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SpringHills:
Myth versus Truth
On May 1, the
Board of County Commissioners will decide whether or not to
approve an expansion of the SpringHills Development of Regional
Impact, a project of staggering proportion. What was first
conceived and then approved only inpart in 1999 was a
reasonable, mixed use residential and commercial development.
But the developer wanted more and now demands that the Alachua
County Comprehensive plan be changed to allow for an immense
regional commercial retail center lining I-75 with big-box
stores larger than Butler Plaza, warehouses the size of the Oaks
Mall, offices, hotels and 2,238 dwelling units. The Pennsylvania
developer, PREIT, would have you believe that little has changed
from the first inception, but that is not the case.
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Myth: The developer of SpringHills
is a large company with considerable
resources and a national reputation
of quality development of this
size.
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Fact: This developer has never built
any development of the size of the proposed
SpringHills project.(1)
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Myth: The developer's amendment is
only a slight 18% reallocation of non-residential
(commercial) space.
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Fact: The proposed change
doubles
commercial space to exceed the retail area of Butler
Plaza, changing the nature of the activity center to a
big-box regional commercial center. Furthermore, it
increases residential density, and eliminates buffers
for neighboring residences. (2, 6) |
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Myth: The developer has agreed to pay
the total cost of roads needed to serve
SpringHills,
the County to later reimburse for its one half
share.
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Fact: The developer has
agreed to pay $58 million for all roads with an
$18 million reimbursement and a credit for $12
million in impact fees for a total contribution of
$28 million. The county has calculated that the
necessary roads will cost $120 million. Even
if the county invests its entire roads’ building
budget into the SpringHills area, the roads will
still fail. (3, 6)
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Myth: Road improvements built to
serve SpringHills
will relieve traffic congestion,
notably on NW 39th
Avenue.
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Fact: 39th Avenue and
other roads are
presently near capacity. SpringHills will generate 6
4,500 additional vehicle trips daily according to the
developer’s traffic study. Traffic experts, including
the county planning staff and the North Central Florida
Regional Planning Council, concluded that
the PREIT improvements will not be
sufficient for the increased traffic and the development
will result in significantly more congestion.(4, 5, 6) |
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Myth: Property taxes from SpringHills
will allow the county to pay for the new
roadways and improvements without
increasing citizens’ real property
taxes.
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Fact: SpringHills will require
additional police, fire-rescue, bus service and
health needs, and most of the SpringHills increased
taxes will be used for those purposes. SpringHills
will accelerate the need for a new fire station, but
PREIT is refusing to pay for its construction. Road
improvements in other areas of the county will lack
funding due to SpringHills’ roadway costs. (3, 6)
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Myth: SpringHills will create
economic
vitality in the county.
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Fact: SpringHills will have just the
opposite effect. It will absorb all demand for new
stores throughout the county for at least a decade
and will burden the county with a multi-million
dollar debt. Business that could
revitalize East Gainesville and the
downtown area will go elsewhere. (7)
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Myth: The county planning staff has
been cowed by citizen protest, is now hostile and
has changed the rules.
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Fact: Staff has been helpfully and
patiently working closely with PREIT for years, but
has not been able to get SpringHills to agree to the
road infrastructure as well as other
issues including water monitoring
necessary for this expanded retail project. The
county has not changed the methodology for
calculating necessary roads, but it has
appropriately insisted that the
professionally accepted analysis of the North
Central Regional Planning Council Report be used as
it provides the best available data in determining
impacts of the project. County
staff is recommending that the
SpringHills application be denied, as has the
Gainesville City Commission.
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Myth: If SpringHills is not approved,
something worse will be built in this
area such as strip malls, gas stations, or even Cafe
Risque.
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Fact: Alachua County Comprehensive
Plan dictates the standards for development. The
Pennsylvania developer, PREIT, has, in
fact, asked for a relaxation of the
standards. New developments must meet the current
stricter codes while PREIT prefers to develop under
older code as a grandfathered project. The nearby
roads
such as 39th
Avenue are at or near capacity, so any new
development must by law, contribute toward solving
the congestion.(2,3)
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Myth: SpringHills will be
environmentally
friendly.
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Fact: The SpringHills site sits on a
limestone fracture line over this area’s aquifer,
and the potential exists for SpringHills waste to
contaminate well water north and west of the site.
The developer has refused the
recommendation of the county and the
North Florida Regional Planning
Council to have an ongoing water quality management
program.(3, 6)
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So the
real question is:
Who is spinning the fairy tales? PREIT, the developer, is a
$3.5 billion company and, as its attorney stated in The
Gainesville Sun on February 27, 2007, "The development firm
is a publicly traded company that presented a proposal that
ensures a sound deal for its stockholders.” But it is a bad
deal for the taxpayers and citizens of Alachua County. Don't
sell out Gainesville citizens for the profit of Pennsylvania
stockholders.
The Coalition for Responsible Growth
Updated, March 23, 2007
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Source of myths:
The Gainesville Speaking Out Column, by Developer’s
lawyer, March 10, 2007
The Gainesville Sun Speaking Out Column by
Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, March 11,
2007
The Gainesville Sun Editorial, March 11, 2007
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References for facts:
1. PREIT website
2. Submitted plans by PREIT, 2003-4
3. Written communication from PREIT
to County Staff, February 23, 2007
4. SpringHills Traffic Study
submitted by PREIT
5. Communication from PREIT traffic
engineer, February 14, 2007
6. North Central Florida Regional
Planning Council Report, July 2006
7. Fiscal Impact Analysis by PREIT’s
consultant, Henry Fishkind and
Associates,
2003
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