Anthony Johnson has been an outspoken critic on how the comprehensive plan is being utilized for years. Now that the public is starting to take notice of the intricacies surrounding how land is managed by the county, they are discovering how vital a role the comp plan plays. The public has been lead to believe the comp plan is immutable, while at the same time watch developers treat it as a work in progress. It is time for the County Commission to stop hiding behind the comp plan and look the public in the eye. Making decisions based on what the comp plan says rather than listening to the will of the people is something that needs to be addressed. The plan may call for 1,500 apartments at the old Westend site to satisfy the high-density requirement of the future land use element, but is that the best land use for that location?

The County's Comprehensive plan should be something that is watched closely and kept up to date to make sure it doesn't contain any legacy policies. One can use the Gainesville airport as an example of legacy policies in the comp plan. The capital improvements element of the comp plan is written in a way that discourage a developer from building a hotel at the airport and encourage building in the Urban Cluster instead.

When Anthony Johnson presented tangible evidence to the BoCC that pointed out inequities in capital infrastructure spending, he was asked by the board where he got the data for his report. When told the data was obtained from the County Public Records department the board did not have a reply. Anthony is an experienced data analyst, which means he can normalize raw data and view it in advanced ways using relational database tools.

Given the level of water insecurities in the country and the world in general, Alachua County have a lot to be thankful for and should not be afraid to express its gratitude; nor let anyone persuade it to not be gracious for such a blessing.

Alachua County is one of the thirteen counties that make up the unconfined region of the Floridan Aquifer. The lack of confining walls in this section of the aquifer allows water to flow freely. The unconfined region of the aquifer is where all the major springs are located. It is for this reason that Anthony Johnson presented to the board a series of presentations that stressed moving away from a unilateral approach to water quality issues towards a comprehensive one that includes all the counties that share the unconfined region of the aquifer. To date, all county water quality policies have failed to address the need to spearhead a coalition of counties working as a group that can tackle issues like nitrate levels more effectively than trying to go it alone.