by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The Mayoral Transition Downtown Revitalization Committee convened its next-to-last scheduled meeting Tuesday and adopted several recommendations that will be presented to the new administration of Mayor Alvin Brown.
“Everything, obviously, can’t end up in our report, but everything will be cataloged and sent to the mayor,” said committee co-chair Bob Rhodes, referring to the dozens of ideas that have been presented by committee members and the public since the body first met June 14.
While the recommendations are generally broad in nature, the committee also heard presentations that addressed specific policy changes.
Among the recommendations adopted Tuesday:
• To name the proposed independent Downtown development authority the “Downtown Community Empowerment Corp.”
Committee member Mike Langton said when Mayor-elect Brown worked in Washington, D.C., he ran the Federal Empowerment Corp. and “he likes that word.”
• The committee will recommend that an advisory board be selected to assist the Downtown empowerment group and its members will include representatives from the San Marco, Riverside Avondale and Springfield historic preservation groups and representatives from other neighborhoods near Downtown.
• It will recommend that the empowerment group administer City parking policies Downtown and manage event programming in cooperation with the City’s Office of Special Events.
• The empowerment group should review and approve all Downtown economic development proposals in concert and consistent with an updated Downtown Master Plan and the City’s adopted Comprehensive Plan.
“The master plan is 11 years old. I feel it should be reviewed,” said committee member Chris Flagg.
• The committee voted down a proposal to recommend that a new City Council district be created so that a single Council member would represent a Downtown-specific district.
Lindsey Kimball, a lobbyist and former business development chief with the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission who is serving as staff to the committee, spoke against the single-representative proposal.
She said that under the prevailing Council district system, when lobbying for a Downtown issue, she could call on five Council members for support.
“Art Shad, Don Redman, Michael Corrigan, Johnny Gaffney and Warren Jones. That’s a block of five I can count on to get my bill out of committee. One guy can get run over,” said Kimball.
• A recommendation was adopted that all ad valorem tax revenue collected on Downtown properties be devoted exclusively to Downtown development for a period of five years.
• It will recommend that the Business Improvement District’s additional 1.1 mill ad valorem assessment be expanded to include residential as well as commercial properties and that the district boundary be extended beyond the existing 90-square-block area.
• It will recommend that the City pay its fair share of the Business Improvement District assessment based on the value of City property or fund the district in an amount equal to the assessment.
• The committee will recommend that the mayor and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority explore building a narrow-gauge rail line on an east-west route through the retail and entertainment core to connect the area around the Osborn Center to the Sports Complex.
• Also recommended will be enhancing walking police patrols and applying “community policing practices” to Downtown, including increasing interaction between police officers and residents and businesses.
Jacksonville Jaguars CFO Bill Prescott, representing Visit Jacksonville, said local hoteliers support the creation of a “Tourism Investment District.”
The district would be defined by business type, not geographically.
Visit Jacksonville is the marketing arm of the Duval County Tourist Development Council. Prescott is the treasurer of its board of directors.
Prescott said the hospitality business community proposes that a local “J-Bill” be introduced to the state Legislature to create the district in order to levy a “self-assessment” on the price of hotel rooms to supplement the 6 percent bed tax charged for each room night in addition to the 7 percent sales tax.
Prescott said bed-tax revenue is declining and collecting additional fees would put Jacksonville more in line with other cities in terms of hospitality taxes.
Prescott said the hoteliers support an additional 1 percent tax on properties with more than 175 rooms and a .75 percent assessment on properties with 75-174 rooms. Properties with fewer than 75 rooms would be exempt from the assessment.
The additional assessment would generate $1.2 million per year, which would be used to increase Visit Jacksonville’s marketing campaign. That, said Prescott, would result in 120,000 additional visitors and generate 80,000 more room nights.
He said the tourist district is “very flexible” and “once it’s enabled, it’s easy to add to it” by including other tourism segments, such as restaurants and golf courses.
Eventually, it’s possible the district could generate as much as $10 million per year, which could be used to help fund a new Downtown convention center if one is approved, said Prescott.
He presented renderings of what a riverfront convention center might look like if one were developed on the old County Courthouse property near the Hyatt Downtown.
Jacksonville Public Library Director Barbara Gubbin presented three proposals to the committee for its consideration.
Gubbin asked the committee to recommend that information technology services for the public libraries no longer be provided by the City. She said bringing IT management into the library administration would improve service to customers.
Gubbin also asked that facilities maintenance be addressed by the incoming administration. She said the Main Library Downtown is facing water intrusion issues and has $1.6 million in deferred maintenance expenses and the entire system has $9 million in deferred maintenance.
Gubbin said every year since she arrived in Jacksonville in 2005, the City has asked the public library to reduce its budget, resulting in a 41 percent decline in the collection budget and a 21 percent reduction in personnel cost since that time.
She asked the committee to possibly recommend a taxing district for public libraries and the implementation of a policy that would allow the library to retain income from special projects, such as the Conference Center and other programs that might be developed.
Gubbin said the income could be devoted to a “Library for the Future Fund.”
“We’d be a lot more entrepreneurial if we knew we could keep the money,” she said.
The committee will convene its final scheduled meeting at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Ed Ball Building. The public is invited.
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