The Gainesville City Commission voted to retake ownership of a downtown lot and still allow a developer to construct a 115-unit, multistory residential building to replace the current surface parking lot.
The City Commission also agreed to give vacant parcels in the Heartwood neighborhood to a nonprofit for 16 future homes.
Lot 10 has been a parking lot in downtown Gainesville for more than 50 years. At the Thursday meeting, Mayor Harvey Ward showed a photo of the lot from 1972, and for at least the last decade, Gainesville has tried to sell the land for development…