The Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Board of County Commissioners directed their staffs to work together to fund transit options to GRACE Marketplace on weekends and to find a solution for the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire—potentially at Gainesville Raceway.  

The joint meeting included presentations on the new UF Health Urgent Care—East location and the Central Receiving Facility at Meridian Healthcare, both funded in part by the county and city.  

The meeting was also scheduled to discuss expanding the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Area (GCRA). The current contract is set to expire in the coming years, and the city is interested in extending it for another 10 years. The GCRA collects county funding for special projects in the city’s core. 

Mayor Harvey Ward said the item was intended to get the discussion started and hopefully continue the momentum that the GCRA has. Because the county would lack a quorum, the two boards left the discussion for another time.  

The city of Gainesville is facing revenue cuts and increasing costs for its Regional Transit System (RTS). A new agreement with UF reduced funds by $3 million. Rises in insurance and ADA costs have added another $1 million to cover.  

Gainesville Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons said the city is facing more route cuts in 2026 to match the ones taken this year. Included in this year’s cuts was Route 25, which was fully funded by UF. That route provided weekend service from the downtown to GRACE Marketplace and Gainesville Regional Airport.  

Route 26 also runs from downtown to GRACE Marketplace and the airport, but doesn’t provide weekend service.  

The county has stated that it wants service returned for those seeking aid with homelessness who get services at GRACE.  

BOCC Commissioner Ken Cornell said the county worked for years to get a pedestrian crosswalk light in front of GRACE to help people cross the street and access the RTS stop. Now, it’s sitting without a purpose on the weekends.  

The county said they would split the $100,000 annual cost to fund weekend service, but city commissioners said they’re facing budget pressures.  

Ward made a point that the city was not in a “budget crisis,” calling that inaccurate. He said the city has levers to pull to fund its budget, but he said the city’s budget has been reduced to the bone.  

Ward and other commissioners pointed to the Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) Authority and the reduction in funds flowing from the utility as the root cause of the budget troubles. The relationship between the city and the utility will likely remain in the current position through this fiscal year and the next.  

The City Commission approved a referendum for November 2025 to retake management of GRU, but the referendum could be headed for the courts, like the last referendum, after the utility authority voted to sue. 

The motion on Tuesday directed county and city staff to work together to present a solution to the weekend bus service problem.  

The city of Gainesville has been searching for a permanent home for the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire since Alachua County sold the old fairgrounds near the airport, but the site requires a lot of land that’s close to the city.  

City staff have reviewed over 40 potential sites, but they’ve all fallen through despite some near misses, like the purchase of 100 acres off Waldo Road. The city plans to hold the faire at Depot Park again in 2026, but the downtown location prevents ticket sales and requires annual funding.  

Cornell said the city should fence the park to sell tickets and then use the proceeds to fund the next year and even put toward land eventually. BOCC Commissioner Anna Prizzia suggested the county’s new fair site in Newberry.  

If the faire could be held for a few years in a row, it could buy time and money for a permanent home. Prizzia added that there would be more space than Depot Park if the parking gets figured out.  

But Gainesville staff said the county fairgrounds in Newberry are too far away. The city said it would like to turn the permanent home into a festival spot that could host events all year.  

Talk turned to the Gainesville Raceway, one of the near misses the city previously investigated.  

The city said insurance requirements made the spot impossible. In the past, the city covered the insurance for the location, and the vendors each covered their own insurance. But Gainesville Raceway wanted one entity, the city, to cover all the insurance, including the vendors.  

The city’s insurance provider said it wouldn’t cover that scope of an event.  

County commissioners said the idea would be revisited, but Cornell noted that the county is self-insured. A motion passed both boards for their staff to work together for a joint faire moving forward, with Gainesville Raceway as a potential site after 2026.