Businesses are one step closer to selling alcohol within Alachua’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) district near religious institutions after the City Commission unanimously approved the first reading of an alcohol code amendment on Monday.
The 4-0 vote made without Commissioner Dayna Williams passed Ordinance 25-13, which exempts CRA businesses from city laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol within 450 feet of religious institutions.
While the restriction would still apply to the rest of the city, restaurants deriving at least 51% of their gross revenue from food and nonalcoholic beverage sales are already exempt.
According to a letter sent by city staff notifying four affected churches about the proposed amendment, the change intends to increase business and foot traffic on Main Street by allowing establishments like craft breweries and wine bars to open. However, the four churches’ proximity to Main Street is holding up the plan.
Local business owners and Alachua Chamber of Commerce members brought the topic before the commission during a regular meeting on May 5.
The commission said at the June 23 meeting it wanted to wait on adopting any amendments until the impacted churches had been notified more thoroughly than by email. Staff proceeded to make phone calls, mail or hand deliver letters asking for input, and the commission moved on July 28 to draft amendment language.
Commissioner Jacob Fletcher noted that the original motion from July stipulated that the proposed ordinance would include a map specifying where the restriction would apply, but that Monday’s ordinance didn’t have a map.
Economic Development Manager David Wisener said the map would be contiguous with the current CRA map.
San Felasco Tech City (SFTC) developer Mitch Glaeser said even though something like alcohol needs to be respected with laws, the success of SFTC’s brewery and wine bar in bringing families together should be a good representation of what opening similar businesses on Main Street could do for the city.
“This is not going to make or break the community. And it shouldn’t,” he said. “It should be one of the pieces, one of the many pieces, that bring this community together.”
A second reading of the alcohol ordinance will come before the commission for final approval on Nov. 24.
The City Commission also moved to accept the deed to property that will be turned into an extension of NW 115th Avenue, where food supplier Ben E. Keith expects to open a new distribution center in 2026.
Using a $1.5 million state-funded Community Development Block Grant, the commission secured John C. Hipp Construction Equipment Company for the project at $829,129.43, the lowest of three bids.
Fletcher asked whether the city would be responsible for maintaining all of NW 115th Avenue, a road used primarily by large trucks to service distribution centers, as well as the extension on property deeded by Waco Properties LLC.
Wisener said the city would be responsible for maintaining both, and interim City Manager Rodolfo Valladares said the responsibility comes with opportunity.
“This is taxpayer money being redirected to our city to benefit,” Valladares said. “The job opportunity that’s presented by Ben E. Keith has a job growth grant that needs to be applied for, and then all the taxes that these corporations have do provide support with all of our parks, our recs. And then of course, this is food distribution. So we get to feed folks not just within our city, but outside the city. There is the overall benefit.”
The commission also approved a 2024-25 budget rebalancing of $101,964 from the general fund contingency to the City Commission, human resources, city attorney and recreation and culture departmental budgets.
Finance and Administrative Services Director Robert Bonetti said a $1,854.54 overage occurred in the general fund’s commission budget for training the new commission members with the Florida League of Cities.
Human resources also reflected a $7,021.85 overage in personal services and $424.20 in operating expenses due to a midyear staff addition. The recreation and culture budget saw a $18,079.04 operating expense overage for summer recreation staff, heightened by low enrollment numbers.
Bonetti said the city attorney’s budget had a $74,581.12 overage for litigation fees. He estimated a breakdown of the fees for the past year, which included about $65,000 for a charter amendment, $10,000 for entering the lawsuit against Senate Bill 180, $110,000 for non-compliant structures and around $29,000 for Tara developments.
Bonetti noted that the city’s overall budget will not change, and that contingency would be reduced from $240,019 to $138,055, making the final 2024-25 city budget $68,954,933.
Editor’s note: This story was underwritten by a grant from the Rural Reporting Initiative at the Community Foundation of North Central Florida. To learn more or get involved, click here.