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Controversial plan to add unwanted storage unit to San Marco moves forward

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Despite a San Marco neighborhood’s continuous fight against a self-storage unit coming to the area, the Downtown Development Review Board allowed the project to move forward.

The self-storage unit is planned for the corner of Prudential Drive and Hendricks Avenue. It would include a 10-floor design with retail, parking, self-storage and residential units.

“Do we want their first impression of Jacksonville to be a storage warehouse?” a lobbyist asked the review board at Tuesday’s meeting.

RELATED | ‘We’re fighting a good fight’: San Marco residents keep pushing back against planned self-storage unit

Residents said they walk in the area daily and feel if a storage unit is placed in the community, it will impact their safety and add traffic problems.

But there are some people like Allen Graetz who are in favor of the plans.

“I think everyone wants the same sort of thing. We have some different priorities. And one of my concerns is the cost of housing in the city. It’s not as simple as just building more but we need to build more and in this particular project, it has an affordable housing component,” Graetz said.

The board approved this project after hours of discussion, and the Jacksonville City Council will have to decide what’s next.

News4JAX reached out to a lobbyist pushing for the self-storage unit project to be approved but declined to comment.


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