Mayor Donna Deegan’s first Capital Improvement Plan proposes to spend $31.5 million over the next five years to build or complete new fire stations throughout the city.
In the upcoming fiscal year 2023-24, the CIP has $21 million for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department to replace, refurbish and maintain fire stations.
Another $3 million is proposed to design and build a marine fire station and dock at Metropolitan Park that will serve Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s Four Seasons Hotel-anchored development and other development projects planned for the Downtown Northbank Riverfront. JFRD also will receive funding for 60 new positions.
Deegan agreed to include $7.8 million in her budget requested by Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters for 40 new police officers and 18 nonuniformed positions.
All police and firefighters would receive a 4.25% raise, if approved by City Council.
The Deegan administration and Council will not include any direct funding in the 2023-24 budget for the Jaguars’ proposed $2 billion stadium renovation and mixed-use neighborhood in the Sports Complex.
But the mayor added $2 million to the Office of General Counsel’s budget to hire outside legal counsel to advise her administration during negotiations with the NFL and team ownership.
The Capital Improvement Plan has $7.5 million to continue upgrades to the city-owned 121 Financial Ballpark that were required by Major League Baseball when the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp announced in December 2020 the team was moving from the AA to AAA affiliate of the Miami Marlins.
That’s on top of the $10 million included last year in Mayor Lenny Curry’s final CIP. The total project was proposed at $24.8 million.
Deegan’s CIP puts $60 million into Downtown Northbank and Southbank projects, continuing the push to spend money on Downtown infrastructure projects started by Curry the last three years.
The mayor’s proposal puts $12 million into the Liberty Street Marina adjacent to the Ford on Bay, which is the former Duval County Courthouse and City Hall Annex site. There is $8.9 million to continue work to shore up the Northbank Riverwalk St. Johns River bulkhead.
A $10 million extension of the Northbank Riverwalk from Catherine Street to Metropolitan Park would provide pedestrian access to the future Museum of Science & History, Shipyards West Park and the Four Seasons Hotel on the former Shipyards site. The CIP has a $10 million line item for design and construction of that park.
In total, the CIP has $22.8 million for McCoys Creek, which flows through Downtown’s Brooklyn neighborhood.
The city and the nonprofit Groundwork Jacksonville are working to beautify and restore the greenway as parkland along the multiuse Emerald Trail route. A $7 million line item would fund improvements to the McCoys Creek outfall that ends at Fuqua Development LLC and Tribridge Residential’s One Riverside mixed-use retail, apartment and restaurant development.
Deegan’s CIP and city budget start to move on one of her 2023 campaign promises to address the city’s climate and resiliency concerns.
Her capital spending plan has $10 million reserved for resilience infrastructure projects, and she intends to use $20 million in the tree protection subfund and $1.5 million from tree maintenance to plant shade trees to help lower temperatures in neighborhoods indicated as high-risk by the city’s recent heat-mapping study.
The CIP also has $16.5 million to replace bridges and river bulkheads as well as $12 million for drainage system and stormwater maintenance.