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Planning commission backs small-scale land-use change for former Wahoo restaurant site
Summary
Alachua County planning staff and the applicant asked the commission to reclassify a 1.3-acre parcel near I‑75 in the Spring Hills activity center from "tourist entertainment" to "commercial," and the commission recommended approval with the companion rezoning to BR.
Alachua County planning staff recommended and the planning commission recommended approval of a small-scale comprehensive plan amendment and companion rezoning for the former Wahoo restaurant property in the Spring Hills activity center.
Mehdi Bangitar, a planner with the Alachua County Growth Management Department, told the commission the application (parcel 06233002002) seeks to change the future land use designation from "tourist entertainment" to "commercial," which would allow a broader set of retail and service uses in line with the county's activity‑center policy. "This request is related to a small scale comprehensive plan amendment that would change the future land use designation from tourist entertainment to commercial on a parcel," Bangitar said.
Clay Swager, a certified land planner representing the property owner, said the roughly 1.3‑acre site is already developed and lies inside the Spring Hills activity center. "The requests are to change the future land use map from tourist entertainment to commercial, and the companion zoning changes from BH Business Highway to BR Business Retail," Swager said, adding that BR would remove some higher‑intensity uses permitted in BH but would allow the owner's proposed use, a funeral home.
After brief board questions and no party requests, a commissioner moved to approve staff's recommendation for application Z260006; the motion carried on a voice vote and the commission proceeded to consider the companion rezoning (Z26000007), which the body also recommended. Staff noted the application cites policies in the comprehensive plan as the basis for approval and that the rezoning would be used to implement the adopted land‑use designation.
Next steps: the commission's recommendation will be transmitted to the Board of County Commissioners as part of normal county review and chart the available zoning path if the county adopts the comp‑plan amendment.
Speakers quoted in this article are members of the planning staff and the applicant's representative and appear in the commission's public record.
