The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) approved Tuesday a preliminary plan for a 222-acre South Annex development near the Town of Tioga and voted to move forward with a request for proposals to develop 13 acres by Lincoln Middle School. 

The Town of Tioga South Annex will have a maximum of 500 units with at least 35,000 square feet of non-residential space. The development will have access to the Town of Tioga from SW 8th Avenue to the north. In the future, another exit would be on SW 143rd Street.  

Jay Brown, president of JBPro, said the development will mirror the Town of Tioga with density and the number of commercial and residential units.  

“This is a continuation of a very successful development,” Brown said. “I think we have a lot of goodwill with what we’ve done over the last 30 years here.” 

The southern side of the property has parts of the Hickory Sink strategic ecosystem, and the areas containing that ecosystem will be under a conservation easement—about 15.6% of the property.  

Another portion of the development will be set aside for parks and other common areas.  

Brown said the commercial area, named Tioga Gardens, will have the highest density in the development. However, the Tioga Gardens portion would be developed after phase one, which has 250 single-family homes.  

The BOCC also approved staff’s scope to use in a request for proposals to develop 13 acres next to Lincoln Middle School. The county hopes that a developer will use the land, purchased by the BOCC to prevent an affordable housing development, for single-family detached homes at different price points.  

The county met with the surrounding neighborhoods and said single-family homes were the most wanted development with 101 votes.  

The request for proposal says the county may provide the land for free to offset the cost of the development, and the commission discussed providing internal infrastructure as well. Proposals will say what support it would need from the county to be viable, and the county will rank the proposals before moving forward.