The Jacksonville City Council denied an Atlanta-based developer’s request June 27 to rezone Downtown Southbank property to build a self-storage facility.
Council voted 9-9 on Ordinance 2023-0007 that would have allowed G.I.S. Holdings Inc. to rezone 1.01 acres at Hendricks Avenue and Prudential Drive from Commercial Central Business District to Planned Unit Development.
Three hours into the debate, the city Office of General Counsel gave its opinion that a tie Council vote is considered a denial.
Council members Danny Becton, Aaron Bowman, Terrance Freeman, Sam Newby, Ju’Coby Pittman, Randy White, Kevin Carrico, Nick Howland and Reggie Gaffney Jr. voted in favor of the rezoning.
Council members Michael Boylan, Matt Carlucci, LeAnna Cumber, Randy DeFoor, Al Ferraro, Joyce Morgan, Brenda Priestly Jackson, Ron Salem and Tyrona Clark-Murray voted no.
Council member Rory Diamond was excused from the meeting by Council President Freeman because of military service.
Boyd Simpson, president of G.I.S. Holdings parent company, The Simpson Organization Inc., changed its original plan from a single-use, five-story CubeSmart self-storage building to a mixed-use property with 20 residential units, ground-floor retail and a rooftop bar.
The changes were offered in a floor amendment at the meeting by Carrico and framed as a compromise with area residents and the property owner.
But the city Downtown Development Authority, Urban Core Citizens Planning Advisory Committee and residents and organizations in San Marco and the Southbank argued the self-storage use and PUD was inconsistent with the city’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan and the Downtown Overlay code approved in 2019.
That code prohibits personal property self-storage establishments on the Southbank.
District 5 Council member Cumber, who represents the Southbank, and lifelong San Marco resident and At-Large Council Member Carlucci said their no vote was to protect the integrity of the Downtown Overlay and all zoning overlays citywide that guide new development to fit with the existing character of neighborhoods.
Cumber said Council should stick to the rules and protect the overlay that aids Downtown revitalization.
“If we say ‘well, forget it,’ then it’s going to be a free-for-all (for developers),” she said.
This is the second effort of G.I.S. Holdings to convince Council to allow self-storage on the property.
In July 2021, Council withdrew a bill sponsored by member Reggie Gaffney Sr. that would have changed the Downtown overlay section of the city’s zoning code to list self-storage facilities as a permitted use on the Northbank and Southbank and allowed the project.
That overlay, based on the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area Plan, was approved in 2019.
G.I.S. and Simpson, represented by Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow law firm partner Steve Diebenow, filed the application in January to rezone the property to PUD.
In the application, Diebenow said that although the Downtown CRA plan prohibits self-storage facilities on the Southbank, it allows mixed-use developments that include integrated personal property self-storage uses.
Simpson told Council he would include 19,127 square feet of ground-floor retail and 36,609 square feet of residential. But the project would have kept self-storage as the primary use at nearly 130,000 square feet.
San Marco Preservation Society President Lauren Carlucci said June 20 the developer was not willing to meet the organization’s compromise of 50% residential.
Council members received more than 400 emails in opposition to the project.
After the vote during public comment, Diebenow objected to the city attorney’s opinion that the tie vote equaled a denial.
He said should Simpson appeal the decision, he wanted it on the record that he sees the ruling as against past Council practice and state statute.