Tuesday is the last day to cast annexation ballots

Tuesday is the last day for voters in an area proposed for annexation to cast their ballots either for or against joining the city.

It may seem like an easy question, but registered voters in a 2,000-acre area of east Gainesville have encountered strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell opposes annexation because of the potential for it to reduce her agency's funding. The Alachua County Fire Rescue came out against the annexation as well.

Meanwhile, the Gainesville City Commission expressly supports the annexation as a way for the city to continue to expand services to residents and grow.

Airboat curfew: If the County Commission adopts the much-debated airboat curfew ordinance, Sheriff Sadie Darnell says her office will enforce it, but it will not be one of its priorities.

Commissioner Mike Byerly requested that Darnell personally clarify her stance on the proposed ordinance after many curfew opponents argued in e-mails to the county and during the commission's Oct. 27 meeting that the Sheriff's Office had gone on record saying they did not have resources to enforce the curfew. In a February 2008 memo, the commander of the department's Marine Operations unit wrote a curfew was "not practical to enforce, as we do not have the staffing."

In her e-mail to county commissioners, Darnell wrote she "will enforce the law" if the curfew passes, but "the enforcement would be low priority as is the case with most noise violations." If the County Commission wants a higher level of enforcement, Darnell wrote her office would need more money for additional overtime and the purchase of an airboat of its own to enforce the curfew.

The County Commission is scheduled to vote on the curfew, which would ban airboats on all bodies of water from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., at its meeting Nov. 24.

Plaza expansion:The Towne Centre at Butler Plaza - a proposed 1.5 million-square-foot expansion of the existing Butler Plaza - will be considered by the City Commission at a special meeting on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

Citizens on Thursday asked commissioners not to sandwich consideration of such a "massive project" between Christmas and Thanksgiving when citizens weren't paying much attention.

Rob Brinkman, director of the Alachua County Sierra Club, asked for more time.

"What is the hurry? This is a Development of Regional Impact," Brinkman said. "I understand that the state legislature has made that process go away for us ... but that process would have resulted in a much longer time frame of review."

Without the DRI process, which was eliminated in Senate Bill 360, the development's proposed changes to Gainesville's comprehensive plan will be considered by the commission and, if approved, transferred to the Florida Department of Community Affairs for comment and consideration.