by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
City planners and a private design firm took their first step Tuesday toward what they called downtown’s final frontier.
After helping spur development in previously desolate neighborhoods like Riverside, San Marco and Springfield, the City is turning its attention toward the Brooklyn neighborhood, stretching north of the river from McCoy’s Creek to I-95. Urban Design Associates, the private firm hired to redesign the area, met with City officials and downtown activists for the first time Tuesday at City Hall. Everybody agreed the City’s next attempt at revitalization will be its most challenging.
Brooklyn spans about 16 mostly empty blocks. Residents and property owners told UDA principal Donald Carter the neighborhood features more abandoned cars than businesses and about as many stray dogs as residents.
A veteran in the urban turnaround game, Carter said he’s used to working with blighted material. If Brooklyn has hit bottom, then maybe the neighborhood is ready to bounce back, he said.
“When you see dogs running loose in a neighborhood, blighted buildings, abandoned cars, it doesn’t take an expert in urban design to see it’s a neighborhood in decline,” said Carter. “You have to imagine it’s bottomed out. There comes a time when you think a neighborhood has to come back.”
For that to happen, Carter said Brooklyn’s new layout will have to make better use of McCoy’s Creek and the St. Johns River. Pedestrians currently could walk from one end of Brooklyn to the other without seeing the water, he said.
The City’s downtown master plan envisions the area as a walkable neighborhood with walkways and small parks connecting Brooklyn to the waterways and to the rest of downtown. UDA’s initial plans appear to mesh with that vision.
The Pittsburgh firm will make two more visits to Jacksonville to gather ideas from downtown advocates, residents and investors. Carter said the final design should be ready by September. The design will provide a blueprint for the neighborhood to create jobs, spur investment and raise quality of life, said Carter.
The plan could require zoning changes and funding to realize, he said, but it will include some easy first steps.
“We want to give you all something you can run with to keep momentum going,” he said. “The early action projects will be visible, they will signify quality and they will provide a seamless transition from the planning stage.”
UDA’s previous designs used prominent riverfronts to revitalize residential, shopping and commercial districts in Norfolk Va., Nashua, N.H. and Cincinnati among others.
Most of the suggestions advanced Tuesday for Brooklyn’s future included affordable housing, either houses or apartments and a mix of retail and service businesses.
Carter said a successful plan would likely include support from nearby Riverside Avenue’s strong corporate presence. South of Riverside sit offices for Fidelity Investment, St. Joe, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the Auchter Company. Carter suggested the City might offer those companies incentives to invest in the area.