by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
By the end of this week, all 18 of the transition committees assigned by Mayor-elect Alvin Brown to provide recommendations on future policy in City government should have concluded their work and submitted their findings.
As part of the transition effort, Mayor John Peyton put forth a 40-chapter, 268-page document, “Maintaining Jacksonville’s Competitive Edge: A Public Policy Discussion.”
The report addresses issues from ad valorem taxes to balancing the 2012 City budget.
Two of the chapters deal with Downtown issues and the proposed new convention center.
Chapter 14 is “Downtown Development.”
“The future of downtown Jacksonville has been a central topic of discussion throughout many mayoral administrations. The majority of local citizens recognize the value and significance that a healthy downtown has to a city’s overall economic vitality,” it starts.
The report says that cities are judged not by their suburbs, but by their urban cores, and that Downtown affects the perception of the entire region, not just Duval County.
The document cites Super Bowl XXIX for “creating a mass convergence” of people Downtown after a six-month period of investment to clean up and beautify Downtown.
“The result was a positive image of downtown Jacksonville for the millions who watched the game. That six-month exercise brought attention and helped address the city’s image of its downtown,” states the report.
“However, in order to establish a sustained positive impression of downtown to visitors and the world, a concentrated effort must be made to enhance the image of downtown through on-going continued investment in the physical environment. This may require improvements that distinguish Jacksonville from other comparable cities. Dramatic changes will likely evoke debate within the community as to its necessity or rationale.”
The series of Downtown master plans that have been put forth over the past 25 years is mentioned, with caveats.
“Each master plan evoked a vision for the future for downtown that shared similar general concepts such as ‘Connectivity,’ ‘The River’ or ‘Greenways.’
“However, the implementation strategy for achieving the ‘Downtown Vision’ was disjointed and excitement for the future soon fizzled out,” it states.
“With any vision, the implementation and the sustained investment to obtain that investment are critical,” it said.
The report also reviews the opinions issued over the years as to what it will take to create a thriving and vibrant Downtown.
The “retail-follows-rooftops” concept is included, along with the “critical mass,” considered by some to be a minimum of 10,000 residents in the urban core.
The chapter concludes with “Next Steps.”
“Significant policy positions will have to be embraced by the mayor, City Council and their successors to be able to enjoy continued success and build momentum upon the past efforts,” it says.
“Public capital investment will have to be significant not only in infrastructure, but also in private projects.”
On the subject of replacing the Osborn Center with a new convention facility in a different location, Chapter 15 of Peyton’s report states that with less than 100,000 square feet of exhibit space available in the Osborn Center, Jacksonville is in the bottom 36 percent of the convention market.
Combining the area’s 21,000 hotel rooms with a 100,000-square-foot convention center would put Jacksonville in the top 16 percent of convention cities, the report states.
The document also talks about the location for a new convention center.
“The overwhelmingly popular option for this is adjacent to the Hyatt Regency hotel where the old City Hall and existing County Courthouse sites are located,” it says.
“This site is already optioned to the Hyatt for purchase as part of the original development of the hotel. With over 110,000 square feet of meeting space already existing in the Hyatt, the construction of a new facility could be scaled back to primarily exhibit space with some meeting space,” it says.
“This provides an opportunity for a public/private partnership between the Hyatt and the city.”
The chapter concludes with a suggestion.
“If the next mayor is committed to a new convention center, a time schedule needs to be developed which results in a relatively seamless transition from abandoned city buildings to a new convention center,” it says.
“A schedule should assume construction commencing in 2013, with decisions and design beginning in the second quarter of 2012. That is a very aggressive, but manageable, timetable for such a major undertaking.”
To read the entire report, visit www.coj.net and click on “Mayor’s Transition” on the right side of the home page.
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