- The Alachua City Commission voted 3-2 to rezone the Farmlands Commercial development's 182 acres during a 12-hour hearing on Monday. A final vote is still needed.
- The rezoning ordinance included four exceptions to local regulations and requires an environmental study on the impact of the development's stormwater on a nearby landfill plume.
The Alachua City Commission voted 3-2 to rezone the Farmlands Commercial development’s 182 acres during a marathon hearing on Monday, laying further groundwork to bring more housing and a Walmart to the city.
With only about an hour pause for a budget workshop, the 12-hour, quasi-judicial rezoning hearing spanned from noon to midnight covering affected party testimony, presentations from the applicant, city staff and public comment.
Commissioners Jackson Youmas and Jacob Fletcher dissented the vote.
The rezoning from community commercial, commercial intensive and planned development residential to planned development residential and planned development commercial for the 182-acre parcel followed land use changes that narrowly passed the commission 3-2 by on June 22.
The rezoning ordinance granted the applicant four exceptions to the city’s Land Development Regulations, including off-street and bicycle parking, buffers and signage at the development.
It also included a condition requested by Alachua County—who sought affected party status via a letter to the city on July 22—that the applicant provide an engineering and environmental study demonstrating impacts of the development and its stormwater facilities on an existing contamination plume at the county’s nearby Northwest Landfill.
The rezoning ordinance will come before the City Commission again during the Aug. 24 meeting for a final vote.
If approved on second reading, the applicant has one year to submit a plat or site plan for the project. City of Alachua Principal Planner Carson Crockett said the city could then direct the applicant to pay for any additional geological testing capable of revealing karst or sinkhole-prone landscapes where the development is approved.
Youmas, Fletcher and multiple community members called for this data before making a vote.
The commission started Monday’s hearing by debating whether it should even commence. The city faced pushback earlier this month from multiple attorneys who objected to the city’s moving forward with one hearing for land use changes instead of two.
City of Alachua land use attorney Patrice Boyes said the city’s code determining the number of hearings was ambiguous and that some of the legal correspondence to the city questioning it had been AI-generated.
During the affected party presentations, resident Gary Pappas asked the applicant and staff to disclose what testing had been done on the site to reveal impacts on the land and its water.
Representatives for the applicant said 60 soil borings had been conducted, but no hydrogeologic testing had been done to show impacts on underground water systems.
Alachua Principal Planner Carson Crockett said the fact that no ground water appeared during the soil borings left staff without concern and that it would be atypical to require something to the magnitude of a hydrogeologic study at this point in the approval process.
Although stormwater facilities have been approved for the site, Pappas said approving rezoning for a development like Farmlands Commercial without having the testing to confirm sinkhole activity and water safety was precarious.
“It’s kind of like asking someone where is the best place to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel,” Pappas said. “There’s no good place because we don’t have any information whatsoever. We don’t know if stormwater can be placed anywhere on the property.”
Alachua County’s Director of Solid Waste and Resource Recovery Gus Olmos represented the county as an affected party and said the development’s proximity to the Northwest Landfill raised concerns.
He said even though the landfill had been closed since the 1980s, Alachua County had been conducting remedial activities and a steadily declining contamination plume needed to remain untouched.
Gerry Dedenbach of NV5 represented Farmlands and said the project took less than a day to incorporate the county’s feedback.
“The scope and timing of the study will be coordinated between the developers and county staff as part of the subsequent development review process,” he said. “We appreciate the county’s presence, bringing forward that thoughtful condition, and we are willingly taking that condition in the interest.”
Although Pappas said last month that city staff confirmed to him a Walmart would be included with the Farmlands development as its commercial component, Mayor Walter Welch discouraged any mentioning of it throughout the hearing because he said it was still speculative.
But City Attorney Scott Walker said the application does reference one and shouldn’t sway the commission from voting on the ordinance apart from the evidence before them.
“We cannot, as a commission, make a decision on this particular matter based upon a projected use,” Walker said. “It’s obvious that the application references a Walmart. But we can’t approve it because it’s a Walmart or deny it because it’s a Walmart. We’re strictly in the zoning context and is this zoning appropriate for this particular project.”
