By David Ball
Staff Writer
The process of transitioning the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s Downtown Design Review Committee into the newly established Downtown Development Review Board took the next step at last Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where Mayor John Peyton’s proposed appointments to the board were read into the record.
Of the eight appointments, six currently serve on the DRC, including architects Rose Marie Zurawski of GS&P and Roland Udenze of the Haskell Company; landscape architect Chris Flagg of Flagg Design Studio; urban planner Andy Sikes of Baptist Health; contractor Jonathan Garza of W.G. Mills; and Downtown property owner Jim Bailey of Bailey Publishing & Communications.
Not up for appointment are current DRC members and Downtown property owner representatives William “Trip” Stanley formerly of CSX Corporation and Oliver Barakat of CB Richard Ellis. JEDC staffer Eric Lindstrom was the ninth board member on the DRC, but JEDC Deputy Director Paul Crawford said his position was replaced with an appointed one for the DDRB.
The group also includes 11 non-voting ex-officio members to provide expertise and technical assistance.
Crawford said Stanley and Barakat chose not to seek appointment. The three new members up for appointment are transportation engineer Montasser Selim of RS&H and Downtown property owner representatives Timothy Miller of Ervin Lovett & Miller and Logan Rink of Rink Design.
“We now have to go through the City Council confirmation process, which is about six weeks,” said Crawford. “It goes through the rules committee, and once the appointments are confirmed or approved through the rules committee, then they go to the full City Council at the next regular meeting.”
Crawford said the first official meeting of the DDRB should be in October, barring any issues the City Council may have with the appointments.
“The City Council looks into every issue that’s presented in front of them,” he said. “I don’t want to discount or take for granted any kind of approval.”
When the DDRB does meet, the first task will be to approve a set of bylaws, which have been tentatively hammered out by current DRC members Bailey, Sikes and Garza.
“A template was used with the Planning Commission bylaws being the template,” said Crawford. “This is just a formalization of what they (DRC) have done in the past, and, of course, with the new rules and responsibilities that have been assigned to them.”
The DDRB will continue the DRC’s job of reviewing design and build criteria for Downtown projects, but it will also include Planning Commission duties to review rezoning and zoning exceptions, variances and waivers for any project within the Downtown Zoning Overlay District.
Crawford said the hope is that the new board will create a more streamlined review and approval process of Downtown development projects.
However, the new responsibilities also bring a new set of guidelines regarding the noticing of meetings, the allowance of public testimony during hearings, the disclosure of ex-parte communications between board members and applicants as well as a host of issues regarding the state Sunshine Law.
Tracy Arpen of the General Counsel’s Office said he plans to present the DDRB with a full review of Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine law, which was enacted in 1967 as a way to prevent unnoticed “back room” meetings. The Jacksonville City Council is currently under investigation for possible Sunshine Law violations.