Screenshot of the San Marco Neighborhood Action Plan 2016
Published on May 2, 2024 at 6:21 pm
Despite unanimously approving an overlay that prohibits construction of self-storage facilities in Jacksonville’s “Downtown,” an area that includes the Southbank, City Council members last week voted 11-to-8 to make a significant exception to their own rule.
Like any good parent — do as I say, not as I do.
City council’s majority not only made an exception to its own rule, it did so despite considerable neighborhood opposition and despite objections voiced by the neighborhood’s city council representative, Joe Carlucci.
This kind of city council majority action can drive folks, if not to a deeply cynical view about local government, then certainly to feeling that citizen engagement in local public affairs is futile. So much for “government closest to the people” being best.
No one listens, so why bother?
Overriding the overlay
Southbank and San Marco residents, citizens, and voters lost a multi-year, well-fought effort to maintain the character of their neighborhood — one that was basically codified in the 2019 overlay — only because the developer included four floors of affordable housing in the project.
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It’s not cynical to argue that without the affordable housing component, the proposed storage facility most likely would have failed. It already had.
City council members admitted as much, arguing that the affordable housing inclusion tipped the scales in favor of the developer, allowing members to justify their votes to override the overlay. And they’re right: Jacksonville is suffering from a lack of housing working folks can afford.
Do not be fooled. The development’s primary purpose remains self-storage, or else this development would be an affordable housing project without self-storage.
But its design — yet to be approved — will need to be keeping with the neighborhood plan. That’s where some hope remains.
Never give up
Once we elect folks to public office, we cannot leave them on their own. Our representatives make better decisions when their discretion is informed by the many they are elected to represent, and not the few who benefit financially from the decisions they make.
Never let them forget that we elected them to always put the public good over private gain. Elected folks all too often confuse the two, holding that it’s their job to subsidize private development with public dollars because the public benefits in some way, if only temporarily and indirectly. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
While the city council majority may have neutered Downtown’s overlay and defied the considered opinion of engaged citizenry, the majority only garnered 11 votes. Two additional “no” votes would have killed the deal. The public engagement on this issue by San Marco residents over several years is admirable and something of a victory. We should take heart and not despair.
So . . . take a collective deep breath, continue to organize, write and call and email city council members, show up for their meetings, and weigh in on this development as it unfolds.
Citizen engagement matters. Never doubt it.
Don’t stop believing.
Sources:
- https://cityclts.coj.net/docs/2018-0684/Original%20Text/2018-684%20EXHIBIT%201.pdf
- https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2024/04/24/san-marco-residents-fighting-against-storage-unit-say-enough-is-enough-after-vote-passes/
- https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/apr/16/luz-committee-endorses-rezoning-for-lofts-at-southbank/
Corrected: This column was corrected on May 3 to reflect that the approved storage development will be located on the Southbank, not in San Marco, as previously stated. The Downtown overlay zone’s boundaries do not include San Marco proper, which is south of I-95.
This column appears in partnership with the JaxLookout.
