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