by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
Members of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission agree that a plan to breathe life back into a blighted Northwest retail area is a positive step, but some are expressing concern over how the plan’s objectives will be funded and carried out.
The plan, which will be introduced to City Council Tuesday, designates the neighborhood surrounding Soutel Drive and Moncrief Road as a retail and community redevelopment area. Objectives outlined for the area include creation of a new major retail center on city-owned property, environmental clean-up and improvements in public safety, infrastructure and streetscaping.
“We’re seeking improvement in areas that have been overlooked,” said Mia Jones, the Council member whose district includes the Soutel/Moncrief area. She said a variety of information, including consumer spending studies, crime statistics and neighborhood input, helped create the plan. “This community has come forward. I get calls every week from different developers and retail organizations. There’s a cash economy that’s being spent elsewhere (in the city).”
If the plan is passed, a board of community members will meet monthly and work toward the plan’s objectives, according to Karen Nasrallah, redevelopment coordinator for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.
“It (redevelopment area status) puts things into place that help you achieve your goals,” said Nasrallah. “It gives you tools you wouldn’t have otherwise.”
Those tools include a property tax funding option. As property values rise, the extra property taxes generated are put into a trust fund specifically for the area’s redevelopment. However, the property values have to rise in order for the funds to be created — the tax money won’t be created until redevelopment is already underway.
There are several other potential funding sources listed for the plan, with the Northwest Jacksonville Economic Development Fund highlighted as a local grant and loan opportunity.
But the mayor’s office is moving control of the incentive fund from the JEDC to the Neighborhoods Department, despite the JEDC’s recent overhaul of their incentive policy. Ron Barton, executive director of the JEDC, wanted the overhaul to allow neighborhoods with organized goals similar to the Soutel/Moncrief community redevelopment plan to have priority for incentives.
News of the fund’s transfer disappointed JEDC commissioner Joe Barrow, who called the move “a setback to our ability to move forward in the Northwest area.” He worried that after the fund moves, small businesses will have to deal with an extra layer of bureaucracy to get incentive money — they’ll have to go to the Neighborhoods Department, as opposed to just dealing with the JEDC.
Still, Barton said the redevelopment plan should help the Soutel/Moncrief area get other funds.
“It (the plan and redevelopment area status) gives additional credibility to establish other revenue,” said Barton. “When we go to the state and federal government for funding, this plan is needed. It helps builds consensus.”
Jones said she hopes some retailers will want to move into the Soutel/Moncrief area regardless of incentive money. She said a Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce study showed that there’s a potential for retailers to succeed in the Soutel/Moncrief area, so long as other improvements – in areas like public safety – are made.
”I thought it was very important for any business coming in to know what they’re coming into,” said Jones. “(To be one of the first businesses coming in,) it would take an organization that knows their market and knows that this is a market they can succeed in.”
Barrow wondered who will ultimately ensure the plan’s success.
“I’d like to see just how we’re going to keep the momentum going,” said Barrow. “I’d like to have the satisfaction that somebody has the accountability for this at the end of the day.”
The JEDC is responsible for the plan being carried out, according to Barton. Jones added that she wants someone assigned to executing the plan; someone who “lives and breathes” the plan’s projects and has experience working in community redevelopment. In the meantime, however, Jones said she’ll continue to be the driving force.
“I won’t take my hand off of it,” said Jones. “It’s taken us three years to get to this point.”