Issues

affordable housing:A complex issue

 All people deserve a safe, affordable place to live, but achieving that goal is not simple. Gainesville has already built or permitted more housing units than will be needed for the next 20 years. The issue isn’t lack of housing. It’s rental costs, home prices, locations -- and how to help those who need it most. 

zoning and land use laws: a changing picture

Some city officials have promoted more building in residential neighborhoods to increase housing supply, including through ending traditional single-family zoning. But whether this approach will lead to more affordable housing is an open question. The city’s fall 2020 decision to allow homeowners and landlords to convert single-family homes into virtual triplexes includes no restrictions on rents or incentives to keep rents low, suggesting it will simply create more market-rate housing.

The student factor: A major influence on housing

 While many cities have affordable housing challenges, including college towns, Gainesville is unusual because our student population is disproportionately large and our town is, compared to national peers, disproportionately small.  Our oldest neighborhoods, closest to the university and downtown, and often the most fragile, bear the brunt of this circumstance.

equity: a history of underinvestment

Many of our neighborhoods are largely segregated by race, even more than by income. While historic Black neighborhoods take pride in their multi-generational roots, they also face challenges. Residents there justifiably express concern that they have been left behind.

gentrification: a history of under investment

When longtime residents can no longer afford to live in their own homes due to increased rents or taxes, the result is gentrification. Some describe this process as “urban renewal.” Others, more cynically, call it “urban removal.”  

preservation

As large apartment complexes come to dominate Gainesville’s urban cityscape, there is increasing recognition of the value of protecting our historic and traditional neighborhoods. Neighborhood protection is a civic virtue that requires respect, consensus building, education, and sometimes the need to find compromises.

gainesville’s geography and urban history: a primer

Since the 1970s, Gainesville has developed to the west, leading to disproportionate challenges in the central and eastern parts of the city. Yet this older, more traditional city-within-the-city has remained vibrant and desirable, thanks in great measure to its many diverse neighborhoods.  The challenge moving forward is to protect and nurture these neighborhoods while further opening them to residents in need of safe, affordable homes.

advantage gainesville: strong neighborhoods

Our vision: A city that draws on the unique strengths and attributes of its historic and traditional neighborhoods to grow and to thrive.