Gainesville Planning & Zoning

They’re professional and courteous. The department was reorganized recently and is under new leadership. They provide clear documentation and have transferred to a primarily digital system. Planning and zoning makes it easy for people to understand their properties, and they’re really helpful to new businesses who have questions.

Three opinions. First, the renaming of the Department of Planning to the Department of Doing could not be more laughable. Every time I try to explain the name to other Gainesvilleans (they aren’t just planning, they are DOING), the reaction is uniformly “you’ve got to be kidding”. Second, the recently attempted end run around zoning for the benefit of developers, deceptively represented as being about affordable housing, has caused great distrust and division in the community. Third, the handling of the demolition permit for St. Michaels, as covered by the Gainesville Sun, creates the impression that developers interests were again inappropriately prioritized. I would hope that the Department of Doing will soon learn the difference between being an agent of change and an agent of destruction.