

He said a traffic analysis of the potential development only projects 40-44 additional daily trips on Lakeshore Drive. 

County staff said the property was nominated for its conservation program in 2017. But the property ranked only average, and the site wasn’t nominated again. Alachua County Forever reviews an average of 140 different parcels at a given time for inclusion in the program, staff said. 

BOCC Commissioner Mary Alford said she opposed the project when she first heard the concept, but after talking with constituents and looking over the plans, she changed her mind.  

Cornell and Commissioner Anna Prizzia both said they looked at how intense a potential development could be under the current land use. They said the proposal looks to balance the environment with the need for housing.  

“This is the first private investment that I can think of, of this magnitude, on the eastern part of the county,” Cornell said. “It’s significant for me when I think about that.”  

Cornell also referred to the BOCC’s decision to stop placing government-subsidized housing east of Main Street after pulling out of a project near Lincoln Middle School. He said private developers must be able to build in the area for new housing stock. 

Prizzia said the county is investing in East Gainesville, which she said needs the funds. But those investments, like the new UF Urgent Care Center, the airport gateway project and shifting the fairgrounds to allow new business, take years to mature and realize the impact.  

She said if the 82-acre development asked for more than 200 homes at the edge of the urban cluster, she would oppose it. She said the development needs to be gradual, from lighter development at the edges to the dense urban core in Gainesville. 

“I 100% stand by our comprehensive plan, but the idea that this is some kind of ad hoc, piecing apart of our comprehensive plan is not accurate,” Prizzia said.  

The meeting drew a number of local leaders, including Gainesville Commissioner Desmon Duncan Walker and Gainesville Chamber of Commerce Chair Theresa Beachy. 

Duncan Walker said she supported the project. She said she spoke with the developer and that they were willing to respond to the community.  

She said the project addresses the environmental aspects while helping spur East Gainesville forward.  

Beachy said Jonesville’s population has grown little by little in her decades there. Now, she’s about to be able to walk to an Aldi because the rooftops drew in the business.  

She added that Gainesville needs more housing to stem the flow of commuters living in more affordable areas and driving into town. 

“Many of us in this room have our piece of paradise, and I hope that you will vote to give somebody else that access,” Beachy said.