Council member suggests capping the Downtown Investment Authority’s funding and giving it autonomy

“Other downtowns don’t have 19 people weighing in on every deal,” Rory Diamond says.


  • By Ric Anderson
  • | 6:04 p.m. June 10, 2024
  • | 0 Free Articles Remaining!
Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond is vice chair of the Special Committee on the Future of Downtown.
Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond is vice chair of the Special Committee on the Future of Downtown.
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The vice chair of a Jacksonville City Council special committee on Downtown redevelopment is proposing giving the Downtown Investment Authority a set amount of annual funding and granting it more independence to reduce layers of government involved in project approvals.

At a June 10 meeting of the Special Committee on the Future of Downtown, Council member Rory Diamond said he envisioned the DIA becoming an organization like the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Jacksonville Aviation Authority and JaxPort.

Under its current structure, the DIA is semi-autonomous. It has its own board but requires Council approval for some of its actions, such as granting multimillion-dollar incentive packages to developers of large projects. 

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