A proposed ordinance relaxing commercial and industrial parking and landscaping regulations advanced through the Jacksonville City Council Neighborhoods, Community Services, Public Health and Safety Committee on Oct. 20.
The committee voted 6-1, with member Michael Boylan opposed, to recommend approval of Ordinance 2025-0448, which had drawn concerns from some residents that it would reduce tree cover and green space in the city. The vote came after the committee approved amendments aimed at attempting to find middle ground between businesses and environmental advocates.
The bill would in part reduce requirements for parking to one space per 5,000 square feet of gross floor area from one per 2,000 square feet.
It would also change the city’s requirements for determining how much of an improvement project’s cost must be devoted to landscaping improvement.
The current formula, which applies to structures built before a code adopted in 2011, is the same for residential, industrial and commercial properties. Under Council member Randy White’s bill, the requirements would change for industrial and commercial properties, but residential property regulations would stay the same.
The proposed change would only apply to projects on properties with landscaping that is not in compliance with the 2011 code.
The city now requires property owners who are out of compliance and are spending 50% or more of the property’s assessed value on renovations over the course of three years to devote at least 20% of those renovation funds to landscaping.
For example, if the owner of a property valued at $100,000 made improvements that amounted to $50,000 over three years (50% of the assessed property value), they would be required to devote $10,000 (20% of the improvements) to landscaping to help bring it up to the 2011 requirements.
The proposed ordinance would change those requirements so that property owners who are spending 60% of assessed property value on improvements over a two-year period must put 10% of costs toward landscaping improvements.
Under the new requirements, the property owner in the above example would pay nothing.
If that owner instead spent $60,000 on improvements, they would have to devote $6,000 for landscaping.
White offered amendments to his bill during the Neighborhoods Committee meeting. Those amendments increased the time period of the improvements to two years from the previously proposed one year, and require property owners to spend 10% of the improvement costs on landscaping as opposed to 5%.
White said the most recent amendments came after a meeting involving the city’s Department of Public Works, Scenic Jacksonville, the Southern Group lobbying firm and NAIOP, a commercial real estate redevelopment association.
White said that in the words of former Jacksonville Mayor Ed Austin: “Both sides are not happy, (so) it’s probably a good deal. That’s where we are today.”
During the Neighborhoods meeting, representatives from the Planning Department, Department of Public Works and the Southern Group agreed that while they weren’t completely satisfied with the compromise, they were willing to accept its terms.
Boylan said he feared that loosened regulations would cause increased blight in parts of the city.
“I think this bill moves us in that direction,” Boylan said. “I’m very much concerned on it.”
Representatives from the Planning Department said they were drafting regulations that would create incentives for landscaping projects should White’s bill receive Council approval. Those regulations are not fully formed, and the Planning Department representatives did not offer further detail.
Business owners voiced support for the bill during the Neighborhoods meeting, saying current ordinance code dissuaded Jacksonville’s small businesses from making improvements to their properties.
Brittany Culbreth, the president of Emerald C’s Development Inc., said the current regulations place a burden on small business owners. Unlike larger businesses, she said, they have fewer resources to put toward landscaping and other improvements.
“I just want to make sure that you understand the purpose is not to take away the trees and improvement of landscaping,” Culbreth told Council members during the Neighborhoods meeting. “It’s the purpose to give a little bit more of a buffer to those who are small businesses.”