Plans are moving ahead at Florida Gulf Coast University to try to find affordable housing solutions for its faculty and staff. F-G-C-U has about 800 fulltime workers and as the region’s cost of living has zoomed up, the university has had a tougher time dealing with the housing issue for its faculty and staff. F-G-C-U President Bill Merwin says he’s still very interested in an idea to build on-campus apartments and homes for employees. He envisions it as a faculty and staff village.

“With bike paths and walking paths from their homes right up to the university which would cut down on the need for parking; cut down on the need for congestion and fuel consumption and energy costs and all of those kind of things.”

Merwin spoke on Gulf Coast Live. He says the biggest obstacle is a donation of land from surrounding neighbors. Merwin says he has two FGCU staffers working on the issue on a weekly basis.