Gainesville in National news - A college town takes on exclusionary zoning

In-fill communities. Take a house on a large lot and split up the property. I live in an in-fill community. The original house is still there but there are now 6 new houses. I’m guessing the original property was on 4 acres or so of land

 

Terrible idea people choose to live in certain neighborhoods to avoid certain things.

 

Not directly related, but the always excellent Radley Balko has an excellent piece up derived in part from his own experience about the abuse of code enforcement in Nashville, sometimes wielded by developers to acquire properties, and almost always against the less powerful. Excellent read.

 

Trying to make this post non-political, but zoning laws and urban development have historically been used as a hammer by those wielding power against those without power, typically tje wealthy pushing out the poor and lower class. Just look at what Robert Moses did in New York for two generations, demolishing and dividing black neighborhoods with freeways and initially making the overpasses on the Long Island highway to Jones Beach too short for most buses to pass under (and we know who mostly rode the bus).

Something needs to be done in this country that allows lower wage earners to live nearer their jobs. That part shouldn’t be so controversial. So while I understand why densification in some locations is inappropriate, in other places it’s absolutely vital to the health of the community.

 

We are currently working on a plan for a town of 8k+ residential units plus commercial, schools, etc. We have specific tracts of land set aside for development of affordable housing (10% of total units) near the town core and the county is working on set asides to reduce impact fees for these units. This will do nothing to mitigate the cost of construction so still not sure how they are going to make it work unless there are additional tax incentives tossed in to help sweeten the pot or a non profit like Habitat develops the tracts. Planning, permitting, and developing it in the middle of some prime panther habitat has been quite a challenge but we think all of the NGO's are now happy with the wildlife corridors and wetland preservation areas we have established

 

Not everywhere, my neighborhood it's the opposite. Most people are tearing down a 1500 SF house built in the 50's or 60's to build a 5000 sf house. McMansion style. But the lots are worth 400K or more for an 80x90 lot. Doesn't make sense to build smaller at that point.

 

Oh he is definitely that, and not just because of this most recent issue.

 

Sounds like Winter Park.

 

I don't think any of Tower Rd falls into the City limits. Of course the dim bulbs on the County Commission could follow suit with Gainesville if they don't like being commissioners.

 

All I can tell it that they "want more affordable housing," but the only way I see that occurring through this proposal is by driving down values of existing properties.

 

You just hit the nail on the head. This is going to mostly impact poorer, historically black neighborhoods in Gainesville....take a look at what has already happened in the Porter's community. It certainly isn't the poor being able to afford the newly built homes after the knockdowns. It sounds like to me some of these Commissioners are getting their palms greased by developers that want that close to downtown land, but they sure aren't going to be building "affordable" housing.

 

Update: It passed

Gainesville City Commission approves zoning changes despite resident outcry - The Independent Florida Alligator

 

In Gainesville "certain things" = black people & students

 

or maybe it is criminal element, disrespectful people, drug addiction, clusters of people with mental health problems, people who take no pride in their homes/neighborhood...all independent of race or age.

 

Not just the students. One of my favorite things about our current house is that I can't hear my neighbors. That is priceless.

 

Brings back memories of my downstairs neighbors telling us not to walk around so much or asking if we wore boots in the house. I was just walking, normal, I think.

 

The looks on our kids faces the day we moved in and told them they didn't have to be quiet, inside or outside, that was spectacular

 

This is going to overwhelmingly impact poor and black neighborhoods that are closest to downtown and is going to result in a lot of teardowns of historical older homes and gentrification. The historically black single family neighborhoods were united against this proposal. The black city council members voted against the proposal. It was the non-black, liberal elitists that supported this proposal either because they stand to benefit from the lucre or they want to look good for their uber-liberal comrades in DC. Gainesville has been down that road before with the disaster of a wood burning power plant that left the city owned utility about a billion $$ in debt.

 

Seems like there were plenty of white 'liberal elitists' opposing it too, they like their high property values too. There is no way out of the affordable housing problem without denser zoning, and since we have an insane economy where wealth = home value for most people, its almost an intractable problem since nearly everyone who owns property is invested in a single-family home. Gainesville has already been gentrified by the old zoning system, there is no student ghetto now, and every new apartment built is sold as "luxury" apartments. Seems like the constituency behind this are those locked out of property ownership in the current environment. Thanks to housing prices, that's a large group of people now.