JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The future of Jacksonville’s downtown is under debate.
Last month, the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) came under fire and more shots were fired Monday in a special council committee meeting.
The concern is what’s happening — or what’s not happening — in downtown Jacksonville. Past development plans that are taking years to implement are causing some council members to take action now.
Councilman Rory Diamond, who has been outspoken about the agency, said he will be introducing legislation to revamp how DIA works.
According to our news partners the Jacksonville Daily Record, the DIA is currently semi-autonomous. It has its own board, but requires Council approval for some of its actions, such as granting multimillion-dollar incentive packages to developers of large projects.
Diamond wants to reorganize the DIA and grant it autonomy, which would shorten the time needed to get projects off the ground -- a major concern for some on the council.
DIA CEO Lori Boyer told the committee that it takes an average of four to seven months to move a deal from the starting point through the Council.
“Time kills deals,” Diamond said. “Other downtowns don’t have 19 people weighing in on every deal.”
Diamond also proposed a capped budget for the DIA, which it would be able to spend “without a bunch of politicians and lobbyists telling them what to do.”
Diamond said it’s all about good government and “getting government out of the way of development.”
“So there’s just no question, the amount of time from when a developer wants to build a building to the moment a building gets built is too long,” Diamond said. “I want the city government just to sort of get out of the way so that developers can develop.”
Boyer acknowledged the council’s concerns about the delays in development.
“We agree,” Boyer said of projects taking too long. “We’d love to see ways to make that happen more quickly. I’ve also heard from several council members, and you heard it up here today, a desire to focus on the city center, the heart of the downtown. And so what we’ve done, which didn’t come up today, but we’re working to prepare a map of not just historic buildings that could be renovated, but what about parking lots that could be readmitted, adaptively, reconstructed into something, like viable new buildings.”
The committee will meet until the end of June and then issue a report, but it’s expected that deadline will be extended.