OFFICE OF THE CITY COUNCIL

CHERYL L. BROWN 117 WEST DUVAL STREET, SUITE 425

DIRECTOR 4^TH FLOOR, CITY HALL

OFFICE (904) 630-1452 JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32202

FAX (904) 630-2906

E-MAIL: CLBROWN@coj.net

LUZ COMMITTEE WORKSHOP MINUTES

January 22, 2014

4:30 p.m.

City Council Chamber

1^st floor, City Hall

117 West Duval Street

Attendance: Council Members Lori Boyer (Chair), Matt Schellenberg, Robin Lumb, Jim Love, Bill Bishop, Ray Holt, Don Redman (arr. 4:38)

Also: Council Member Doyle Carter (arr. 4:54), Jason Gabriel – Office of General Counsel; Philip Zamarron – Legislative Services Division; Jeff Clements – City Council Research

Chairwoman Boyer called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.

Small scale land use amendment process

Jason Gabriel explained that he has drafted an amendment to the Zoning Code that, in addition to amending the process for land use amendments, also corrects numerous references to Florida Statutes and the state’s new planning review process. The bill also updates fees to the current charged amounts and provides for a mechanism for the City to bill for stand-alone advertising for applications processed outside of the usual batch system. The major procedural changes involve removing the requirement for a pre-application workshop and reducing the notification materials sent to property owners adjacent to a rezoning request to a single page form with basic location information and a reference to a web site with more comprehensive information. In response to a question, Mr. Gabriel indicated that either the Florida Times-Union or the Financial News and Daily Record meet the criteria to be considered a “newspaper of general circulation” for advertisement purposes.

Gary Kresel stated that the bill as currently drafted says that all applicants will pay the full cost of advertising, which he did not understand to be the committee’s intent from its earlier discussions. He will confer with Mr. Gabriel on revised wording to specify that the full-cost advertising recovery will be an option for applicants wishing to bypass the batch processing cycle and pursue a stand-alone change. He also stated that the bill would eliminate the pre-application workshop for both small-scale and large-scale land use changes, a process that will shave 4 weeks off the application process and save hundreds of dollars in staff costs. Mr. Kresel advocated for publishing the required notices in the Financial News as a cost saving measure and concentrating more effort on directing interested citizens to the Planning Department web site for more detailed information. Council Member Holt stated that the pre-application workshop is the first opportunity for the general public to get an idea of what is being proposed, and was troubled that the elimination of this step might work against public information about and access to the process. He suggested creation of an e-mail address database so that interested citizens could sign up to be e-mailed information about rezoning and land use change applications.

Chairwoman Boyer requested the committee members to send any additional ideas or suggestions to Mr. Gabriel for inclusion of a final re-write of the new bill, which will be introduced as an LUZ Committee bill. She said that she will be meeting with the CPAC chairs to discuss the proposed change in the meeting day of the Planning Commission (moving from Thursday to Monday of City Council meeting weeks) and will also ask them about their reaction to the proposed deletion of the pre-application workshop and the changing notice requirements.

There being no further business, the agenda meeting was adjourned at 5:06 p.m.

Jeff Clements, Council Research Division (904) 630-1404

Posted 1.23.13

3:00 p.m.