The Gainesville Plan Board said the road network around the Robbinswood neighborhood has failed to work for residents, but in a quasi-judicial hearing and with professional staff giving a green light, the plan board voted 4-1 Thursday to approve a special use permit for a 109-unit hotel in the area—prompting more traffic concerns from residents. 

Later in the meeting, the plan board also approved plans to expand an O’Reilly Auto Parts store and changed zoning near the Gainesville Regional Airport to allow another business expansion. 

The planned hotel, a Home2Suites, will be located at approximately 3802 SW 37th St, just inside a cul-de-sac neighborhood with only one road entrance—SW 37th Boulevard — that immediately dumps into Archer Road and, residents testified, often backs up from drivers trying to turn left.  

Board members acknowledged the difficulty driving through the area during site visits.  

“All I can say is, have some hope; maybe something will happen,” Plan Board Chair Robert Ackerman said after the vote. 

The hotel site has single-family homes and vacant parcels located to the south and Regions Bank, Campus Outfitters and Chipotle directly to the north. The area is already zoned mixed-use, allowing a hotel through a special use permit. The zoning would also allow commercial uses like an office park, restaurant or shop. 

Onelia Lazzari, a senior planner with eda consultants, noted that any other commercial use besides a hotel could pass through the planning stages without a special use permit. She added that some of those businesses, like the office park, would generate more car trips than a hotel, according to the engineering standard.  

Lazzari said the developer and planners had arranged the hotel layout so traffic only flowed onto SW 38th Street and not other roads in the neighborhood.  

The hotel will also add buffers along the perimeters with neighboring homes along with a six-foot fence.  

However, Board member Bobby Mermer said the developer has asked for a hotel that needs a special use permit. Under the conditions for a special use permit, the board must find that the development will not impact health, safety or welfare. The section includes ingress and egress. 

“The surrounding properties, I think specifically, this will adversely affect the safe and convenient automobile and bicycle mobility,” Mermer said. 

Mermer proposed a motion to deny the request for a special use permit because he said it failed to meet the above qualifications. No one seconded the motion, causing it to fail.  

While residents and plan board members acknowledged traffic issues and tried to think up solutions at the meeting, the professional city staff that reviewed the hotel plans said it had no issues with the hotel proposal.  

Forrest Eddleton, director of the department of sustainable development, said the planning department coordinates with public works engineers to review impacts to surrounding roads and mitigation planned by the development.  

He noted that the development will include sidewalks that connect to the larger city network. Someone could park at the hotel and walk less than 400 feet to Chipotle, Relish Burger or the other businesses that front Archer Road, or even cross the highway into Butler Plaza.  

“I will attest that our planning department believes that not only does this not inhibit the public health, safety and welfare, but that it does meet the criteria,” Eddleton said. 

He added that the public works staff, who analyze road and traffic impacts, also approved it. 

In the meeting, the board members also discussed that residents could drive through business parking lots to reach Archer Road, instead of risking a crowded red light at SW 37th Boulevard. While increasing connectivity, members said it wasn’t ideal. 

Board member Jason Sanchez said early in the meeting that the city can’t brush off the traffic issue, noting that it doesn’t seem an ideal location for a hotel. He said he couldn’t see himself voting in favor unless the traffic was addressed.  

“This is a real tough one because I think, by what we are bound to do, it’s hard to deny it,” Sanchez said later on. “And yet, I think the city is really letting this neighborhood down quite a bit and has let them down for, frankly, maybe since they annexed it by not building a really obvious secondary access.” 

He added that now is the best time for residents, as they did at Thursday’s meeting, to pressure the city into building a second access point and relieving congestion.   

Sanchez asked Eddleton what sort of requirements the City Plan Board can place on staff. Eddleton responded that now is the time for the board members to weigh in on issues like access points and other aspects that will impact the surrounding area. He also reiterated that staffs’ assessment shows no impacts that need addressed.  

Sanchez made the motion to approve the special use permit with the condition that the city creates a second access point for the neighborhood.  

However, how binding such a condition is from the plan board is unclear. 

Mermer spoke up to say the plan board could not put conditions on the city. Sanchez said he understood Eddleton’s response as give it a shot. 

The motion passed with Mermer in dissent. The item will next appear before the Gainesville City Commission. 

O’Reilly Auto Parts 

The O’Reilly Auto Parts store off NW 39^th Avenue, just west of Main Street, wants to expand and submitted a proposal to add a 12,000-square-foot addition to the building to store materials. 

Because the business is within the Murphree Wellfield Protection Zone, where Gainesville pumps millions of gallons of drinking water each day, development requires an additional step. The special use permit requires the business to meet criteria that protect against hazardous materials that could endanger the water supply.  

O’Reilly has already been on-site and meets the requirements. The city’s requirements for screening from surrounding residences, lighting and hours of operation would also stay the same. 

The plan board approved the changes unanimously. 

Hill Mini Storage 

Hill Mini Storage purchased a vacant city parcel directly north of its current facility near the corner of NE 39th Avenue and Waldo Road. The business wants to expand the storage facility north onto the parcel.  

The zoning and land use designations already the corridor would shift north by one parcel. The land is currently zoned airport facilities and would change to light industrial; the land use would change from public facilities to industrial. 

The plan board approved the changes unanimously.