by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
In the last three years, government entities have purchased 22,000 acres of Duval County land for preservation.
Mayor John Delaney has made preservation one of the cornerstones of his administration and has worked with state and federal agencies to amass a total of 55,000 preserved acres countywide. Fifteen thousand more are being considered for purchase. Much of that land lies in City Council member Warren Alvarez’s sprawling Northside district. While the Council has rubber stamped many of the purchases in the past, Alvarez is beginning to have reservations about preservation.
“I just think they’re buying too much land,” said Alvarez. “It appears to me the mayor is trying to buy preservation acres as fast as he can before he leaves office.”
Alvarez’s district is home to vast tracts of relatively undisturbed wetlands, including the Timucuan Preserve, Ft. George Island, Thomas Creek Preserve as well as other government-owned attractions like Huguenot Park. The idea behind setting the land aside is to control urban sprawl while keeping a sliver of unfettered land within a few minutes drive of urbanites. While Alvarez acknowledges the beauty of the land — much of it waterfront — he also worries about the Northside’s future economic viability when large chunks of land are government owned.
“How much more land do you want to take off the tax rolls?” he questioned. “It holds the Northside back by taking all the waterfront property off the market. Aren’t people allowed to live on beautiful land? People can live on waterfront properties on the Southside but not on the Northside?”
Alvarez argues that waterfront property on the Northside should be just as eligible for free market development as beachfront property and Southside waterfront property. Mark Middlebrook, executive director of Delaney’s Jacksonville Preservation Project, offers a contrasting view.
“Take Mandarin, for example. I don’t know if tragic is the right word for it, but Mandarin is a community surrounded by water and there is very little access to it. How do you get there?”
The goal of the preservation project is to avoid a repeat of the runaway urban infill that happened in Mandarin. Delaney touts ecotourism for the Timucuan Preserve, where visitors and residents can canoe, hike, camp and enjoy quiet time within minutes of a bustling city.
“This is a county with over a half-million acres,” said Middlebrook. “We have some extraordinary places in Duval County.”
Alvarez is skeptical of the land purchases, much of it marshland and mosquito-infested lowlands.
“I’d rather buy land people can really use,” he said. “I think the public would be a lot happier if they did something with that land.”
Part of his reasoning is that most of Jacksonville’s preservation land is accessible only by boat. There are few facilities like trails, boat ramps or restrooms. Middlebrook says it’s only a matter of time before areas like the Timucuan Preserve are developed into viable ecotourism venues.
Alvarez recently scored a minor victory for his cause when a Council committee voted not to purchase 137 acres off Lannie Road for $735,000. His success is laced with vinegar, though, because he concedes that the full Council will likely approve the purchase anyway.