During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Alachua County Commission Board approved plans for an affordable housing development in East Gainesville and Town of Tioga, which residents say will boost quality of life there.
The goal of the East Gainesville Legacy Community Engagement Project is to build low maintenance, affordable housing at the market rate on the 13-acre property owned by the county. The project is also meant to decrease poverty and promote routes that are walkable for civilians and bicyclists.
The county wants to create “diverse architectural styles that minimize perceived mass transition and complement adjacent neighborhoods,” said Candie Nixon, assistant director of community support services, at Tuesday’s meeting.
The goals were formed during multiple meetings with citizens of East Gainesville and members of the East Gainesville Alliance. The project, which would focus on market rate for single family housing and creation of workforce, was approved to move forward at a commission meeting May 28.
In the Aug. 27 meeting, East Gainesville community members expressed concerns for their residents and said the project would be vital to uplifting the area.
“We need to give our children in our community hope. They need hope,” said Carrie Parker Warren, an East Gainesville resident, during public comment. “There is a connection between having a home and gun violence, and other things that happen in our community.”
Residents anticipate that building affordable homes will encourage a brighter future for children and parents.
Talks of bringing mainstream credit unions and grocery stores to the East side of Gainesville were also introduced during the meeting.
“We need to create a board that wants to find businesses that want to come to the East side, and I’m not talking about small businesses,” said DeJeon Cain, an East Gainesville resident. “I’m talking about Winn-Dixie, Publix, Florida Credit Union, Five-Star credit union, that want to partner in making East Gainesville what we want it to be.”
County Commission Chair Mary Alford expressed her satisfaction with the proposal and its design.
“I love to hear diversity of housing,” she said. “I love to hear no cookie cutter, I love to hear energy efficiency, I love to hear quality development, and that is what we are talking about, so I’m very excited about this.”
Commissioners unanimously approved the proposal.
Later in Tuesday’s meeting, the commission approved a development plan for the Town of Tioga South Annex. The development is going to be on land spanning over 200 acres, with the goal to build traditional neighborhood developments, a village center, walkable areas and different types of housing.
In conjunction with the development plan, the commission proposed the addition of a northbound left turn lane at Newberry Road and Southwest 136th Street and several new roundabouts and intersections in the area.
The new infrastructure should decrease traffic and create safer streets that are prone to less accidents, according to Jay Brown, president and principal engineer of JBPro, a civil engineering company.
The next county commission regular meeting will be Sept. 10.
Contact Sofia Meyers at smeyers@alligator.org. Follow her on X @SofiaMeyer84496.
