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County Approves Additional Retail Space At
Tower Rd./SW 24th Ave. Intersection
Despite county staff recommendation that the amendment be denied, the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners voted in favor of a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to allow additional retail space at the Tower Rd. and SW 24th Ave. Activity Center. Specifically, the commission voted in favor of allowing an additional 37,000 square feet of retail on the southeast corner of the intersection, where there is a Walgreens. The subject area (indicated on the map to the right) currently is undeveloped.
The BOCC voted 4-1 in favor of the amendment, with commissioner Mike Byerly as the lone dissenting vote.
Low activity centers or “neighborhood-oriented”?activity centers are defined as 100,000 square feet of commercial space. According to county staff, the new amendment allows what the staff considers a concentration of commercial and other uses that exceeds the level of a neighborhood shopping center.
In addition, the county’s growth management staff has estimated that an additional 1,580 trips, including an additional 647 trips on the already-over-capacity Tower Rd. segment, could be added by the new allowable retail space. The developer already had 405 trips on Tower Rd. “in reserve”?for the Activity Center. The development already had been approved for 158,000 square feet.
“We recognize this is a neighborhood shopping center,” said county commissioner Lee Pinkoson. “There are things that are going to go in there that might assist the neighborhood because they’re going to take trips off other roads. Maybe it does take a little something off of Newberry Rd. or Archer Rd.”
Byerly says the intersection was supposed to be a low activity center and the county should be consistent in its plan. “We’ve already exceeded what is considered a neighborhood activity center (at the intersection) and maybe we shouldn’t have done that,” says Byerly.
Gerry Dedanbach of the Gainesville-based planning firm Casseaux, Hewett and Walpole spoke on behalf of the developer. He says the mix of uses will promote walkable, professional and retail uses in the area. “Putting things approximate to populations reduces the dependency on vehicles,” says Dedanbach.
Currently, the Activity Center has a CVS on the northeast corner, a Walgreens, the Bellamy Grand apartments (650 bedrooms) and the Woodlands nursing home (120 beds, plus staff) on the southeast corner and a Regions bank, office park and a 20-residence Villas at Tower 24 development on the southwest corner. The northwest corner currently is for sale.
Dedanbach says the developer, who already had approval for a 32,000 square-foot office park on the site in question, would like to build a second story, with retail and dining uses on the ground level. “This would provide a quick walk to a restaurant, to a doctor or a beauty parlor,” argued Dedanbach.
The Department of Community Affairs, prior to the county’s approval, did not have any objections to the developer’s proposal.
