Test Before You Rezone: Protect Our Water

Get the Test Results Before Approving Ordinance 26-10

Dear Mayor Welch, Vice Mayor Ringersen, and Commissioners Brown, Fletcher, and Youmas: Before voting on the second reading of Ordinance 26-10, please require the applicant to complete the necessary environmental and infrastructure testing—and make the results available for independent review and public examination. The Commission should not grant valuable and potentially irreversible development rights while critical facts about this environmentally complicated property remain unknown. The proposed development would place 203 homes and substantial commercial development on land reportedly containing karst features and a sinkhole. Immediately south of the property lies a former landfill and documented contamination plume. Yet the Commission still lacks complete, site-specific evidence showing: * The direction and seasonal movement of groundwater; * The current location and extent of the landfill plume; * Whether excavation, utilities, wells, or stormwater basins could disturb or redirect contamination; * Whether the proposed stormwater system is safe for this karst-sensitive site; * How roads, rooftops, parking lots, and compacted soil would affect aquifer recharge; * The project’s total water and wastewater demand; and * Whether City infrastructure can safely support the development. These questions are even more urgent because North Florida remains under continuing drought and water-shortage conditions. Residents are being asked to conserve water while the City considers adding hundreds of homes, commercial activity, extensive pavement, and irrigation demand in an important aquifer-recharge area. The Commission should know how much water this development will require—and how much natural recharge could be lost—before approving it. We appreciate Alachua County’s recommended testing conditions intended to protect groundwater and evaluate possible impacts on the former landfill and its contamination plume. We also thank Commissioner Jacob Fletcher for drafting these safeguards into the motion. However, the need for these conditions confirms that essential questions remain unanswered. Testing after the rezoning is approved is not the same as having the evidence needed to decide whether this intensity of development is appropriate in the first place. Please postpone or reject Ordinance 26-10 unless and until the required studies are completed, independently evaluated, and presented to the public. If the results cannot demonstrate that the aquifer, nearby wells, landfill plume, stormwater system, and water supply will be protected, this rezoning should not be approved. Please put science, public health, and responsible water planning ahead of irreversible development. Sincerely,