GAINESVILLE – The City of Gainesville will hold a public hearing regarding changes to the city’s Unified Land Development Code (ULDC), including an amendment in the ULDC regulating what is referred to as “Extended Stay Lodging Services”.
The public hearing will take place during the voting session of the Gainesville City Council, Tuesday, December 17, at the Gainesville Public Safety Complex beginning at 5:30 p.m.
That proposed amendment (released last month at a Gainesville Planning and Appeals Board meeting) has been revised from its initial form after city leaders took comment from community members and those directly involved with the circumstances and people requiring extended stay lodging services.
Gainesville Community and Economic Development Deputy Director Matt Tate said at Thursday morning’s city council work session, “The public hearing did what it needed to do, that was to bring out public input. I was happy to hear folks participate.”
Tate continued, “It was a lot of good information that we hope that we addressed in this latest ordinance amendment.”
Tate said the amendment is intended solely to provide structure for regulating extended stay situations and assure the well-being of all involved. “It is by no means our desire to criminalize, or put anyone out on the street, but to provide some clear requirements for hotel owners and managers in terms of how to operate and to provide for safer places for people to stay.”
City Manager Bryan Lackey said the 30-day stay limitation in the proposed ordinance, the biggest source of concern expressed by the public and the agencies dealing with homeless concerns, isn’t new to the ordinance. “That 30-day requirement caught us off-guard a little bit because that wasn’t a change…that requirement has been in place since 2005. It’s been in place for fourteen years.”
Lackey continued, “We can honestly say that has not been our focus for the last fourteen years, dealing with that thirty day requirement, and we don’t plan for that to be our focus going forward. It’s not an attempt to roust people from wherever they’re staying.”
Lackey said he hopes four primary things can be established in an amended ordinance:
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To require older, existing hotels never designed for extended stay clients, that have already adjusted their business model to accept long term clients, to start upgrading rooms and facilities to better meet extended stay needs.Lackey said, “To address those conversions; to make them safe…sometimes you get into health issues...we want those people that are in those rooms to be safe; we want people that are living around them in those facilities to be safe.”
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Provide a means for existing hotels contemplating room conversions for extended stay purposes to have an avenue for doing so properly.
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Set standards for future construction of extended stay facilities.
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Establish public safety controls as to those residing at extended stay facilities.“Who is responsible for renting a room is a public safety aspect,” Lackey said.
Tate said it is possible that exemptions to the requirements of the amended ordinance might be necessary. “We heard very clearly from the folks at the Planning and Appeals Board meeting that there needed to be some exceptions for this.”
“Contract employees, someone who is here working for a (long) period of time, we understand that that does occur…as well as anyone that is visiting a loved one that’s in the hospital and they need to be here for several months…or if there was a natural disaster or fire or flood and a family needed to be in an extended stay, that would be fine,” Tate delineated.
“We’re not necessarily looking to shut anyone down,” Tate repeated.
(Click here to see revised version of ordinance amendment.)
