Weeks after the Jacksonville City Council approved plans for a business improvement district in Five Points, Council member Rahman Johnson is taking steps toward establishing one in West Jacksonville.
The “Wonderland Corridor” district would run along 103rd Street in Jacksonville’s Westside, encompassing commercial properties between Blanding Boulevard and Cecil Commerce Center.
Johnson said he chose the Wonderland name as a companion to the Wonderwood area of Jacksonville, which is north of the Beaches near where the St. Johns River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
“If Wonderwood was the Atlantic whispering dreams into Jacksonville’s shoreline, Wonderland is the Westside whispering back – with pride, power, and a vision for prosperity,” Johnson wrote in a description of the name.
Johnson’s Ordinance 2025-0838 would direct the city’s Legislative Services Division to distribute petitions asking property owners in the corridor if they support or oppose a BID, which would collect fees for improvements and other uses.
Johnson’s petition does not specify what fees the BID would charge. It would ask if property owners would support the concept of using assessed fees to fund improvements rather than a specific plan.
The legislation says funding would likely go toward lighting and façade improvements, street beautification, branding, signage, and grant leverage for bigger upgrades.
The Five Points neighborhood BID, which Council approved in October, is expected to charge fees of 20 to 25 cents per heated square foot of commercial property.
Council member Jimmy Peluso, who introduced the Five Points legislation and represents the area, pledged $150,000 from his community benefits agreement share for the first year of the BID. The Five Points BID will fund security, landscaping and neighborhood promotion.
“The Wonderland Corridor would be a designated area where we invest in ourselves — by using assessments on commercial properties within the district to fund real transformation,” reads the petition, which would be circulated to an estimated 267 property owners in the proposed district with Council approval of Johnson’s legislation.
“Are you in for revitalizing the stretch we call home? Do you believe 103rd Street can be more than just a thoroughfare — it can be a destination?”
According to the legislation, the Wonderland Corridor BID would receive an initial infusion of $750,000 from its three Council district representatives. In its original bill, the BID would include portions of Tyrona Clark-Murray’s District 9, Randy White’s District 12 and Johnson’s District 14.
The three representatives would provide the cash from their share of $1 million provided to each district Council member through the city’s community benefits agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The $300 million CBA complemented the $1.4 billion deal between the city and the Jaguars to renovate EverBank Stadium into the team’s “Stadium of the Future.”
During a Dec. 1 meeting of the Council Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health and Safety Committee, Clark-Murray said she didn’t feel the BID was what the 103rd Street corridor needed.
Rather, she said, the street needed increased safety measures. Johnson argued that distributing a petition with Clark-Murray’s district included would allow for residents to voice their opinions on the BID without binding Clark-Murray to contribute funds or include her district.
The ordinance was deferred in the committee.