The Alachua County Commission meeting set for this evening promises to highlight the all-too-familiar clash between those who want to bring more development to the county and those who want to protect natural open spaces.
The Gainesville Country Club will be requesting that the land-use designations on nearly 25 acres near Paynes Prairie be changed from recreation to residential.
If this change is approved, the club has plans to build a three-story, 176-unit condominium complex along the prairie, in addition to expanding its golf course.
The planning and engineering consulting firm Causseaux, Hewett and Walpole Inc. - ironically the same firm that oversaw the expansion of the Florida Natural History Museum - will be representing the club at the meeting.
Maybe the developer missed this in the process of drawing up the ambitious project and picturing those dollar signs, but isn't the whole idea behind a state preserve, well, preservation?
Paynes Prairie is a national natural landmark and became Florida's first state preserve in 1971.
Just 10 miles from Gainesville, the prairie has offered county residents a place to escape urban congestion. It especially provides a service to those of us who sometimes find the traffic and noise of this crowded college town overwhelming.
The nature hikes, lack of light pollution and camping opportunities are just some of the ways residents utilize the 21,000-acre preserve.
It's sad to think that only those who could afford to permanently dominate the landscape might obstruct the panoramic view from the observation tower near the prairie's visitor center.
And, we also have to ask the seemingly obvious question: Does Alachua County really need another condominium?
The proponents of this project don't even have to look farther than Gainesville for that answer.
In a study conducted by UF in 2006, nearly half of Florida real estate experts said it's a poor time to build single-family housing and more than two-thirds said the same about condos.As many real estate agents struggle to sell condos in an already saturated market, we don't see the point of adding more units to the competition.
But even knowledge of this study is not necessary to understand why this would be a seriously flawed decision.
The natural beauty of Paynes Praire is now open to anyone in the county who has the time to make it out to U.S. Highway 441 to enjoy the space.
The fact that the proposed expansion is coming from a country club is particularly troublesome, seeing as how initiating full family club privileges at the Gainesville Country Club costs $3,000 - a bit out of reach for some residents in a county with a notoriously high poverty rate.
If the commission decides to approve the land-use change and the project becomes a reality, the prairie will not be limited to the wealthy, but it would significantly interrupt what the prairie has to offer.
The inevitable construction and influx of residents could wreak havoc on the prairie's wildlife, including alligators, wild horses and the over 270 species of birds.
While some supporters of the project could argue that the development would only be on the outskirts of the preserve, it would be impossible to deter its environmental effects entirely.
The traffic and noise alone is enough to hope that the commission thinks twice before approving this proposal.
