The Newberry City Commission updated the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on its Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) plans and discussed a potential county/city partnership for improving roads during a joint meeting on Monday.
Newberry’s CRA staff said the district now had two permanent employees overseeing the 694-acre CRA, which they said is growing very fast.
With a 2024-25 fiscal year budget of $1,065,301.20, staff said the base year taxable value that started at $36,079,104 in 2020 has since grown to $86,241,984. The CRA’s current tax increment value is $50,162,880.
Newberry is also working to implement the CRA’s first five-year action plan focusing on the district’s downtown section. So far, the city has worked toward executing the goal of making downtown more walkable by building a sidewalk on NW 3rd Avenue to Lois Forte Park.
The city is also gathering artist input for mural and community art projects and intends to prepare for annual Christmas decorations to keep Newberry the “Christmas capital of Alachua County.”
Other ongoing future projects for the CRA include a facade grant program on Newberry Road (State Road 26), US Highway 27 and State Road 45, adding more festivals, Barry Park beautification, Hitchcock Pond landscaping, Seaboard Drive land acquisition, NW 260th Street construction and SW 254th reconstruction.
The city also used SW 15th Avenue to generate a discussion on jointly owned, multi-use roads needing upgrades that could potentially lead to a three-way partnership between the city of Newberry, the county and a potential developer for the improvements.
Paving five miles of SW 15th Avenue would cost an estimated $10.82 million, with the city and county contributing $3.44 million each and $3.94 million from a developer.
Staff said improvements would reduce the annual interest to the county, accommodate incoming developments that would utilize the road, and they hoped to learn what other road projects the county would be concerned about investing in.
County Commissioner Ken Cornell said that while he would like to maintain SW 15th Avenue as a scenic road, he has no desire to deviate from the county’s quarter-of-a-billion-dollar road improvement plan reaffirmed a week ago by converting it into a two- or three-lane road.
Cornell said if the city’s interest was in transferring county roads over to the city, he’d be interested.
“I’m always open to give you the liability of a road, I’ve had these discussions with previous commissioners,” he said. “We’ve never been able to get to an agreement because it’s always been the county spends all the money and then gives us the road, while your citizens are demanding that you maintain the road, and so I’m open to that. But specifically with regards to the scenic road of SW 15th, I have strong opinions about that road.”
County Commissioner Mary Alford said that this was the first time the county commission had heard about their staff working with Newberry’s for road projects. The “obtaining land rights” line in the proposal gave her concern for future costs and complications.
Alford made a motion to direct staff to gather more information on the proposal and County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler seconded the motion.
County Commissioner Anna Prizzia said that while she feels comfortable with having conversations about which roads the county could repave and give over to the city, she doesn’t see it as the county’s responsibility to bring them up to a standard that new developments need as a result of the growth and development of the city.
“Obtaining land rights and managing design and construction of major road improvements is not something right now that I feel like we can take on, nor really do I feel like it’s the responsibility of the county to take on road improvements for new development,” she said. “I think the development should be paying for its share of impacts on those roads.”
The City Commission also updated the county that they expected to move into their new city hall in September or October of this year, which would free up several buildings in the downtown area.
Interim City Manager Dallas Lee said they’d discussed with the county using some of the spaces for satellite offices, which Prizzia said could also dovetail into their conversations for opening more family resource centers. Lee said Alachua County property appraiser Ayesha Solomon would be opening a satellite office in Newberry.
The city concluded the meeting by presenting eight emergency first responders with the Phoenix Award for Life-Saving Excellence.
The personnel helped save the life of a person whose heart had stopped during a heart attack on April 13, but walked out of the hospital four days later with a full neurological recovery due to the group’s teamwork.