A.G. Gancarski
The Tuesday morning meeting of the Jacksonville City Council Recreation, Community Development, Public Health and Safety Committee happened as scheduled. A few highlights.
The first order of business was a discussion of 2015-143, a bill marked “DEFER” in the agenda. Councilman Reggie Brown wanted to know why the city’s approach to accepting grants was “stagnant.” The grant from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers covered two years to “develop and implement a resilience strategy for Jacksonville,” in accordance with the 100 Resilient Cities Initiative.
The bill, said Ali Korman Shelton from the Lenny Curry administration, ran into “challenges” with the previous council; the administration will review and get back to the committee. Brown continued with his defense of the “exploratory opportunity” offered by the grant, which does not obligate the city to continue the initiative once the grant elapses.
From there, discussion moved to 2015-360, the Van Wert Avenue river access bill. A proposed amendment from Councilman Matt Schellenberg asked for a return of fees, totaling $1,600. That’s not allowed by city law, so the amendment was withdrawn.
Councilman Jim Love advocated for withdrawal of the bill, saying that “many, many people” in the neighborhood oppose the ordinance. Although council seems almost unanimous in its opposition to the ordinance at this point, with an 8-0 vote in favor of withdrawal, local fixer/lawyer Paul Harden has drafted a memorandum of understanding that obligates the city to within 30 days install no-parking signs and signs limiting access, as well as committing to maintenance and repair of the bulkhead and the stormwater draining system.
For Harden, it’s a rare setback in terms of his dealings with a City Council so friendly that some have called him the 20th member. The memorandum of understanding would allow him to save face.
An ordinance seeking to bump up Medical Examiner storage and training fees, 2015-405, occasioned a lively discussion of cadaver storage and display on its way to unanimous approval. Apparently, a trip to the medical examiner’s office does not require interested parties to look at the cadavers on site.
Then 2015-476 covered a blighted zone in Arlington. The Community Redevelopment Area included much of the Jacksonville University campus in the original CRA. The amendment exempts the university from the redevelopment area.
The CRA would establish a tax increment district. Referred to as a “corridor improvement plan” related to the Arlington Expressway Corridor and surrounding areas, the idea is that it is a “manageable area that can be redeveloped,” and that could create a “ripple effect.”
Discussion included a review of the Town and Country shopping center, which devolved over the decades from a neighborhood shopping center to a blighted area with vacant storefronts and a history of sketchy nightclubs.
The bill was unanimously approved, as was an ordinance to appropriate $274,000 for the Healthy Families Jax Program, to benefit 72 at-risk families. As well, an ordinance to allot space to this program was approved.
The Committee moved on to discuss the need for fire stations. As is known, the closer a fire station is, the lower the homeowner’s insurance rates are. There has been one new fire station in the past five years locally, and Charles Moreland, a Fire Department former director and chief, has a prominent role in the Curry administration and is advocating improvements in that areas.
