Alachua County will consider adding Lake Shore Drive to its list of official scenic roads, with the staff review process already underway and potentially ending this month.  

Lake Shore Drive wraps around the western edge of Newnans Lake, and local residents say it’s a special area. You can see eagles and egrets, gators and joggers, rowers and rainbows.  

The criteria for evaluating the road focus on the significance of the surrounding natural, archaeological, historical and cultural resources. The county code also looks at commercial developments that restrict scenic beauty and harmony with other land uses.

The push to evaluate and add Lake Shore Drive to the scenic roads list, which currently has six different roads, came from citizens. Alachua County’s Environmental Protection Advisory Committee (EPAC) discussed the topic and voted unanimously to support the initiative and forward the recommendation to the county commissioners.  

The Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) directed staff in June to officially evaluate the road. County commissioners have received more than 20 emails since then, with citizens supporting scenic road status. That volume of emails is fairly rare on one topic. 

One emailer was Jen Figueroa with Gainesville Area Rowing, which has its facility on the road. She told Mainstreet that Newnans Lake is one of the wildest and most unspoiled lakes in the area.  

“This quiet, tree-canopied, two-lane road offers unmatched views of the lake, habitat for wildlife, and allows for many people to enjoy the area on foot, on bikes and in boats,” Figueroa said.  

The BOCC’s inboxes included emails from High Springs, Archer and Melrose residents, emphasizing the wilderness feeling and rural character and calling the area a treasure and lovely space.  

The initiative arrives nearly parallel to another one: new zoning approval for 149 homes abutting Lake Shore Drive. The new zoning and land use were preliminarily approved by the BOCC in May, and the BOCC finalized the switch in August, allowing the owner to move to a preliminary development plan.

Jay Rosenbek said the two issues, while dovetailing, aren’t directly linked. He chairs EPAC and has served on the committee for three years.  

“We understand that there has to be a balance between necessary sane development and preservation of the natural resources that make people want to come here,” he said.  

Rosenbek said residents at the EPAC meeting were careful not to link a new development in the area with the push for scenic road designation—and the committee, he added, certainly ignored outside considerations.  

But Rosenbek said he wasn’t born yesterday. The new development undoubtedly got locals thinking about preserving the area and they found the scenic road program as a mechanism. Emails to the BOCC include several references to the development, called Eastwood Preserve. 

The scenic road program is fairly low-key compared to other preservation programs, like Alachua County Forever or Wild Spaces Public Places.  

The program started with three roads in 1980 before adding three more roads in 1987, 2004 and 2021. Well-traveled roadways like Millhopper Road, Fort Clarke Church Road and Tuscawilla Road (the most recent addition) are on the list, joined by bumpy, limestone roads like Crown Road and Bellamy Road. 

Rosenbek noted that the scenic road program isn’t meant to stop development. 

“[Scenic roads] haven’t prevented, and they’re not designed to prevent, development,” he said. “They’re designed to help guide that development towards some kind of balance between development and preservation.”   

For Lake Shore Drive, a balance is already in the works with the nearby development. 

Residents in the area opposed the project at the May rezoning—though a good number of supporters from Alachua County at large also showed up. By the August meeting, many of the same residents returned to support the project and a list of voluntary conditions that the developer had agreed to obey.  

“We keep asking our developers to show us something we’ve never seen before. It would be really nice to see this one be that,” Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said at the August meeting.  

One of the biggest concessions is eliminating vehicle access to Eastwood Preserve from Lake Shore Drive. Instead, an entrance will be on Hawthorne Road and SE 51st Street.  

Scenic road designation allows restrictions on advertising signage, vehicle weights, tree removal and commercial activity.  

Ken McMurry, senior planner for Alachua County, said county staff will provide an analysis report to the BOCC on Lake Shore Drive. Based on the report, the commissioners can decide whether to schedule a public hearing where it would pass a resolution to officially give the scenic road designation.  

Any public hearing would involve sending mailed notices to nearby neighbors and having community feedback. 

McMurry said the staff report would be finished by late September, at the earliest. He said the possibility exists for more scenic roads, saying the county certainly has the natural beauty. Ultimately, he said staff will approach each road as the BOCC directs and follow the requirements set in code.  

Those codes are available to view here.  

Alachua County also has other plans for the area. The Gainesville City Commission recently ceded ownership of Palm Point Park, which abuts Newnans Lake from Lake Shore Drive, to the county, and county commissioners and staff said it is planning to add a ramp for lake access.

Rosenbek said the scenic road program doesn’t crop up often, but he said EPAC encourages the public to bring it item for consideration. He said the committee analysis items referred by the BOCC, but it can also pick up topics from residents.  

He said the committee would welcome more consideration of scenic roads and the nexus of environment and development continues.  

“The pressures of development are only going to get greater, and that’s okay,” Rosenbek said. “We’ll push for balance on the committee, and I’m hoping that enlightened environmentalists will also see that there’s a necessity for compromise and accommodation, as long as the compromise and accommodation isn’t always to the detriment of the environment.” 

Alachua County is currently dealing with several projects that touch on environmental issues.

Besides Eastwood Preserve, Alachua County is in the early stages of processing a development adjacent to Paynes Prairie that has drawn significant community criticism. The BOCC also made itself an impacted party for the development of housing around Mill Creek Sink in the city of Alachua, setting aside $1 million for potential litigation. In May, the county protested a water use permit for the large Tomoka Hills development down the road from Mill Creek Sink.

Alachua County also kickstarted a planning process for the Pine Hill Forest strategic ecosystem and how future development might move forward in the Tioga area.