Area Plan

The City’s Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 2002, calls for the redevelopment of designated areas within the City, particularly the urban core.  According to the plan, a primary goal of redevelopment is to promote quality of life, transportation choice, a healthy economy, and discourage sprawl.  In 1994 and 1995, The College Park/University Heights (CPUH) Community Redevelopment Area was found to be a blighted area appropriate for redevelopment and a plan for redevelopment was adopted.  The CPUH Community Redevelopment Area is now a rapidly redeveloping area just north and east of the University of Florida Campus near Gainesville’s Downtown Redevelopment Area.  In 2004, the City decided to update the CPUH Redevelopment Plan, (which was last updated in 1995) including, if appropriate, the proposed expanded area.

Much of the Redevelopment Area was developed as a direct result of the establishment of the University in 1906.  Many of the surrounding neighborhoods such as University Terrace, University Heights, College Park, Audubon Heights and others were built to provide faculty and staff housing.  Several of these neighborhoods also provide a rich architectural heritage within the Community Redevelopment Area.   

As growth pressures in the western fringes of the City developed, student demand for housing in both the existing CPUH Community Redevelopment Area and the Expansion Area provided some relief for housing demand. However, this change also created a higher demand for parking on neighborhood streets and increased traffic congestion.

The Expansion Area includes a light industrial area between SW 6th Street and South Main Street and south of Depot Avenue that has been in decline for many years. This area was included as part of the Expansion Area for a variety of reasons, including its potential (and the entire expansion area) for redevelopment and conversion to a technology research hub.  By including this area within the Community Redevelopment Area, along with the residential area situated immediately south of the existing CPUH Community Redevelopment Area, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will be able to help remove the blighting conditions present in the area.

Although there are several thriving industrial uses and several apartment complexes in the Expansion area, many of the residential and most of the industrial buildings in the Expansion Area have been rendered functionally obsolete by outdated building density patterns.  Additionally, some of the older multifamily rental properties and single-family homes converted to rental property are unkempt and in a state of neglect.  Functional deterioration, and to a lesser degree, physical deterioration, has taken place through the constraints of site, structure placement, points of ingress and egress, and insufficient parking capacity to handle peak periods.  Faulty and outdated lot layouts and building density patterns contribute to overall site deterioration, infrastructure deficiencies, poor traffic circulation, and higher incidences of crime and code violations.  Collectively and individually, these conditions represent a “substantial number of deteriorated or deteriorating structures”, which in turn lead “to economic distress or endanger life or property”.

Download Area Plan (PDF)

FY2009 Area Budget (10/1/08 - 9/30/09)