Help the residents and property owners of Lake City and surrounding areas, formally register our strong opposition to the proposed commercial expansion into residential designations on US 90 and NW Hackney Ter.  We urge our elected officals to reject this application, and stop commercial land use from expanding into our established residential neighborhood.

Our opposition is based on the following critical impacts to our community:

1. Incompatibility with Existing Neighborhood Character

The property in question directly interfaces with established residential homes. Expanding the commercial designation would allow high-density business footprints, overnight commercial lighting, noise pollution, and increased operating hours. This creates a severe nuisance that disrupts the quiet enjoyment of our homes and fundamentally alters the character of our residential community. The developer is trying to use their existing commercial frontage as justification to push commercial activity into our residential interior. This is a blatant violation of neighborhood compatibility.

2. Traffic Safety and Infrastructure Strains

The local roadway infrastructure serving NW Hackney Ter is not designed to handle the high-volume traffic generated by commercial developments. As a dead end street it is functionally incapable of safety absorbing commercial traffic.  Adding commercial ingress and egress points at this location will create severe traffic bottlenecks, a hazard for emergency services, increase the risk of vehicular accidents, and compromise pedestrian safety for the families and children living in the immediate area. Additionally U.S. 90 already suffers from bottlenecks and traffic backups which will be exasperated from WaWa to Publix and beyond. Furthermore the traffic changes will result in 4 stop lights down U.S. 90 within a half mile radius.

3. Non-Compliance with the Comprehensive Plan

The Lake City Land Development Regulations require zoning amendments to be consistent with the goals of the local Comprehensive Plan. This proposal creates an aggressive commercial development into a designated residential sector, failing to provide the mandatory transitions and buffers needed to protect established neighborhoods.

4. Environmental and Buffer Concerns

The proposed commercial footprint poses an immediate threat to local environmental features. Specifically, we are concerned about stormwater runoff, the proposed commercial use will inevitability increase impervious surfaces (pavement, roofs) which will prevent natural filtration and cause toxic storm water runoff into jurisdictional waters. The proposed implementation of gravity sewers along NW Hackney are not something our local infrastructure can support.

 Additionally, this will have a devastating impact on the jurisdictional wetlands on/near the property. The wetlands on the property are home to the threatened Gopher Tortoise and other wildlife and flora. This will destroy natural flood boundaries and threaten our local karst topography, increasing the risk for sinkholes and degradation of our water quality. The applicant has not demonstrated adequate safeguards to prevent localized flooding or ecological disruption and this directly violates Columbia County's Comprehensive Plan for protecting Enviromentally Sensitive areas.

I urge you to join us in opposing this proposal. Together, we have the power to protect our environment, maintain our neighborhood’s character, and work towards a sustainable future. Please sign this petition to voice your support and help preserve the essence of our beloved community.