by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“Growth” is one of the hottest topics in Jacksonville, so the law firm of Foley & Lardner partnered with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Tuesday to host a presentation and panel discussion on the major issues both present and future.
The panel brought together Robert Rhodes of Foley & Lardner who is a member of ULI and chair of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, the City’s director of Planning and Development Brad Thoburn and Amy Maguire, managing partner with Southern Strategy Group, a national lobbying firm. They presented legislative updates, current City planning policy and concerns and an overview of a new way to develop community interaction in the growth management process to a group of more than 100 industry professionals.
Maguire helped develop a format to educate people of all ages and demographic groups, not just industry professionals, about growth issues.
“Everyone in this room knows what infrastructure is, but you’d be surprised how many people have no idea,” she said.
The program is being used to create what she called a “regional visioning” process with the intent of coordinating the growth management efforts of 114 cities that surround Tampa.
“Our goal is to create a shared vision to guide the region’s growth in the areas of land use, transportation and the environment,” said Maguire.
“Reality Check” was the process developed by her firm that has led to a seven-county initiative called “One Bay.”
Maguire said more than 1,000 people applied for 300 places on a select community-wide panel that began working last May to gather data about where the community stood in the three focus areas. The next phase, currently underway, is to share the group’s ideas and concepts with the community as a whole. By June of next year, she said, public hearings are planned that will lead to an advocacy campaign.
“One Bay involves more people (in communities) and encourages them to get involved with the process. Ultimately, it will take the guiding principles the citizens would like to see in place to their elected officials for implementation.”
After giving the group an update on changes in growth management laws enacted during the state legislature’s last session, Rhodes issued a warning about a movement he described as “infecting the body politic of Florida.”
“Hometown Democracy” is a state-wide signature-gathering effort that Rhodes said is intended to amend the state Constitution to require planning amendments to be decided by referendum.
He predicted, “It could mean as many as 10,000 initiatives on ballots and that would have a destabilizing effect.”
Rhodes said the petition drive has been “motivated by concern that the public is not informed about new developments before elected officials vote,” then added, “Legislation is being developed to improve information for and communication with the public regarding new development issues.”
In terms of the Planning Dept., Thoburn said while the budget and the new user fees got most of the attention before last week’s City Council vote, he thinks the reorganization of City government will prove to be just as important for the future of growth management. He said combining Planning, Environmental Resource Management, Housing and Neighborhoods and Code Compliance “creates a better model for government and makes more efficient use of our resources. We’re now a one-stop shop.”
Thoburn also said that within two years, his department will revise the City’s Comprehensive Plan.
“What we currently have leads to piece-meal development that is overly confrontational. It has been amended 500 times in the last seven years, which tells us it must be updated to avoid fueling a debate over whether the plan is meaningful.”
Some of the major changes foreseen are to increase the number of land use categories to stimulate development in areas such as what Thoburn called the “mixed-use village” category. Projects and growth focused on people using mass transit instead of single-passenger vehicles is also on Jacksonville’s agenda.
“We need to create transit-focused vertical development with pedestrian elements,” said Thoburn.
The next installment of the Foley Executive Briefing Series will be held Nov. 6 and the topic will be “Private Equity.” Visit www.Foley.com for details.