Nora O’Neill
Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY NETWORK
Local organizations and community
members are urging the Alachua County
Commission to prevent the expansion
of a landfill they say is threatening
public health in a southeast Gainesville
neighborhood.
The landfill, owned by Southeast
Landholdings Inc., is over 48 acres and
lies across the street from historic
Boulware Springs City Park and the
Alachua County Sweetwater Preserve.
Residents of the neighborhood have
expressed their concerns at recent
county meetings, saying the smell is
awful and that dust and debris cover
their yards and homes. Now, the landfill
may be on track to expand from 35
feet tall to 70 feet.
“The residents of Southeast Gainesville
have been subjected to the noise,
dust, and pollution from this landfill for
more than 50 years,” a press release
from Sierra Club reads. “This is an environmental
injustice that our community
must make right.”
Southeast Landholdings Inc. had a
Special Use Permit (SUP) that expired
at the end of January. Since then, the
company has filed for a legislative extension
of the permit that would allow
it to double the landfill in size as well as
circumvent any public hearing process
before the county.
Seven local groups — Sierra Club Suwannee-
St Johns Group, Alachua
County NAACP, Saint Peter Saint Paul
Community Council, M.A.M.A. Club,
Alachua County Labor Coalition, North
Central Florida Indivisible and Florida
For All — sent a letter to the county Feb.
9 urging commissioners not to honor
the extension of the permit.
“To protect the health and safety of
Southeast Gainesville residents, and to
preserve water quality throughout Alachua
County, we respectfully ask that
you not honor the Legislative Extension
of the Special Use Permit for the
Florence C&D Landfill and enforce a
closure plan in 2024,” the letter reads.
Members of the neighborhood gathered
outside a county building in January
to demand the commission take action
against the landfill. Doing so, they
said, would be important to a predominantly
Black, low-income neighborhood.
“I have a dump less than 1,000 feet
from my front door. The man on the
northwest side has a plaza with a Publix,
McDonald’s, and an Anytime Fitness
Center,” said resident Johnell Gainey.
“I don’t want to trade places with
him. All I want to do is, when I go out my
front door, to see a community that has
value, a community that’s an asset to
the city, a community I can be proud of.
Can that be a reality? Or is it just another
dream?”
Respect Southeast Gainesville 