by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Four years after former mayor John Delaney launched the $360 million Preservation Project, his successor is “taking a breather” before deciding what to do with more than 40,000 acres of mostly undeveloped land, the City’s special initiatives chief said this week.
Susie Wiles said the City had essentially concluded the project’s land-acquisition stage. Since 1999, the City has leveraged $58 million of its own money with State and federal grants to buy more than 60 square miles of future park land, making the City’s parks system the country’s largest. Wiles said a task force would develop a strategy for the land’s development, maintenance and operation. The task force will begin its work in early November.
“The good news is we’re poised to take our park system from the biggest to the best,” said Wiles. “By definition, we’re the only community that can say that.
“The task force will represent all facets of the community, and its study will be all-encompassing. It will look at which land will serve the most people, what the hours of operation should be; we want to make sure we take a prudent next step rather than rushing into development of these parks.”
However, one of the City’s primary project partners said the City may have rushed to end the acquisition phase.
Susan Grandin, the director of the Trust for Public Land’s Jacksonville office, said she hoped the City would consider buying more land. She said the City may be looking at its last chance to buy about 500 acres running along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Waterfront property value continues to climb Grandin said. Miss this opportunity and the land will likely be too expensive in the future.
Wiles said the City has exhausted its acquisition money. Although the City still expects to receive millions in State and federal matching funds for the project, Wiles said that money is designated for use in the land’s development.
“The money that is coming from our partnerships; they expect to be used to provide certain levels of access to the land, or to provide an educational component,” said Wiles. “That money is not earmarked for acquisition frankly; it’s earmarked for specific uses within the park.”
City Council Finance Committee chair Warren Alvarez said earlier in the year that the City had already bought enough land. He said the City’s acquisitions were keeping potentially valuable property off the tax rolls.
However, Grandin said the City saved money, in certain instances, by preserving the land rather than allowing for residential development.
For instance, Grandin said the City would have spent $2.45 for every dollar it earned in property taxes had it allowed development on several tracks of land south of J. Turner Butler Boulevard. The City would have lost money putting in infrastructure like roads and filling in marsh land to make it suitable for development.
“It serves as an example that development does not always pay for itself,” said Grandin.
In contrast, Grandin said land around parks often appreciates in value, returning more to the City in property taxes. She offered sky-high real estate prices around New York’s Central Park as an example.
Although property prices are high now — Grandin said some tracts along the St. Johns River cost up to $1,000 a foot — prices in the future will probably be out of the City’s range.
Wiles said the acquisition phase was “either finished or on hold for now.
“It’s an enduring comment to say that there’s another piece of property that we can grab now or it will become cost-prohibitive, but Mayor Peyton wants to take a breather and assess what we have.”