The Jacksonville City Council gave final approval to a 250-unit student housing community near the University of North Florida campus.
On a 16-0 vote, Council granted rezoning for a 17-acre site along First Coast Tech Parkway between Glen Kernan Parkway and Butler Boulevard.
The approval came on Ordinance 2025-0178, which sought to rezone the property from Industrial Business Park to Planned Unit Development, and on condition that the applicant provide a traffic study at civil site plan review.
Council members Terrance Freeman, Nick Howland and Raul Arias were not present for the vote.
Documents accompanying the ordinance list the property owner as University of North Florida Foundation Inc. The complex would be sandwiched between UNF’s Hicks Hall, which is across First Coast Tech Parkway to the west, and a single-family neighborhood to the east. That neighborhood stretches from Glen Kernan Parkway south along Hunterston Lane.
The ordinance came to Council after being unanimously approved April 15 by the Land Use and Zoning Committee and April 3 by the Jacksonville Planning Commission.
Council approved the rezoning with no comment.
Council member Will Lahnen, whose District 3 includes the site, said during the LUZ meeting he supported the project thanks to a layout and design that would limit its intrusiveness on the adjacent single-family neighborhood.
The project is set back 185 feet from the nearest home, with all buildings oriented so that outdoor activities within the complex will be shielded from the neighborhood. The buildings will be set back 60 feet farther from neighboring structures than an adjacent complex to the north, The Flats at UNF.