During a recent City Council Finance Committee budget hearing, members voted to delay approving $90 million for three Northbank riverfront public parks — including Metropolitan Park, Shipyards West and the currently under-construction park at the former Landing site — pending more information and a thorough vetting scheduled for Sept. 4.

Frustrated with what he called “rising costs,” committee Chair Ron Salem requested the Downtown Investment Authority, Parks Department, and Public Works Department, all of which bear some responsibility for the three public spaces, plus “any engineers or architects that have been involved in design and cost estimates,” to make presentations that include for each park “the scope of work,” “cost estimates,” “anticipated completion dates,” a “complete listing of all architecture and engineering costs,” and identification of those “authorized to increase [each] project scope.”

Do tell!

Hope springs

One hopes committee members come prepared to stay awhile, and rise above the mind-numbing complications about which they will hear. Indeed, one hopes members prioritize city funding to develop and maintain world-class riverfront public parks, recognized as parks and not commercial zones with a little grass thrown in, with the Parks Department and not DIA in charge.

When it comes to the former Landing site specifically, the committee has an opportunity to dismantle what is a paralyzing decision-making apparatus, hear from exceptionally knowledgeable citizens, and expedite completion of what should and can be the pride of historic Downtown Jacksonville: an iconic public central park along the St. Johns River.

The park at the former Landing site

Thus far, the park at the former Landing site shows prior year expenditures of $27.25 million, with scheduled expenditures of $6 million (FY ’24-25), $10 million (FY ’25-26), and $25 million (FY ’26-27), for a total cost of $68.25 million. The finance committee approved the $6 million, thankfully allowing current construction to continue, but wishes detailed explanation on the remaining $35 million.

Fair enough.

The 2-phased approach

To remind us, this park is being built in two phases, with Phase 1 including a community services building/cafe and a children’s playground. It’s currently under construction and scheduled to open in late 2025.

Phase 2 should begin thereafter, with a best-guess opening date of 2028. Spanning from the middle of the former Landing property to the Main Street Bridge, this phase is designed to include a water feature, civic stairs, a beer garden, and a pedestrian and bicycle ramp to the Main Street Bridge.

Sounds straightforward and lovely, but the scope and completion dates for the park’s eastern half are unnecessarily complicated and fluid, involving not only the Parks Department, but DIA and Public Works as well.

No doubt too many cooks in the kitchen, and a city asking too much of a 7+ acre flood zone.

The northeast corner catch-22

Why is Phase 2 so complicated?

Simply put, the property’s northeast corner is designated as a commercial development pad, the disposition of which DIA controls.

And there’s the rub.

DIA approved the currently defunct American Lions high-rise residential building, a design that included a multilevel garage that partially served as the pedestrian and bike ramp to the Main Street Bridge, as well as a back wall to the park’s beer garden.

This missing must-have physical support structure creates an engineering design problem for the park that must be solved. How, indeed, will bikers, runners, and walkers access the Main Street Bridge without the multilevel garage?

As if that complication isn’t enough, recently discovered electrical ducts and sewer lines lying underneath the former Landing buildings have added new complications. We’re told they must be moved in order to build the park’s beer garden.

There’s also a tertiary headache: DIA approved a “water’s edge restaurant” on a second development pad, the initial cost of which finance committee member Raul Arias flagged. Why not, he said, skip the restaurant, which he doesn’t think can be built for $1.5 million as budgeted, and make room for food trucks instead?

Why not indeed?

Reframe the problem

The finance committee has an enormous opportunity to simplify the former Landing site park’s problems, maybe save some public money, and expedite completing the entire park in one phase, not two.

It’s so very obvious:

—Designate the entire 7+ acres as a public park, in effect removing DIA and any commercial development from the property and, in turn, simplify decision making by putting the property under the Parks Department purview;

—Instruct Parks, not DIA, to recommission the park’s design firm, Perkins & Will, to tweak the park’s eastern half, proposing what’s feasible while leaving the electrical duct and sewer lines in place;

—Appoint a citizen-led task force, to include Riverfront Parks Now, Late Bloomers, and historic Downtown advocates, to assist Perkins & Will in getting this right, once and for all.

Can’t wait

If you love maddeningly difficult puzzles, and listening to complicated explanations, the Finance Committee will hear about our riverfront parks’ costs and complications on Sept. 4 at 9:30 a.m. in City Council Chambers in the St. James Building, 117 W. Duval St.

Can’t wait.

And tell City Council members to make the former Landing site park a PARK. 

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Sources:

• https://jaxcityc.granicus.com/player/clip/5932?view_id=1&redirect=true
• https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/aug/23/council-finance-committee-wraps-up-work-on-city-budget/
• https://www.jacksonville.gov/departments/finance/docs/budget/fy-2025-2029-proposed-capital-improvement-plan.aspx
• https://jaxtoday.org/2024/01/26/riverfront-plaza-work-is-about-to-begin/

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This column appears thanks to a partnership with Jax Lookout.