The Gainesville City Commission directed staff Thursday to continue plans to use new Streets, Stations and Strong Foundations (SSSF) funds on an affordable housing purchasing program and a $5.2 million redesign of NE Ninth Street.  

Andrew Persons, Gainesville’s chief operating officer, said the city has typically bought and given away land to nonprofits for affordable housing projects. He explained that the SSSF funding requires the city to retain ownership of any property purchased for affordable housing.  

The SSSF funding comes through a one-cent surtax approved by Alachua County voters in November 2022. The one-cent surtax builds on a half-cent surtax already in operation—known as the Wild Spaces, Public Places program—and allows Gainesville to address other infrastructure priorities like fire stations, roads and housing.  

The surtax is estimated to generate $174 million for the city over a decade—$87 million for Wild Spaces Public Places and $87 million for SSSF. 

Under state law, only 10% of the infrastructure surtax may be used for affordable housing, which will provide an estimated $8.7 million for the program over the 10-year timeframe.  

Persons said there’s only so much housing the city can purchase with the funds. He discussed two program styles that the City Commission could pursue.  

The city could try to purchase large, undeveloped parcels to build into multifamily housing complexes that it rents at affordable rates. Persons said this approach requires a significant upfront cost and would likely mean issuing tax-based bonds for the whole $8.7 million.  

This approach also depends on finding suitable parcels in Gainesville’s real estate market and managing the property indefinitely, Persons said.  

Or, the city could try a scattered-site strategy, buying already developed single-family homes or duplexes to rent out.  

Persons said this would allow the city to concentrate or scatter its units across Gainesville. The option also gives more flexibility with the housing market and wouldn’t require issuing bonds for affordable housing funds. The city would have more options with the renovation of the units as well.  

The affordable housing funds will come in annually from the SSSF-portion of the tax for the next decade—an estimated $870,000 each year. Persons said the city would be able to purchase a couple of houses each year until the surtax ends.  

“Either option, whether large multifamily or scattered site, more than likely will require a housing partner to do the long-term property management, the maintenance, all of the things that the city is really not structured to do,” Persons said.  

The SSSF funds can only be used for the purchase of the property, not the construction of new units. Persons said the scattered site approach would allow the city to use different funding for renovation of the city in smaller batches.  

If the city purchased vacant land, another partner would be needed to build housing on the site.  

Persons and city staff recommended the commissioners approve moving forward with both strategies. He said the scattered-site strategy would be the main aim, but if an ideal location for a large, multifamily site hits the market, staff wants the flexibility to act quickly and begin negotiations while also returning to the commission for final approval. 

The City Commission approved the plan unanimously.  

Commissioner Ed Book said he worries any time the city competes directly in the open market. He voiced concern about the management side of the program since the city isn’t set up to handle it, requiring more in-house expertise or an outside partner.  

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker said she liked the scattered-site approach since the city could ensure affordable housing isn’t concentrated in one area of Gainesville. 

The remaining 90% of SSSF funds will go toward road maintenance and redevelopment projects.  

Brian Singleton, public works director, presented an overview of the 389 miles of roadway that Gainesville manages.  

He said the pavement condition inventory, a rating for the quality of the road, sits at a 68 out of 100. Based on the current $108 million backlog, he said the city needs to allocate $5.4 million to $7.2 million annually to keep the road condition at the current level.  

In the past, road funding has been around $1.5 million to $3 million. Gainesville will get around $1.65 million this year from the gas tax along with funds from the general fund and solid waste fee.  

As far as SSSF’s roadway impact, most of the funding has already been allocated as needs are outpacing money.  

Besides the $8.7 million assigned to affordable housing, the City Commission also approved around $100 million for a series of emergency responder projects in April. 

The city used $1.3 million to redo North Main Street from 39^th Avenue to 53^rd Avenue, finished earlier this year. Another $5.3 million is estimated to reconstruct a 1.5 mile stretch of NE Ninth Street.  

The city is looking at other funding sources for the projects, like federal and state grants along with Alachua County’s grant program.  

After Singleton’s presentation on the roadway system, the City Commission heard updates on the North Main Street project and voted on a path forward for NE Ninth Street.  

City staff presented four options for the roadway, which has two lanes with bike lanes on each side and on-street parking.  

• The first option would be to keep the same layout but resurface the road—currently listed as poor under the pavement condition inventory.  

• The second option would be to keep the layout but extend the bike lanes through intersections instead of the bike lanes ending.  

• The third option would eliminate the on-street parking to allow buffered, 6-foot bike lanes instead of the current unprotected, 4-foot lanes.  

• The fourth option would move both bike lanes, heading north and south, to the same side of the road while adding a raised curb as protection. This option would also eliminate on-street parking, but staff opposed this option because of feasibility issues with driveways, garbage collection and transit services.  

A city survey showed that 71% of 478 respondents approved the removal of the on-street parking.  

The City Commission followed staff recommendation, and the survey favorite, and chose the third option, which will cost an estimated $5.2 million. The motion asked for protected bike lanes as much as possible, leaving design details to staff.  

The protection would be small, rubberized curb segments added along the bike lane.  

The fourth option would have cost more, approximately $6.2 million.