Timber giant Plum Creek’s plans for bringing jobs and housing to Hawthorne took one significant step forward this week.
On Tuesday evening, the city commission unanimously approved the first reading of the company’s request to annex about 1,200 acres of space into the city limits. A final hearing is scheduled on Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m.
“We remain really excited about Hawthorne,” said Tim Jackson, project manager for Plum Creek.
The areas to be annexed into the city from the county are two separate land areas both west of U.S. 301 with one area to the north of State Road 20 and one just south of the road. If the annexation is complete, the city will look at changing the Future Land Use designation from rural to Envision Alachua Hawthorne Mixed Use.