A proposed change in Jacksonville’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan to provide nonfinancial incentives to developers for building resilient residences in dense areas moved through a City Council committee on June 16.
The Land Use and Zoning Committee voted 6-0, with member Rory Diamond absent, to approve Ordinance 2026-0311, which would alter the city’s land development regulations by creating “target growth areas” to grant developers higher density, smaller lot sizes, building height flexibility, increased lot coverage and parking relief. The regulations are contained in the comprehensive plan, which guides the city through short- and long-term development goals.
In exchange, developers would pledge a share of their units to be affordable housing or make their properties more resilient against natural elements.
“This would provide clear expectations for developers, and it ties our housing directly to our infrastructure and where high intensity should go, because they’re served with public service infrastructure,” Planning Department Director Helena Parola said in a May 7 presentation to the Planning Commission.
“We look to areas that are better suited to accommodate growth, lower flood risk and allow housing opportunities to be connected to transit.”
Target growth areas would be created in areas determined by the city’s Office of Resilience to be in lower flood risk areas. The legislation also requires those areas to be within a half-mile on either side of high-traffic streets and highways and the Emerald Trail, the 30-mile system of pedestrian and bicycle paths under construction in and around Downtown.
The density requirements would raise the limit for how many dwelling units per acre each land use could contain. Target growth areas would see increased maximum density of 15 to 40 units per acre in select areas.
The push for higher-density housing comes as Duval County’s population is expected to grow. U.S. Census numbers show that Duval’s population rose from 864,263 in 2010 to 995,567 in 2020. A University of Florida study projects Duval’s population will be 1.29 million by 2050.
To account for the growth, the city should plan for 92,282 new housing units between 2020 and 2045, according to its comprehensive plan.
The proposal sets affordability and resilience criteria that developers must hit to reach their incentives. Developers would choose from one of two affordable housing options or three of five resiliency options.
The affordable housing options are:
• 20% of rental units for households earning 100% area median income or less. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the area median income in Jacksonville is $108,700. The city of Jacksonville uses HUD statistics in determining affordable housing policy.
• 20% of for-sale units for households earning 140% AMI or less.
The resiliency requirements are:
• 50% of the hardscape should be permeable.
• 75% of planting areas should be used for bioretention.
• 50% of projected energy demand should be satisfied by on-site renewable energy production.
• 40% of surface parking lots and other hardscape areas should be shaded.
• The first 3 inches of any rainfall event should be retained or detained.
The Planning Department said that without passing the regulation, at least 430,000 Duval County residents would be exposed to flood risk by 2070, creating an increased taxpayer burden. Currently, more than 6% of the city’s homes are at high risk of flooding, and that risk could triple by 2070, the department said.
The legislation comes from the work of the city’s Land Development Regulations Update Committee, commissioned by Mayor Donna Deegan in 2023 and made up of planners, engineers, developers and neighborhood advocates.
“There is a strong belief with (the Northeast Florida Builders Association), the Chamber of Commerce people that were on this committee that if this is adopted, that in fact we will get additional housing of a variety of different kinds in the city,” said Emily Pierce, an LDRU committee member and an attorney with Rogers Towers Attorneys.
After one individual, Jamie Travis-Leonard, told LUZ committee members she worried increased density would worsen the effects of food deserts around the city, Parola said the Planning Department was working on a similar plan that would address those issues.
The department said the legislation proposed by the committee does not apply to all areas and would not conflict with the character of single-family neighborhoods, the department said in its presentation to the commission.
That comes in contrast with a “missing middle” housing proposal introduced in 2024 and withdrawn in early 2025, which sought to pave the way for duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes in Jacksonville, including some existing single-family neighborhoods.
Opponents said that proposal was incompatible with surrounding neighborhoods, would overtax infrastructure such as roads and drainage systems, and would diminish Council’s control over building proposals. That measure was withdrawn.
The map under consideration by Council is a pared-down version of the “missing middle” map, focusing on specific corridors of Jacksonville rather than swaths of the city.
The measure previously received unanimous approval from the city’s Planning Commission on May 21. It’s set for a full Council vote on June 23.