Downtown Gainesville’s three rainbow crosswalks and other GreenShare bike lane markings will be removed following the City Commission’s unanimous vote to comply with a state memorandum during a regular meeting on Thursday.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) sent the memorandum to district transportation engineers on June 30, stating that all traffic control devices, including pavement surface markings, must comply with FDOT standards.
According to the memorandum, non-compliant surface pavement includes bicycle symbols, crosswalk markings and “other pavement surface art that is associated with social, political or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control.”
Although a public agency can lose state funding if it fails to comply, it can request permission to keep the pavement markings if it can demonstrate good reasons why it should.
City staff said they were waiting for direction from the commission after members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) brought up the markings during their visit to Gainesville last week.
“I don’t think this is a cooperative move or effort between different levels of government to improve safety or make our communities great places to live,” said Commissioner Casey Willits. “I believe it’s a knee-jerk reaction that serves no one.”
Citizens packed City Hall into overflow space in the basement on Thursday, with many objecting to the memorandum and remembering the legacy of former Pride Community Center of North Central Florida director Terry Fleming, who worked to get the rainbow crosswalks installed in October 2019.
Willits originally made a motion to ask FDOT’s permission to keep the non-compliant crosswalk marks, saying the memorandum lacked nuance, such as for non-state-owned roads with speed limits of 25 miles per hour or less.
After the commission’s concerns over not wanting to lose more state funding during a tight budget season killed the motion.
The commission then passed a motion by Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut to update any non-conforming traffic control devices to be in accordance with FDOT standards.
Commissioners Desmon Duncan-Walker and James Ingle were absent from the meeting.
The City Commission also passed Commissioner Bryan Eastman’s motion to direct staff to return to the commission in October during LGBTQ+ history month, after collaborating with the Gainesville Art and Public Places Trust for ideas on relocating the rainbow art installation. Willits motioned to rename a portion of First Street after Terry Fleming.
City staff will begin removing the bricks no later than Aug. 15.
“I would love for us to find ways to poke a bear, but that is not what we want to do in this situation, in my opinion,” said Mayor Harvey Ward. “I would urge everyone to remember exactly how we got here, both the good and the bad, and carry it with you to the voting booth when you get that opportunity.”
The commission also moved to table voting on proposed Regional Transit System (RTS) changes for fall 2025 until Aug. 14 after budget meetings, which could reveal areas to provide more funding for the transportation service.
The proposed service route reductions come after UF’s contributions decreased from 49.2% of RTS’s total funding sources in the 2024 budget to a projected 36.9% in 2025 ($14,050,715 to $9,940,858) and reduced routes from 38 to 27. The reductions cut the total weekday revenue hours by over 30%, decreased RTS service frequency and called for more route reconfigurations.
Additional documents indicate the cuts are likely to carry into other semesters and that UF’s Transportation and Parking Services department will continue to provide transit services to its population that previously accessed those routes through RTS.
Eastman said of all the budget cuts the commission is having to make, the ones to RTS services hurt him the most because it’s one of the best transit systems in the state, based on usage.
Ward said the cuts are also especially inconvenient after UF eliminated work-from-home schedules.
“When you see more cars on the road, when you wonder why it takes you longer to get where you used to be able to go very quickly, this is why,” he said. “When a funding partner yanks out a huge chunk of the funding, you damage the system, and you can’t necessarily get back to that level of service.”
The commission also unanimously voted during a quasi-judicial public hearing to change the land use of 5.81 acres near 100 SE 10th Ave. — the city’s former RTS charging station — from public and institutional facilities and rezone it to limited industrial designations.
The Knot Climbing Gym, which proposed to purchase the RTS building in 2023, plans to build a new gym that would feature an Olympic-sized climbing wall.
Although the commission voiced that it did not want to prohibit new housing with the industrial designation, some argued it had set a precedent with previous rezonings that steered the gym’s owners and city staff towards an industrial application.
To keep from delaying The Knot’s project with reapplication, the commission approved the land use and rezoning to change the surrounding areas to mixed-use or other residential-friendly options down the road.
“I’m incredibly excited about this whole project,” Eastman said. “It’s a very cool extension of Depot Park…I think there might be some ways to thread the needle here that would allow that while still maintaining the integrity of that area. I don’t want to see the long-term vision of South Main continue to be in industrial zoning.”
The Knot owner, Mike Palmer, said the gym intends to break ground in summer 2026.