Six months ago, the employees of R U Hungry parked their food truck in the lot at 1542 W. University Ave. They questioned if their popularity from New Jersey would carry over to Gainesville.
Now, they face a different question.
Where do they go next?
The Midtown parking lot, located across from the University of Florida’s Library West, has been a popular food truck area since 2022. But a proposed housing development threatens to displace the remaining two vendors.
The Portman University Avenue Land Use Change is a new development that would replace the food truck area with an apartment complex. The Gainesville City Commission is set to review the plan twice, in April and May.
As of this week, Whitaker Drilling Inc. told the vendors it is testing the ground of the parking lot, though the trucks can stay until further notice. This comes after both trucks lost access to electricity and water earlier this month.
Ricardo Mata, manager of R U Hungry’s food truck, has been in the business for 15 years. He said the situation feels like a repeat of their displacement in New Jersey. They were forced to relocate after the parking lot they had occupied for over a decade in New Brunswick was turned into a student apartment complex.
“I’m a little bit upset because we just got here,” Mata said. “Now that we got here, they want to develop something here.”
The city plan board heard the proposal on Feb. 26 and approved two motions of land use change and rezoning.
Gerry Dedenbach, the applicant of the proposal and executive vice president of NV5 Inc., said the complex will have 96 affordable housing units. Of the 240 total units, at least 10% must be affordable housing units and 30% workforce housing units, under city regulations for planned developments. The board recommended that both affordable and workforce units be 20%, and the rates be kept indefinitely instead of for the planned 30 years.
Affordable housing units are reserved for people earning up to 80% of the area median income for the Gainesville metropolitan area. Workforce housing units will be for those earning up to 120% of the area median income. These units will be identical to the market-rate apartments and will include equal access to all amenities.
“Our idea is to have a project that is sustainable, resilient, and it relies on feet, bikes, scooters,” Dedenbach said during the February meeting.
The proposed complex will have 13 parking spaces and a maximum of 14 stories. The goal is to have an active pedestrian-friendly space and entice more residents to support the existing businesses, Dedenbach said.
“We need to have depth to our city,” he said. “And bringing more people to our core is the key to that.”
Nathaniel Chan, a planner for Gainesville’s Department of Sustainable Development, said the request would increase residential density. The development includes placing an RTS bus shelter where the existing stop is, along with plans to encourage more walking and biking.
“They are providing sidewalks and associated landscaping on all sides of the property to facilitate pedestrian activity,” Chan said at the meeting.
Former city commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos expressed support for the project. He is a member of Gainesville Is for People, a group of volunteer housing advocates.
“This development breaks quite a few barriers,” Hayes-Santos said. “It’ll be the lowest carbon footprint building in the city on a per-person basis.”
The building is set to have 750 bedrooms, and supporters say it is designed to curb urban sprawl and encourage walkability. Hayes-Santos said that the development would provide low-cost housing.
“This helps address our housing shortage in our community,” he said.
But not everyone is convinced.
Natasha Rattray, a business management student at the University of Florida, argued that the project doesn’t solve the core issue.
“More housing does not cure the housing crisis, affordable housing does,” Rattray said to the board. “And 96 units of affordable housing are not going to solve Gainesville’s housing problem.”
Rattray founded Pack, an organization aimed at advocating community-driven change to benefit local businesses. She said small businesses, like the food trucks, should be allowed to grow instead of being replaced by corporations.
“These are people’s livelihoods, they’re entrepreneurs,” she said. “Why should they move?”
Charles Morris shares that concern. His wife, Mayra Cuao, owns Bowls Delicious Food, the other truck that remained in the lot until earlier this week. They came to the area around three months ago and are now waiting to see what happens with the proposal.
“Once they start here, we have to be gone, and we may leave anyway,” Morris said.
After the arrival of Whitaker Drilling Inc. in the lot, Bowls Delicious Food moved to the side of UF’s Baptist Collegiate Ministries. Cuao said they are focused on advertising their new location and making sure they keep their customers.
“Hopefully, we’ll get some followers that like the food and still show up,” Morris said. “Wherever we’re at.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
