The Jacksonville Planning Commission approved a zoning exception Thursday to allow Jazzy’s Restaurant and Lounge at 901 King St. to serve alcohol and have sidewalk seating on King Street.
Local chef Celestia Mobley opened the restaurant in March. The space formerly was used as Hamburger Mary’s Pub House and The Blind Rabbit.
The exception was approved with conditions similar to the previous restaurants, limiting the number of seats, hours of operation, the location of outdoor seating and not allowing outside music.
The restaurant was permitted by right in commercial/community general-1 zoning to serve beer and wine with a restaurant.
Jazzy’s features soul food, seafood and jazz music, including live performances. Her motto, written across the wall, is “Music is life. That's why our hearts have beats.”
The restaurant offers a full-service lunch and dinner menu as well as a separate takeout entrance.
Mobley started her career as executive chef at The Potter’s House Soul Food Bistro, where she worked for almost 20 years, and then opened her own restaurant, Celestia’s Coastal Cuisine, at 6765 Dunn Ave.
The planning commission also approved zoning exceptions for:
• Plant Life Jacksonville LLC at 7543 Salisbury Road, south of Belfort Road, to offer retail sales, including outdoor display, in a light industrial zoning district. The wholesale nursery opened in March on 30.2 acres. The nursery’s primary customers are professional landscapers and retail plant nurseries. Its growing operations are in Homestead. The Jacksonville location serves as a distribution center. Since 2010, the distribution nursery had been at Homeplace Drive in the Baymeadows area. A companion application for an administrative deviation was denied. It sought to eliminate off-street parking and loading space requirements, the minimum 20-foot wide driveway width requirement, and the requirement for terminal parking islands.
• Dick’s Wings at 6055 Youngerman Circle, west of Blanding Boulevard, to serve all alcoholic beverages in conjunction with a restaurant with outdoor seating. The new owner, Seediv LLC, was required to obtain an exception because the exception is not transferable.
The planning commission recommended approval for land use changes and rezonings for:
• Ordinance 2019-10, which seeks a small scale land use amendment for 1.28 acres at 8016 and 8036 Hogan Road. The property is owned by RCW Properties LLC. It would change from residential-professional-institutional to community/general commercial to allow commercial uses. The proposed companion rezoning, Ordinance 2018-669, would change uses from commercial residential office to planned unit development. The proposed rezoning stipulates additional landscape buffers from adjacent residential and expanding the potential types of commercial uses.
• Ordinance 2019-154, which seeks a small scale land use amendment of a 0.69-acre portion in the middle of a 2.31-acre parcel at 15153 N. Main St. The front of the property closest to North Main Street has a land use and zoning appropriate for commercial use. The land use amendment for the middle portion would change from low density residential to community/general commercial to allow commercial uses further into the property, consistent with commercial uses on adjacent properties. The proposed companion rezoning, Ordinance 2019-155, would change the 0.69 acres from residential low density-120 to commercial community/general-2.
• Ordinance 2019-156, which seeks a small scale land use amendment of 1.74 acres at 1316 and 1324 W. State St., 1315 and 1339 W. Union St. and Brady Street. The vacant properties' medium density residential designation would change to light industrial to allow for truck parking and maneuvering adjacent to the Load King Manufacturing Co. facility. The companion rezoning request, Ordinance 2019-157, will change from residential medium density-A to industrial light. Load King proposes to expand in the next few years.
• Ordinance 2019-158, which seeks a small scale land use amendment of 1.93 acres east of Philips Highway. The property, used for surface parking by Coggin Nissan at the Avenues, would change from low density residential to community/general commercial to bring the use into compliance. The proposed companion rezoning, Ordinance 2019-159, would change 20.63 acres, including the 1.93 acres, from rural residential-acre, commercial community/general-2 and industrial light to planned unit development to allow the Nissan dealership to expand facilities and consolidate functions, including new and used vehicle sales, auto service and repair, car wash and auto storage.
• Ordinance 2019-163, which seeks to rezone 0.9 acres on Beach Boulevard on the west side of Pottsburg Creek from commercial community/general-2 to commercial community general-1 to allow multifamily along with commercial uses.
• Ordinance 2019-164, which seeks to rezone 1.09 acres at 3911 University Blvd. W. from industrial light to commercial community/general-1. The subject property is split zoned and the intent is to have the same zoning.
• Ordinance 2019-166, which seeks to rezone the 17.21-acre Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc. at 17110 Brandy Branch Road from planned unit development to another PUD to increase the allowable building square footage from 21,263 to 38,615 square feet.
• Ordinance 2019-167, which seeks to rezone the existing shopping center at 2033 Riverside Ave. from PUD to PUD to allow the Riverside Publix to add a 1,400-square-foot liquor store next to Tijuana Flats restaurant.
Land use amendments and rezonings require approval by the City Council Land Use and Zoning Committee and then full council approval.
