OFFICE OF
THE CITY COUNCIL
CHERYL
L. BROWN 117 WEST
DUVAL STREET,
SUITE 425
DIRECTOR
4TH FLOOR, CITY HALL
OFFICE (904) 630-1452 JACKSONVILLE,
FLORIDA 32202
FAX (904) 630-2906
E-MAIL: CLBROWN@coj.net
CITY
COUNCIL WORKSHOP MINUTES – DOWNTOWN CRAs
AND
DIA DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT PLAN
October 14, 2014
12:30
p.m.
Location:
City Council Chamber, City Hall – St. James Building; 117 West Duval Street,
In attendance:
Council Members Clay
Yarborough (President), Bill
Bishop, Lori Boyer, John Crescimbeni, Bill Gulliford, Ray Holt, Stephen Joost, Jim
Love, Don Redman
Excused: Council
Members Greg Anderson, Reggie Brown, Kimberly Daniels, Warren Jones, Robin
Lumb, Matt Schellenberg
Also: Kirk Sherman, Kyle Billy and Heather Reber – Council
Auditor’s Office; Dana Farris, Carol Owens and Philip Zamarron – Legislative
Services Division; Steve Cassada– Council Staff Services; Jeff Clements –
Council Research Division; Aundra Wallace, Melody Bishop, Oliver Barakat, Tony Allegretti, Doris
Goldstein, Jack Meeks and Jim Bailey – Downtown Investment Authority; Paul
Crawford – Office of Economic Development; Kerri Stewart
Meeting Convened:
12:39 p.m.
Council President Yarborough convened the meeting with a
quorum present and called on Aundra Wallace, CEO of the Downtown Investment
Authority (DIA) to make a presentation on the DIA’s downtown business
investment and development plan.
Mr. Wallace briefly reviewed the DIA’s powers and duties
both as the City’s official Community Redevelopment Agency for the downtown
CRAs and also as the downtown area’s public development promoter and manager.
He stated the downtown CRA redevelopment plans have not been updated since
originally adopted in the early 1980s, so are long overdue for revision. A
consultant has been hired to assist in the process and a tremendous amount of
public input has been gathered over the course of more than 40 meetings. He
briefly reviewed the downtown area’s assets (central location; sports, arts and
entertainment hub for the city; historic buildings; easy accessibility; the St.
Johns River; and others) and noted a growing sense of enthusiasm and excitement
about downtown redevelopment. A market study of downtown conditions made 4
major findings: more mixed income and workforce housing is needed; improve
connections to the river; make downtown more attractive by making it clean and
safe; and leverage more private investment.
Susan Grandin of the General Counsel’s Office gave an
overview of Community Redevelopment Areas (CRAs) and the tax increment
districts that can be created to support them. The City’s three downtown CRAs
(since consolidated into two – one on the Northbank,
the other on the Southbank) were created in the early 1980s and tax increment
accounts were created for each to segregate the revenues for use for approved
CRA purposes in accordance with the redevelopment plans. CRA plans must conform
to the provisions of a jurisdiction’s Comprehensive Plan. The DIA proposes that
Jacksonville’s new Business Investment Plan supersede the previously-adopted
Downtown Master Plan. The DIA would be delegated a substantial amount of
decision-making power for downtown activities, although the City Council would
still retain authority over rezonings, issuance of
bonds, and closing of public streets. Ms. Grandin noted that the tax increment
district for the Southbank CRA breaks even with its current revenue meeting
programmed uses, but the Northbank TID consistently
fails to produce sufficient revenue to meet its programmed uses and is
therefore subsidized by the General Fund in the annual budget.
In response to a question about priorities, Mr. Wallace
indicated that the DIA’s initial priorities for using the $4 million the
Council has allocated for downtown projects are: Hemming Plaza improvements,
bike rack and streetscape improvements, façade improvements, and conversion of
several streets from one-way to two-way traffic to enhance the success of
retail storefronts. The DIA’s optimistic timetable for City Council action on
pending ordinance 2014-560 is to have the bill heard in the Finance and RCDPHS
Committees on October 21st, November 5th and November 18th
and to have Council take final action on November 25th.
In response to a question from Council Member Crescimbeni
about how the removal of the Independent Drive access ramps to the Main Street
Bridge meshes with the emphasis on increased walkability, Mr. Wallace indicated
that a pedestrian access ramp is planned to maintain accessibility to the
bridge if and when the road ramp is removed to allow redevelopment of the area
surrounding the Jacksonville Landing. In response to a question from Council
Member Bishop about the seemingly high estimated cost of converting one-way
streets to two-way, Mr. Wallace indicated that a large portion of the cost is
for substantially rebuilding the streets and not simply for reversing signs and
traffic signals and restriping. In
response to a question about the contents of the downtown project listing, DIA
board member Melody Bishop stated that all potential future CRA projects must
be included in the project list, regardless of when they might eventually be
done. Adding new projects to the CRA project list is a difficult process and
should be avoided if possible by listing all potential projects at the
beginning.
Council Member Boyer noted that the DIA fulfills two related
but separate roles for the City – as the official CRA agency overseeing the CRA
plans and the TIF districts, and also as the downtown redevelopment agency
performing functions separate from the CRAs and using funding sources other
than the TIFs. Council Member Love suggested adding additional evaluation
metrics to those proposed by the DIA, including crime data, surveys of downtown
resident, worker and visitor impressions, “then and now” photographs of
improvements, increase in hotel rooms, and the development of an easily
accessible “data dashboard” showing all downtown-related metrics. Council
Member Redman suggested that the DIA consider ways to capitalize on the large
number of people who attend church services downtown every Sunday by offering
family-friendly activities to encourage them to stay and enjoy downtown after
services. Council Member Boyer suggested the need to clarify the definition of
what it means for the DIA to manage City-owned properties downtown. Is that
intended to apply only to vacant land? To vacant City-owned
buildings? To occupied City buildings with some vacant space that could
be put to other use?
Meeting adjourned:
1:34 p.m.
Minutes: Jeff Clements, Council Research
10.16.14 Posted 5:30 p.m.
Tapes: Special City Council
meeting on the DIA and downtown CRAs – LSD
10.14.14