by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Following a recommendation handed down by the Downtown Parking Task Force, the Downtown Development Authority will present a plan at today’s DDA meeting to make marked aesthetic improvements to many of downtown’s surface parking lots.
Among those proposed changes would be to require parking lot owners to landscape their lots with shrubs, trees, mulch and even nice-looking fencing material as opposed to chain-link fencing.
Jason Thiel, a project manager for the DDA, stressed that today’s proposal is a very preliminary proposal designed to serve more as a feeler than an eventually enforceable resolution.
“All I’m doing is giving a preliminary discussion and getting [DDA] Board opinion,” said Thiel. “I’ll give them a presentation on what other cities have done.”
Thiel mentioned cities like Atlanta, Chattanooga, Cleveland and Columbus as towns that have parking lot landscape codes that would work well in Jacksonville.
What the Parking Task Force would like to see is the current city-wide landscape code affecting new projects enforced in the downtown area. The problem is that most of the surface lots downtown were built before the current code went into effect, meaning they are basically exempt from complying with the code.
Thiel said the objective isn’t to force surface lot owners to create extravagantly landscaped islands that would cut down on the number of spaces they can lease, but rather to get them to do little things that would make the entire downtown area look better.
“Instead of islands, they might landscape the strip along the public right of way, plant a few trees and use different fencing material,” said Thiel. “Shrubs that are high enough can be used to cover the car lights or the car itself.”
Thiel said there is no established time frame for any type of ordinance and there are still many steps such an ordinance would have to pass before becoming law.