Media Update

By Karen Woolfstead, Don Braswell and Craig Carty
Special to The Sun

After reading the April 20 Sun editorial, “Bikes Belong,” about the Archer Braid Trail and reviewing the remarks made at a recent County Commission meeting on the same topic, the boards of the three Haile Plantation homeowners associations wish to restate our position in support of the Archer Braid Trail, explain our opposition to the unnecessary and expensive proposed path through Haile Plantation and to correct some misconceptions.

Foremost, we are not opposed to the Archer Braid Trail. We simply believe it is a more inclusive path if routed down Southwest Archer Road to Tower Road. There is no compelling reason to route it through Haile Plantation.

The Archer Road to Tower Road route costs significantly less and will include more residential communities, shopping centers, schools and cultural areas. And it will still include the Haile Plantation community.

Both The Sun editorial and the commission comments miss this central point: If the path does not go through Haile, it will still exist, and it will serve the greater Alachua County residents who wish to ride it. It will simply go down Archer Road to Tower Road and beyond.

While it has been stated that public input on the matter has been taken “for nearly a decade,” very little input has actually been solicited from the Haile Plantation community, whose residents will be most affected by this regional bike trail.

County staff did hold a public meeting in Haile Plantation's Hall in 2008 to address residents' concerns regarding the use of the private power line trail. Those in attendance provided staff with input and the vast majority were opposed to the path under the power lines.

Haile's three boards of directors never heard of the project again until 2012, when we learned of county plans to bring a 10-foot wide asphalt multiuse path down Southwest 91st Street. and Haile Blvd.

Of the speakers at the commission meeting, some were not current Haile Plantation residents, and many have never lived in Haile. Some identified themselves as members of the Bicycle Pedestrian Board, the Gainesville Cycling Club and the Citizens Advisory Board.

We hope the majority of county commissioners will give full weight to Haile residents, as this regional bike trail will bisect our community and affect us where we live.

We've heard this path described as “similar to a sidewalk that will be used predominantly by Haile residents.” But from what we've seen through online research, this path will be a regional bike trail that is part of the Alachua County Mobility Plan.

Once complete, this Archer Braid Trail will be heavily advertised on city of Gainesville and Alachua County websites as a public trail that could be ridden by Alachua County residents and visitors to our area. It also will be listed on many bicycling websites throughout the state and the country as a paved “bike able” trail. Simply Google “bike trails in Florida,” and you'll see this has the potential to be one very heavily used trail.

The bicycle groups would like to ride through Haile Plantation because it would make for a beautiful ride; we can't argue with that. However, we are very concerned that our beautifully treed, natural entrance roads will suffer aesthetically by the installation of this 10-foot wide asphalt path. And the homeowners whose homes back up to the proposed path will lose the enjoyment of their private, now quiet backyards and could suffer some loss in property value.

At a total estimated cost of $1.3 million (Haile Braid Section), utilizing Tower Road would save taxpayers this added expense. Moreover, the additional bike traffic will add congestion to our major internal intersection at Southwest 91st St. and Haile Blvd., which is currently a very busy four-way stop.

Routing the trail through Haile just doesn't make financial or safety sense.

We're excited about the Archer Braid Trail and believe many of our residents will use it. However, we respectfully disagree that the route should come through Haile Plantation because of the likely negative impacts outlined above.

Karen Woolfstead is president of Haile Plantation Association. Don Braswell is president of Haile Plantation West. Craig Carty is president of Haile Village Center Owners Association.

By Christopher Curry
Staff writer

Gainesville city commissioners continued to plan Thursday for potential November referendums on road and transit sales taxes, with some again voicing opposition to the County Commission majority's handling of the tax issue.

After an approximately one-hour discussion, the City Commission voted 7-0 to take another intermediate step in tax talks, instructing staff to come back at the May 17 meeting with revised lists of projects that would be eligible for funding.

They also voted to have two alternatives for interlocal agreements, the pacts each municipality has to enter with the county to specify projects eligible for funding and the split of revenues.

Under one alternative, the one put forth by the County Commission, those interlocal agreements would require a supermajority vote to be approved and can be amended only by supermajority votes of both the city and county commissions.

On Thursday, the City Commission decided to also prepare as an alternative an agreement that could be approved and changed by a simple majority vote.

Commissioner Thomas Hawkins suggested the move, noting that, across the street, the current trend of 3-2 County Commission votes to push the tax forward does not meet the threshold of a supermajority.

It would require approval of the City Commission and County Commission to weaken that proposed supermajority requirement.

Talks of a transportation sales tax referendum have surfaced and subsided since a 2004 roads tax failed. The current round of talks started last year and focused at first on the county's $380 million backlog of road resurfacing needs.

The city's proposed project list included roads and Gainesville Regional Transit System projects, including the long-term plan for a bus rapid transit system.

Concerned that a tax to fund bus rapid transit would fail amid political opposition, a majority of the County Commission — Lee Pinkoson, Susan Baird and Winston Bradley — voted in late March to divide the two tax initiatives.

Now on the table are a ¾-cent tax for roads and ¼-cent tax for city of Gainesville transit projects. Each tax would stay on the books 15 years.

In late April, county commissioners added additional conditions, not allowing money from road tax revenues to go toward sidewalks along a road resurfaced or built with money from the tax.

“I would not have made the same motion as the County Commission, to put it lightly,” Hawkins said. “I don't know if the concept is that people who walk don't pay taxes or people that walk don't vote.”

Lowe revisited his criticism from the March 29 joint meeting when the majority of the County Commission voted to split the road and transit tax questions. He said that served to “undermine the interconnectivity of the projects” and that the county's late April decision regarding sidewalks was a “basic infringement on the concept of the home rule that we've always had in this county.”

While County Commissioners Pinkoson and Baird — and City Commissioner Todd Chase — have said that planning for the city's proposed bus rapid transit system is not far enough along to put a transit tax to voters, Lowe said Thursday that he would have a “hard time” supporting the roads tax and that it should “come back in another year.”

He specifically took issue with the proposed funding split from the roads tax, with the county getting about $12.97 million annually and the city getting a projected $5.47 million. The ¼-cent transit tax is projected to raise $7.5 million a year, with all of it going to Gainesville.

Chase said he did not think the time was right for any additional tax. But he said he voted with the majority, so the end result would be something he still opposes — but opposes less.

By Christopher Curry
Staff writer

City and county officials could be looking at their own version of "Let's Make a Deal."

It's one that might end quickly and without a deal, County Commission Chair Paula DeLaney says.

In March, DeLaney sent a letter to Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe asking the city to consider taking over ownership and operation of the county's Forest Park in the upcoming fiscal year.

A 2009 annexation of the student apartments along Southwest 20th Avenue expanded the city limits to include the park, located near the intersection of Southwest 20th and 43rd Street.

DeLaney noted in the letter that in 2009, the City Commission also approved "in concept" the transfer of the park.

In an April 24 letter, Lowe responded that city officials would consider the transfer of the park if the county also allowed the city to take over county Fire Station 19, which is located on the same property.

"The future provision of urban services (recreation and fire rescue) provided on this property should be linked together," Lowe wrote.

Lowe's response did not touch on money, but that is also a consideration for the city.

Under the terms of the fire services assistance agreement between Gainesville and Alachua County, the city pays when the Alachua County Fire Rescue responds into the city, and the county pays when the city's fire rescue department responds into the unincorporated county.

After annexations of the sprawling Butler Plaza shopping district and the Southwest 20th Avenue corridor, including Station 19, the city finds itself in the situation of paying the county to respond to fire calls in the city from a county station located in the city.

For fiscal year 2010-11, there were 1,689 fire call responses into the city from Station 19 and 1,045 into the county, according to the county's dispatch numbers.

That year, the agreement resulted in net revenue of $568,996 to the county, according to the county Office of Management and Budget.

Before the annexations of Butler Plaza and Southwest 20th Avenue areas served by Station 19, the city department had more responses into the county from fiscal year 2000-01 through fiscal year 2008-09.

In light of the payments now made to the county, the City Commission voted on April 5 to initiate talks with the county for the city to take over Station 19.

"This is an economic decision," Gainesville Fire Chief Gene Prince said. "It has nothing to do with service. The county provides the same level of service we do in the area. … Historically, the county paid the city, but that has swung the other way since 19 was annexed."

DeLaney said it's a "reasonable request" from the city, particularly in tight budget times. But she said she did not expect county officials to be interested in it.

"I don't think we're interested in switching the station out at this time," she said. "It's not costing the county money. We're actually making money serving the city, so we're less inclined."

Alachua County Fire Rescue Director Ed Bailey noted that the county also has an ambulance unit at the station.

And there are still a significant number of fire responses into the unincorporated county from the station, he said.

A transition of services agreement in place between Gainesville and Alachua County does lay out a framework for dealing with annexations that include county-owned parks and fire stations.

An agreement on which government will own and operate a park is supposed to be in place within 24 months, a span of time that already has passed in the case of Forest Park.

Over the past several years, the county has worked to scale back its parks program, and Forest Park, with its basketball courts, soccer fields and beach volleyball courts, has annual operation costs of approximately $90,000.

In 2009, the city and county did reach an agreement for the city to take over San Felasco Park, at 6400 NW 43rd Way, from the county.

As for fire stations — and Station 19 would the first to be annexed — the agreement gives the county the option to maintain ownership and operation and also allows the city to attempt to negotiate for the transfer or purchase of a station.

Bailey said the issue would be rendered moot if there was a consolidation of fire services, a move discussed several times over the years before it met opposition and died.

"I think consolidation of services would end the whole discussion, but we have been through that drill several times," Bailey said.