JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After nearly six months, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s transition team has released its final report outlining the mayor’s plans for the River City.
READ: 2023 Transition Committee Report
The 206-page report covers everything from public safety to downtown development to affordable housing in a mountain of information that outlines Deegan’s top priorities for the city.
“The recommendations in this report have been a true community-wide effort, and I look forward to moving our shared priorities forward,” Deegan said in a news release.
The transition committees focused on infrastructure; health; economic development; public safety; arts, culture, and entertainment; constituency and community outreach; and military and veterans affairs.
The committees reviewed the challenges Jacksonville faces, and the opportunities available to address those challenges, and compiled their findings into the transition report, which identifies policy solutions Deegan’s administration will focus on.
A big focus of the report is on public safety with the transition team looking at four areas they hope can make Jacksonville safer:
- Reviewing the Jacksonville Journey: The team is assessing whether it can bring back the crime-prevention program or develop and create ones like it in the future. The transition team thinks those programs can lead to lower arrest rates
- Holding listening sessions: The team is interested in holding workshops with agencies like the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, First Coast CrimeStoppers, the Teen Police Academy and the Citizens Police Academy.
- Assessing literacy: The team wants to meet with Kids Hope Alliance, the public library, the school board and Read USA to figure out where the city is with literacy and find ways to improve it because literacy is tied to quality of life.
- Focusing on reform: The team will meet with public and private crime prevention and intervention programs to determine what will work best to reduce recidivism in Jacksonville.
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The transition team is also looking at ways it can improve and enhance downtown, including attracting more people to places like Riverfront Plaza, Friendship Fountain and the Musical Heritage Garden.
The report says most people want more food options downtown, including farmer’s markets and food trucks for a better experience along with more entertainment.
The transition team wants to identify ways to improve infrastructure like expanding the Riverwalk, adding more parks and finishing projects like the Emerald Trail for walking and biking
Another area the team is focusing on is affordable housing. It wants to address rental housing cost increases and the effects of having thousands of people on a waitlist for affordable housing. The report lists several strategies the transition team is considering:
- Supporting and expanding eviction prevention programs
- Backing homeownership preservation programs
- Giving incentives to developers to produce low- and moderate-income housing
- Converting some city-owned buildings into residential buildings
A big talker for Jacksonville residents is how the city will handle the septic tank phase-out program that was originally approved by City Council in 2016.
Work is already being done in some neighborhoods after the mayor announced in July that the city was spending 17.5 million more dollars on bringing sewers to neighborhoods where septic tanks were causing environmental concerns.
Some recommendations the transition team is making when it comes to the septic tank phase-out program include:
- Adding more funding to the project to show progress within the next four years
- Creating a septic tank pump-out program for the tanks that are not scheduled to be removed
- Encouraging JEA to underground overhead utilities. The report says the transition team believes that the move would improve reliability, save on maintenance costs and enhance the city’s aesthetics.
Deegan and her team said they are already putting many of the recommendations into practice, pointing to the focus of the capital improvement plan and the general fund budget.