News Article

Archer Braid Report from Commission Meeting Sep 12

James Thompson

Report from Archer Braid Commission Meeting


4 Sep 2012


by


James Thompson


    This single-issue meeting of the Alachua County Commission was to determine in which way to move forward on the fully federally-funded Archer Braid bike-ped Trail.  This is only a summary.  More detail will be provided to members of the Advocacy Committee of the Gainesville Cycling Club (GCC) and upon request at jtexconsult@gmail.com.  In the interest of timeliness, I’ve not spent a lot of time vetting this draft, and it will surely demand corrections.  Please feel free to help with this process.  Disclaimer, I support the staff proposal (described below) which goes through Haile and the market center.  I and all GCC members and transportation advocates spoke against the Pikoson alternative motion, a watered-down Braid that circumvented Haile Plantation.  


Spoiler--the tied vote on the watered-down version means we will have to rally again when Delaney is present to possibly break a tie.  In the meanwhile, we need to keep convincing Comssioner Bradley that he made the right decision voting with Byerly (in effect to consider the original staff proposal which goes through Haile).

    The full County Braid project can be viewed at http://meetingdocs.alachuacounty.us/documents/bocc/agendas/2012-4-24/33cdd97e-34fe-4a88-8a3b-1bcc33e8436b.pdf    The red line running through Haile is the one under question.
    Commissioner Byerly chaired the meeting, with Commissioners Pikoson, Baird, and Bradley present in order of seniority (Bradley is a Governor Scott appointee following the resignation of Commissioner Long--he is not running for election and will exit office in November).  Commissioner Delaney was at the Democratic National Convention.  


Commissioners’ questions about cost, funding, and traffic data for the staff-proposed Braid defined the early portion of the meeting.  It became clear that Pikoson was going to make  a motion that countered the staff proposal as well as the majority public sentiment that has grown in favor of the trail over the last few months.  By the way, this positive reversal in public support came after initial protest based on what Byerly, Haile residents, and others have called a “campaign of disinformation” by Haile Business Owners Association (BOA) and Home Owners Association (HOA).  Notably, of the 9 people who spoke against the staff proposal and for Pikoson’s motion, at least 7 were HOA or BOA Board Members.

By the end of the public discussion prior to the vote, 16 had spoken for the staff proposal (half of them actual Haile Residents, including a Haile developer), 9 against.  By the way, this is a huge turnout for almost any County issue (many more were in the auditorium).  

The context of the discussion was a motion against staff recommendation by Pikoson to merely improve extant facilities on Archer road between 91st St and Tower Road, connecting the Western-most Archer-Gainesville facilities to the other Archer Braid section--a non-controversial North-South Tower Road improvement (as with all the Braid, a segregated asphalt multi-use bike ped lane) that, along with a Tower-connected east-bound 41st Place, would serve area public schools and commuting.  Notably, none of the Commissioners disagreed about the Tower Rd/41st section of the plan, just about whether it should connect with a through-Haile Braid or with a shorter Archer Road section.  

Lee’s argument was a theme throughout the evening.  It in part took the form of an apology for not having listened to the needs of Haile Residents.  He also claimed not to have remembered the 2008 discussion of the Braid with Haile residents and the community (an anti-staff plan speaker and Haile resident later said she did remember the discussion), even though everyone made clear (including Pikoson) that notification protocol had been in full conformity with the law during the whole process.  

So, what were Pikoson (and ultimately Baird) opposed to about the staff proposal that led Lee to counter with a weakened Archer section (where infrastructure already exists as a sidewalk and a footpath)?  

Well, let’s revisit the staff/public plan:  The staff proposed Braid extends North from Archer Road on 91st St to 46th Ave (that intersection adjacent to the bustling and mostly locally-owned shops of the Haile Plantation Village Center) and then East on 46th to Tower Road.  If we include the admittedly private and inadequate Plantation sidewalks (which many of us did not know are technically not for public use, nor is the recreational trail in Haile) in the Northeast quadrant of Haile, the staff-proposed Braid would fill in one of the largest connector-trail “holes” in the Metro Area of the County.  It would connect Archer to Newberry through a development with an estimated 2200 “doors” (or “homes”) and approximately 6000 residents.  It would also provide safe non-automobile throughways for families, children, and residents utilizing two area public schools as well as the Haile Village Center.  

To their credit, which I acknowledged in my remarks, Haile residents have gone out of their way, and did so last night, to state publicly that they welcome outsiders on their “private” recreational and commuter trails/sidewalks, no matter what happens to the Braid.  All but one of the anti-staff plan speakers joined in stating this as well.  On that note, I would add that the most strident supporters for a public-easement multi-use trail were not the non-Haile GCC members, or necessarily even the Haile-resident GCC members.  It was the non-GCC Haile residents who moved there in the first place to take part in the neo-traditionalist “new urbanism” that Haile promised (lots of sidewalks and bike lanes and quiet car-reduced streets).

Pikoson and Baird did not stridently oppose the staff proposal based on the more radical and unfounded HOA/BOA assertions of criminal activity, loss of privacy, loss of aesthetic beauty, and loss of property value (in fact all federal and non-profit studies indicate the opposite will happen).  Their concern was based more on process, lack of information to the community, and opposition by Haile residents.  In the opinion of many, including myself, this was in part a ruse for arousing political sentiments during an election year.  The NIMBY crowd, the anti-government rhetoric of the Tea Party, and, unfortunately, some crass elitism were at play in the anti-staff Braid arguments.  While Pikoson and Baird did not always go this far (Pikoson’s was an almost entirely economic argument, which I will address), it was clear the anti-staff Braid supporters did.  There was talk of “cigarette butts” in parks from more people being there, and of “people being able to see my house on a map” [!].  

Other opposition points were actually detrimental in the end to the anti-staff motion.  Foremost being Baird’s urging that the staff-styled Braid was already in the Comp Plan and part of the proposed ¾ cent transportation sales tax (forthcoming to a public vote), so why do it now.  Supporters of a Haile Braid pointed out that by doing it now with federal funds (Alachua pays out more than it gets in federal taxes) we won’t have to tax ourselves to do it later.  The fact that it is in the Comp Plan, as many noted, suggested that Pikoson and Baird were wrong about it being unnecessary.  How can it be necessary in our Comp Plan, and unnecessary right now?  I can’t speak for Bradley’s logic in changing what he admitted was his initial opposition to the Haile section, but I believe this basic economic benefit (building it now with fed money instead of later with ours) might have been the tilting point.

The best argument against the Braid, at least on the surface, is that Haile did not ask for it, and that perhaps a lot of Haile residents oppose it. Even Byerly (pro-staff plan) admitted that it had “divided a neighborhood.”  That said, Byerly also noted that in twelve years he had never seen such opposition to the addition of amenities in a neighborhood.  This, for me, emphasized the political nature of the opposition to the Braid.  Another Byerly point bearing repeating is that having the Braid brings no loss to its opponents.  Even if only 30% of residents in a neighborhood want the city to build a community pool, for example, why would the 70% who won’t use it oppose it?

For me one of the best moments of the evening was seeing first-time Board Meeting attendees (two of them) speaking in favor of the Braid.  These disappointed Haile residents spoke against their own HOA and BOA (several pro-Haile Braid speakers owned businesses in Haile Village), making it clear to the Commissioners that the HOA did not vet their constituents for opinion, spoke for them instead of on their behalf, and actually misinformed the public about the Braid.  The most egregious example was the placing of alleged trail markers through old and scenic trees, suggesting they would be cut down, even after Byerly and staff explained that was not part of the plan.  “It got people involved,” said one HOA Board Member in defense.  

Indeed, Madame, it did.

In the end, Commissioner Bradley proved to be the pivotal vote in a tie (Bradley and Byerly against, Pikoson and Baird for) on the non-staff plan, leading it to have to be put to a vote again at a future time (if the motion is made again) when Delaney is present.  Bradley challenged both sides that his mind was not entirely made up, meaning, yes, we’ll have to do this all over again.  That is politics.  

The good news is that the original staff plan is still alive, the weak alternative is under withering fire, and transit advocates have gained new (non-GCC, and not necessarily cycling) allies in the form of activated and energized Haile residents.

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James is the Advocacy Director and News Editor for the 1100-member strong Gainesville Cycling Club (www.gccfla.org) and Co-Founder of BikeGainesville.org (www.biikeGainesville.org)