by Bailey White
Staff Writer
The Florida Redevelopment Association 2002 Conference is being held in Jacksonville this week, and according to the organization’s planners and board members, the city was the perfect choice to showcase innovative growth to inspire other city planners.
“There are three reasons Jacksonville was chosen as host city,” said FRA president Denis Russ, citing Jacksonville’s progress in the last few years as the top reason.
“The breadth and depth of activity in Jacksonville is very impressive,” he said, adding the second reason is the “tremendous performance of the City Council, the mayor and the JEDC. The third reason is that I believe Jacksonville will give us the next generation of statewide leadership.”
The FRA, founded in 1974, strives to promote redevelopment and downtown growth, and includes state and city officials, members of Community Redevelopment Agencies, non-profit organizations and consulting firms who are all involved in preserving and improving Florida’s communities.
“Florida cities are rediscovering their roles as crossroads for commerce, meccas for culture and entertainment and as stimulating places to live,” said Russ.
Marilyn Larson, FRA vice president for governmental affairs, attended the 1988 trip to Jacksonville.
“I was amazed at the construction I saw going on then, and I’m amazed that so much thas been finished and so much that is being planned,” she said.
FRA’s president-elect Christ Brown, who will take office Friday, called the city an inspiration. “We want to use each host city as a way of inspiring members in promoting mixed uses of downtown, for living and working,” he said, mentioning the W.A. Knight Building lofts and Berkman Plaza as two developments he is interested in seeing.
This year’s conference drew hundreds of people from over 300 agencies or businesses. Wednesday’s activities featured a tour of downtown led by Downtown Development Authority managing director Al Battle, an at-large FRA member.
John Titkanich, the economic development manager for the City of Cocoa’s Office of Economic Development, was on the tour and hopes to apply what he learns here to redevelopment planning in his city.
“It seems like there is really a vision for Jacksonville with strong public resources behind it,” said Titkanich.
Cocoa’s Mayor, Judy Parrish, said she found the tour and the chance to meet with Battle, invaluable.
“We’ll be examining the creative financial strategies of Jacksonville to bring about change in our own city,” she said.
Battle said the tour was a way to show visitors all of the activity happening downtown.
“The tour provided a good backdrop to show these activities, which are all vital to, and indicative, of our success,” he said.
Representing Jacksonville on the tour were members of Downtown Vision, Inc. the mayor’s office, JEDC, and City Council member Suzanne Jenkins. Mayor John Delaney made an appearance at Wednesday’s luncheon, praising William Hudnut, the former mayor of Indianapolis, for being a progressive leader and an inspiration to many former Jacksonville mayors.
Other activities include a river cruise, a dinner at Alltel Stadium and sessions on topics such as housing, cultural arts, parking, transportation and other downtown issues.
Many attendants consider the chance to talk to people doing the same thing in other cities the most valuable part of the conference.
“We are bringing people from around the state together to discuss the same issues in different localities,” said Larson. “It’s a good way to get your batteries recharged.”