by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Calling the City’s planning and zoning process “an inscrutable labyrinth for ordinary citizens,” Mayor Alvin Brown’s Neighborhoods and Housing Transition Committee urged that the system become more user-friendly.
“People often feel disenfranchised and without a voice when a development which adversely affects their quality of life steamrolls past them,” said the committee’s report.
The committee also recommended that the mayor hold an annual “Council of Neighborhoods” meeting and immediately begin a program called “Mayor Brown Around Town” to visit the 250 or so neighborhoods around the area over a year.
In addition, the committee asks that the six Citizen Planning Advisory Committees meet to decide how to restructure to be more effective, perhaps dividing the districts into smaller areas of representation.
The committee offered 50 ideas that it said were “for the most part, budget-neutral.”
Rather than spending money, they require a shift in priorities, it said.
The ideas were grouped under eight headings.
Make neighborhoods a major focus.
Adequate and stable housing is fundamental, it said. “A citizen without a good home has difficulty being a good citizen,” it said.
It called neighborhoods “perhaps the single most important social entity” that connects citizens and government.
Among the suggestions:
• Begin the “Mayor Brown Around Town” program in which the mayor visits coffee shops, takes neighborhood walks and makes speeches, for example.
• Brown and City representatives should hold four Town Hall meetings a year, one each in the four quadrants of Jacksonville.
• Brown should call a “Council of Neighborhoods” once a year with delegates of the city’s more than 400 neighborhood organizations.
• Citizen Planning Advisory Committee chairs and vice chairs should discuss how to restructure the groups, and chairs should meet quarterly with the mayor.
Aggressively promote collaborative planning and zoning.
The committee said the planning and zoning process favors developers and their agents, frequently being an “inscrutable labyrinth” for ordinary citizens.
It calls for a more transparent process so that neighborhood groups and citizens can better understand it, receive adequate notice about projects and be involved in project planning from the outset rather than in the final stages.
Among its suggestions:
• Form a task force to revise the planning and zoning process that would include a website link to a detailed description of each project and a method that also would automatically notify citizens’ committees and related groups about proposed planning and zoning changes.
• Require applicants for all planned unit developments to hold community workshops at their expense before the project is considered by the Jacksonville Planning and Development Department.
• Creating zoning codes that allow customized requirements for older, established neighborhoods.
• Require the Planning Commission to provide detailed findings and background information to the City Council Land Use & Zoning Committee before it reviews a project.
Strictly enforce current codes and laws to strengthen neighborhoods.
The committee said that current code enforcement laws are generally adequate but are “far too often” not enforced.
Among its suggestions:
• Insist on uniform and consistent application of code enforcement laws.
• Institute harsher penalties for repeat offenders of code violations.
• Ensure consideration for historic preservation, using current preservation law to protect historic properties, including “mothballing” instead of demolition wherever possible.
Strengthen the Housing and Neighborhoods Department.
The committee said the Housing and Neighborhoods Department is a “sterling example” of a City agency that has been slashed by budget cuts in recent years but continues to fulfill its mission.
According to the committee, the department is 95 percent funded by state and federal grants, 3 percent by the Jacksonville Housing Finance Authority and 2 percent by the City’s general fund.
Among the suggestions:
• Strengthen current programs that support economic development, affordable housing and neighborhood stabilization.
• Support existing and encourage new Community Development Corporations.
• Support the continuation of the Foreclosure Intervention Program.
Encourage public-private partnerships to support, stabilize and enrich neighborhoods.
Among the suggestions:
• Establish a nonprofit 501c3 foundation to support development, improvement and acquisition of City parks.
• Establish “GoLo,” for go local, buy local, to advocate for neighborhood small businesses.
• Work closely with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to promote Neighborhood Watch programs.
• Provide support for the Jacksonville Journey and expand programs that target the children most at-risk.
Promote neighborhood en-hancement initiatives to support quality of life.
Successful neighborhoods offer a high quality of life, said the committee, and libraries are a central resource for information, Internet access and meeting space.
It also said many neighborhoods previously not thought of as “historic” are now 50 years old, which meets the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places, the committee said.
Among suggestions:
• Strengthen the branch library system by allowing the library to keep user-generated funds, such as overdue material fines, rather than putting the money back into the City’s general fund. The system also should hire its own information technology subcontractor and facilities should be on a five-year maintenance plan.
• By ordinance, establish a Streetscape Commission to encourage and oversee neighborhood and commercial corridor revitalization projects.
Evaluate and implement existing neighborhood plans and studies.
Among suggestions:
• Review all of the relevant Jacksonville Community Council Inc. studies and “put the force of the mayor’s administration behind implementing them.”
• Review all 19 existing Neighborhood Action Plans and six district Vision Plans.
Improve interdepartmental coordination, communication and collaboration.
Five City departments have related responsibilities in caring for neighborhoods, said the committee, and “there is little if any cost in having these departments and agencies share information and strategies.”
Among its suggestions:
• Establish a formal plan for communication regarding projects that affect neighborhoods.
• Implement a grievance pro-cess for citizens or organizations that perceive miscommunication, unfair rulings or noncommunication within City departments and offices, and create a no-cost appeal process for questionable rulings and interpretations by City employees that affect neighborhoods.
356-2466