Notes: Alachua 2050 Public Workshop

Bryan Thomas, Planning Director for the City of Alachua, leads the discussion for the Our Alachua 2050 Public Workshop.

TL;DR: If you missed this event and want to request more public workshops or in another format, contact them by email (pre-written form, best used on mobile) or use public comment at a meeting. Here’s a link to an online Alachua 2050 survey. Public concerns and the latest facts (and a question) about data centers in Alachua are at the end of the page.

What is Our Alachua 2050?

From the City of Alachua website:

Evaluation & Appraisal of the City of Alachua Comprehensive Plan

Chapter 163.3191 of the Florida Statutes requires a local government to evaluate its comprehensive plan at least once every seven years. This evaluation is primarily to ensure the comprehensive plan reflects a minimum ten year planning period and to make any amendments that reflect changes in state requirements since the last plan update; however, this evaluation can also include amendments that reflect changes in local conditions. 

Our Alachua: 2050 is the public engagement opportunity of this evaluation and appraisal process. The vision of a city is shaped by its residents, and we greatly appreciate your time and feedback by participating in this process. This webpage will be updated periodically throughout the process, reflecting the timeline of the evaluation and appraisal process and public engagement opportunities.

What is a Comprehensive Plan?
As an email from Commissioner Fletcher sent to residents on May 17, 2026 explains:

A city’s growth,  both where and how it develops,  is controlled through several mechanisms at the State, County, and City levels. City Commissioners, there are specific tools and responsibilities we directly oversee.

Broadly speaking, growth and development are guided through:

Comprehensive Plan - This serves as the long-term vision and policy framework for how the City should grow and develop over time. It establishes goals related to land use, transportation, environmental protection, infrastructure, housing, and economic development.

Land Development Regulations (LDRs) - These are the rules and standards that implement the Comprehensive Plan. LDRs determine what can be built, where it can be built, and under what conditions. This includes zoning, setbacks, buffering, environmental protections, traffic requirements, building standards, and other development regulations.

Vision Statement Under Revision

On April 28, 2026 the City held a joint workshop between the Commission and Planning & Zoning Board that went through the Vision statement and offered feedback to Planning Staff. The takeaway was that the current vision statement must be heavily revised due to it being so detailed, where traditionally a vision statement should be more broad. Here is a link to a video recording of the joint workshop.

Back to the public workshop on May 19th, the City’s Planning Director lead a presentation through an overview of vision statement, state statute changes, and addressed some community concerns.

Here is a link to the full presentation (PDF) the public viewed. A few slides from the presentation about the City’s Vision below followed by a sample of the many notes that were posted by attendees.

Community Feedback and Concerns Heard

• People did not know what to expect going into the meeting and the agenda online did not elaborate. Many expected to speak up and not prepared to fit their big concerns on a small post-it note.

• Someone shared with the audience that a “workshop” implies sitting around and discussing issues. Considering the City has until December 2026 to submit a revised Comprehensive Plan to the State, there is about five months left to gather community feedback but no other public workshops are planned. If you want to encourage the City to hold more public workshops or in another format, contact them by email or use public comment at a meeting.

• I saw a room at capacity filled with people passionate about our community. Thank you and let’s keep it up!

• Data Centers

  • Planning Director confirmed there is not a data center application with the City.

  • There is confusion as to how Senate Bill 180 (2025) and Senate Bill 484 (2026) interact when it comes to data centers. One message is SB 180 keeps local governments from making more restrictive codes until October 1, 2027. A new message that was shared this night is SB 484 exempts data centers from SB 180. What is true? This is something the City Attorney can, and hopefully should, clarify.

  • Residents are nervous that if a data center project were to come, there will be an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and then the public will be unaware of details.

  • Information was shared that because the City does not have a code regulating data centers, it would be “difficult” for a project to come within the city limits. Residents countered that two commissioners brought up assessing the Land Development Regulations to prepare for this but they were outnumbered at the recent Strategy Meeting.

  • Here is an email from County Commissioner Anna Prizzia replying to someone recently about data centers. (BOCC emails are available online for public view.) She writes:
    “There have been no approvals for data centers in our community. On the contrary, we are working on language to restrict and prohibit these resource intensive and extractive facilities in Alachua County. 
    
    The property promoting a data center ready site is in the City of Alachua and they have jurisdiction over development decisions. Given the regional impact of this type of industry we will pay close attention to any activity here and hope that Alachua will also be diligent in protecting our resources.”

• Someone brought up the possibility of a Wal-Mart coming to town. The Planning Director confirmed that is on the agenda for June 8th for a “big box” store. This refers to Farmlands.

Link to online survey for Our Alachua 2050.