A.G. Gancarski
The major bill discussed in the Jacksonville City Council’s Neighborhoods, Community Investments, & Services Committee Monday ended up being withdrawn.
2016-559 sought a historic designation of the Coquina Road and Confederate monument structures in Hemming Park as “landmarks”.
Council President Lori Boyer described the bill as a “can of worms,” likening council confusion on it to where the body was on Human Rights Ordinance expansion last year.
The bill lacks an advocate on the council or in the administration: indeed, it came out of the Jacksonville Historical Preservation Commission, Boyer said.
Capital transformation of the park, Boyer said, was the province of the mayor and the council.
“We want to maintain a plaza/park in that location … it has always been our town square,” Boyer said.
The problem: the administration does not want to go through the commission to make changes, which would have been the case under the original conception of the bill.
“There are issues to be resolved on this,” Boyer said, “and it is not ready for our action.”
“I would hate to see you vote it down,” Boyer said, given the historical importance of the park.
“History often requires an explanation … a story of how things changed. We need to figure out how to incorporate [the narrative],” Boyer said, urging withdrawal until a “thoughtful conversation” happened.
Boyer believes the “story of our history … our progress” should be told in Hemming Park, the city’s “town square,” but the current bill is not the way to do it.
“I am confident that the administration will not tear down the entire park,” Boyer said, or interfere with what makes the city historic.
Councilman Bill Gulliford noted that the ultimate definition of the park in the future is itself in flux, urging withdrawal, albeit with a caveat.
In addition to the pulling of the Hemming Park bill, a measure regarding the city’s settlement with Ability Housing over a Springfield housing development the city spiked in 2014, and another bill regarding turning Nocatee into a “golf cart community” were deferred.
