JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Plans to build a self-storage facility with affordable housing and retail space in San Marco are moving forward after the Jacksonville city council voted Tuesday to bring the facility to the corner of Hendricks Avenue and Prudential Drive.
The city council approved a vote of 11 to 8 to rezone the area for a 10-story building with commercial and multi-family residential use, which includes several floors of storage units and 100 residential units with 80% affordable housing for families whose income is less than $38,000 a year. The definition of affordable housing is based on a state law. It’s not clear how much the affordable housing units will cost at this time.
Residents have been fighting against this controversial plan for years, and now, their frustrations are further emphasized. But they weren’t the only ones showing disapproval for the move.
Several councilmen spoke in favor of the project, including Councilman Rory Diamond, who said the developer had a mediation with the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) to design the current plan after a vote on the property last year ended in a tie.
“Every part of Jacksonville needs affordable housing and we have to do it. In order to make it financially viable, you need something else that gives you revenue and the other thing in this case is self-storage,” Diamond said. “When I talked to the staff during Land Use and Zone [meeting] about why do you hate this project, what is your issue… they couldn’t come up with anything on the project as a whole because they know it’s a good thing on the whole.”
Councilman Matt Carlucci voiced his frustration with council voting in favor of the redeveloping, stating that it goes against the DIA’s recommendation and the will of the people.
“There’s thousands of people who oppose this and they have the benefit of being right. We’re going against the district councilmember and the at-large geographical member who have spent our lives in San Marco and the Southbank fighting for what’s best,” Carlucci said.
Jon Livingston said the council’s vote shows that members “don’t believe in Jacksonville.”
“They don’t believe in Jacksonville’s future. They rather put a self-storage in there. And I’m not mad at you. But I’m just livid at the fact that it continues to happen. It continues where they just walk over the constituents who don’t want to have this happen,” Livingston said. “It’s the same people over and over again. They vote the same way.”
“This can be a very vibrant place, and they’re putting self-storage,” Lawrence Najem said, who has a law office near the projected site for the storage unit. “I think this project will set this neighborhood back 30 years by putting a 10-story mini-warehouse business on this corner. This is premium land on this corner.”
Mandi Kelloway is the owner of Salon on the Southbank. She leases a building right next to where the development could go. You might think she would welcome the idea of more people in the area, but she said there are other things to consider.
“I think there’s going to be a whole lot more traffic that’s going to come through an intersection that we have already seen so many car accidents happen through. So I think our concern over here is really just the traffic, and how many more cars will be coming through,” Kelloway said. “Potentially it could put some more people around here, but it’s kind of like at what cost.”
Republican Councilman Randy White, who is expected to be the next council president, would not comment on why he voted in favor. Neither would Republican councilman Terrance Freeman, who did say one reason he is not talking is because this is expected to end up in court.
Republican Councilman Michael Boylan did comment on his “yes” vote, saying it will be much more than a storage facility. It will include retail and won’t be much different than the new development already going on in San Marco. Plus the project includes housing for those who may not be able to afford to live in San Marco.
“It truly is a mixed-use facility this time as compared to where it was the last time around,” he said. “I look at these things, the prospect of 80 families, young couples, individuals living in the neighborhood, they could never imagine prior because of the cost of the housing in that particular area, that they can work in these neighborhoods and walk to work and enjoy the neighborhood and be a part of a community that they normally wouldn’t have an opportunity to get to.”