Calling it “the last significant parcel in this part of town,” City Council member Richard Clark met with the developer and community residents Monday to hammer out suggested improvements to plans for the proposed 781-acre “Tamaya” residential and commercial development along Beach Boulevard.
The site is north of Beach Boulevard between Kernan and Hodges boulevards.
Beach Boulevard Venture LLC has asked the City to rezone the property in Clark’s Council District 3 to permit 3,500 residential units, up from the 2,400 units earlier approved.
Agent T.R. Hainline, a shareholder and land-use attorney with the Rogers Towers firm, explained at the community meeting that the project, formerly called Meditierra, had been approved in 2005, before the recession, and that the developer had already contributed funds to develop a fire station, toward Patton Park and to move JEA electric lines.
A site plan shows nine residential areas, a 10-acre amenity center and, at Beach and Kernan boulevards, a commercial town center.
The residences could include single-family homes, condominiums, townhomes and apartments.
Residents, as well as former district Council representative Jerry Holland, now supervisor of elections, asked Hainline, engineer Hugh Mathews, president of ETM Inc., and executives with ICI Homes, to agree to several changes before Tamaya returns to Council reviews for approval.
Clark suggests capping the number of units at 3,100 and Holland wants developers to define the maximum number of units for single-family and multifamily development.
“Define better what you want to do,” he said.
ICI Homes executives David Haas, chief operating officer of Intervest Construction of Jax Inc., and Don Wilford, North Florida Division president, did not indicate any immediate development plans for the project, saying the housing market needed to be strong enough to warrant construction.
Intervest is a managing member of Beach Boulevard Venture. State records also list Beazer Homes Inc. as a managing member.
About 14 people attended the 11/2-hour meeting at the Pablo Creek Regional Library, which sits in the center of the proposed project.
They discussed issues that included traffic signals and access, the main Meritage Boulevard that would start at Kernan and end at City property to the east, and the main Tamaya Boulevard that would start at Beach Boulevard and connect with Meritage Boulevard.
At the end of the meeting, Hainline summarized what he called a resulting “laundry list” of suggestions.
Those included internal parking and driveway access to Patton Park, which is adjacent to the east side of the property, right-of-way retention, a stated maximum cap to the types of residential units and other items.
Among other ideas, Holland suggested that the developer provide a driveway to City property at Patton Park so that the park’s gate can be opened when needed to Tamaya residents.
“That’s an idea that has some real merit,” Haas said.
One issue discussed at more length was extending Meritage Boulevard to Hodges Boulevard rather than ending just before Patton Park.
Developers considered offsetting their former City “fair share” assessment by building the road, but costs exceeded the assessment. Fair share assessments have been replaced by “mobility fees,” but those fees have been waived by Council for now.
Although Council voted in October to waive mobility fees for a year, Hainline said developers would be paying the fee when permits were pulled, indicating construction would not start until the waiver ends.
Haas said the first phase would be 184 lots.
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