Skeptics, hope remain for turnaround on east side
Last Modified: Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 7:29 p.m.
A quick drive down Waldo Road or East University Avenue will reveal — seemingly — that not much has changed in the past few years on Gainesville's east side.
But behind the industrial complexes and the tree canopies, wheels have been in motion, and there are signs of life, officials say.
And five to 10 years from now, Alachua County Commissioner Rodney Long predicts, "east Gainesville will not be the same east Gainesville."
Not everyone is holding their breath.
Often overlooked by builders and retailers, east Gainesville has remained stagnant — or regressed — while Gainesville's development moved westward. For years now, Long and a number of other city and county officials have talked about redeveloping the east side.
"We've done all the things that are needed so that people know that we are open for business," said Long, whose businesses — including bail bonds and real estate companies — are in the area.
On Thursday, the City Commission voted to expand the Community Redevelopment Agency's Eastside redevelopment area — already the largest of the four such zones. Two areas would be added to the Eastside zone — along Waldo Road north from 16th Avenue to 39th Avenue and the area between Hawthorne Road and University Avenue that stretches from 21st Street to the city's eastern boundary.
Beginning with this year's tax rolls, the CRA will benefit (or suffer) from any changes to the property tax revenues from properties in those expansion areas.
While Anthony Lyons, the CRA manager, and his staff don't have concrete plans for the expansions yet, the agency has a number of projects under way in its Eastside zone that he hopes can serve as a catalyst for change.
Not the least is the redevelopment of the former Kennedy Homes low-income apartment complex on Southeast Eighth Avenue.
Still in the planning phases, the CRA's plan for the site is a mixed-income subdivision with a focus on sustainability.
Lyons said there should be a detailed plan for the property, which the city purchased for nearly $2 million, by February.
Depending on one's definition of east Gainesville, Lyons' office might be near the western border.
Lyons can look out his second-floor window of the CRA's new building at 802 NW Fifth Ave. and see evidence that the area is a shell of its former self.
"There are a lot of areas like the one you're sitting in that need a lot of help," Lyons said in a recent interview at his office. But, he added, "It has all the factors, all the framework to be a great, thriving part of the city."
So how can the area realize its potential?
"It's absolutely about economic development," he said, meaning job opportunities and places to shop and live locally.
Lyons knows as well as anyone that that is easier said than done.
Still, some bits of progress have been made, the most visible on Waldo Road at the Walmart Supercenter, which opened in 2008; and the expansion of the University of Florida's eastside campus, which was finished earlier this year.
"Other than that, there hasn't been a lot of changes made over here," said Evan Dumas, the store manager at his family's Dumas Discount Furniture and Bedding on University Avenue between Hawthorne and Waldo roads.
In 2003, Dumas' mother, Dee, told The Sun that she was skeptical about local officials' vision to jump-start the area's economy.
"Maybe it can happen," she said at the time. "But I bet it won't happen soon."
Her son said things had improved aesthetically — for instance, the medians look nicer — in recent years, but that alone won't entice investment.
"It seems like maybe money is trickling in but really slowly — not as fast as everyone expected when people found out about Walmart coming to this side of town," he said.
Rick Drummond, Alachua County's assistant county manager, acknowledges that progress seems slow.
"It takes a while," Drummond said. "An awful lot of work has been done to position that area for a turnaround and a redevelopment."
In the early 2000s, Drummond was the county's growth management director and was involved in crafting Plan East Gainesville, a joint venture with the city to create a vision for the area.
He said two components could play a key role in that turnaround:
The county's plans for bus rapid transit, a bus system with dedicated lanes to make for quicker commutes.
The redevelopment of the county fairgrounds on Northeast 39th Avenue near the Gainesville Regional Airport, which could, in a matter of years, be a hotel, conference center or business park.
Long, the county commissioner, said local governments have set the foundation. Now it's about getting the private sector to buy in.
As Lyons from the CRA put it: "We don't need more planning. We need more doing."
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