County Commissioners Consider Ditching UF for New Animal Shelter Location
For over a year the County Commission has been working on a lease/sub-lease agreement with the University of Florida (UF) to have an animal shelter on university property.
At last week’s county commission meeting, County Manager Michele Lieberman said the UF Swine Unit is “Option A,” but that “Option B” is to put the animal shelter at the Weisman Tract, a county-owned property off Waldo Rd.
During public comment, county resident Kathleen Ruppert, who’s previously been an advocate against the UF site, thanked the commissioners for their consideration but asked they share their criteria for selecting a new facility.
“We can't help facilitate the location of a new site without knowing the criteria,” said Ruppert, who made a public records request for the new animal shelter location criteria last year and was told “there were no documents containing the criteria for a new site.”
County Manager Michelle Lieberman gave an update on the proposed new animal shelter.
Lieberman said, “The standing direction that is currently out there is for us as staff to work with UF to bring back a negotiated agreement. Where that stands now, we don't have one finalized; we're looking at both a lease and an operational agreement.”
Lieberman went on to say that she’s privately spoken with the commissioners about the option for the Weisman Tract site. She said it hasn’t been discussed publicly because the site isn’t readily available to them, as the property is currently placed under a reverter clause by the State of Florida.
A reverter clause ensures a property is only used for a specific purpose, and in this case the Weisman Tract property can only be used for fairground-related purposes. Lieberman said county staff will meet with the Florida governor's office on September 16 to discuss removing the reverter clause from the property.
Lieberman went on to say, “That is currently staff's intention for an option B, but it's contingent on the cabinet's approval.”
“That reverter has got to come off that property regardless of whether there's an animal shelter there or not,” said Lieberman, emphasizing that the county still wants to work with UF. She said the county and university are close to signing a lease agreement and operational agreement for the proposed shelter at the UF Swine Unit.
Lieberman said UF is “authorized to reduce the lease price from the original $3 million that we have been discussing to $1 million for the lease price for the 40-year term for the entirety of the lease. That being said, we discussed shifting some of that to the operational agreement. Their agreements with other counties and governments, where they staff a vet into a shelter, have a shared portion of that vet cost… So I’m not going to say that’s completely saving $2 million.”
Lieberman said she wants to "put a shovel in the ground," by the beginning of 2026, indicating when she wants to begin construction.
Commissioner Ken Cornell said the new animal shelter is a priority for both the county and UF but that they should be flexible due to changes in leadership at the university and in Tallahassee.
Commissioner Mary Alford said she likes having a deadline to “light a fire under UF a little bit" and that commissioners need to pick option B if negotiations don’t work out in the next two months.
Cornell said, "It's a message to UF that we have a sense of urgency, and we would love to work with you if you also have a sense of urgency. If you do not, we will move on."
Commissioner Anna Prizzia said “If plan A falls through, and plan B falls through, we still have to build a shelter. We have to put a shovel in the ground soon. There is a chance that negotiations could fall through with UF and the Weisman Tract converter gets filled up for another year or two. I don't want that to happen.”
Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler said working with UF could be risky due to state and federal influences.
Despite UF being “option A,” commissioners seemed welcome to the idea of moving the animal shelter away from the university.
County commissioners discuss moving the new animal shelter to a county owned property instead of UF (Alachua County)
Wheeler went on to say that UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini sounded like “he could take it or leave it” when discussing the shelter with her.
Wheeler said that Hosseini told her, “If you have another site, go for it.”
“That’s not what he said to me,” said Commissioners Alford and Cornell.
Wheeler responded, “Well, I was the one who wasn’t excited about being there—I mean, having it there, so that’s probably why he was responding to me that way.”
Commissioners passed a motion to direct staff to look at alternative shelter locations.
