Jacksonville Landing Says Garage Not Enough

[thelakelander]

By Steve Patterson jacksonville.com Copyright 2011 The Florida Times-Union. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 
September 13, 2011 - 10:38pm
Jacksonville Landing says $3.5 million grant for parking garage not enough
A deal to help build a 500-space parking garage near The Jacksonville Landing won a $3.5 million pledge of support from the City Council Tuesday.

But that apparently won't change the city's decades-old obligation to finance another garage in almost the same spot.

"It's a nice addition to downtown. It doesn't have anything to do with us," said Bruce Barcelo, a lobbyist for Landing owner Toney Sleiman and investors working with him.

The city made a deal to provide parking before the Landing opened in 1987, but that still hasn't been fulfilled. Doing that would require the city to provide another 300 parking spaces on weekdays and 375 on nights and weekends.

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-09-13/story/jacksonville-landing-says-35-million-grant-parking-garage-not-enough

[iMarvin]

Another level should just be added on to this plan. That should solve the number of spaces problem. Also, I don't think it would matter much if the Landing had dedicated parking or not. There's not any other places to go in that area. And what do they mean when they say it's not in the right location? It's too far away? That's as close as you can get.

[thelakelander]

Yeah, they're going around in circles at this point.  If I'm the city, I'd just provide whatever dedicated number of parking spaces they're on the hook for and move on.  I'm really not a fan of this garage (I like the concept of better utilizing existing parking the area), but if its going to go up, go ahead and put all of the Landing's spaces in it and call it a day.

[Dapperdan]

Parking is not the answer. I was in the landing last week and noticed that nearly half of the food court spaces are empty. I remember when they were all full. I simply do not feel that whatever parking they want is going to change anything. It is what it is now.

[Garden guy]

Parking has never been the issue with the landing....the owner is still grabbing at straws trying to keep his space viable and relavent and always has...even when it opened it was'nt as strong as it should have been and the owners nasty attitude did'nt help anything...maybe he should sell the place and retire...let someone in there that's easy to work with and someone with modern ideas...i went there about a week ago and it just all seems so sad and desperate...and i'm sorry...parking is'nt going to help..and don't blame the economy...when the economy was roaring the landing was still just making it...

[JeffreyS]

You know lots of the businesses the Landing would like to pursue require dedicated parking.  The bigger issue is Downtown if it was full of residents and visitors to compliment the daytime workforce it would all be fine.

[thelakelander]

There is no single answer but if the place is to remain a retail/entertainment center (the lease is still in effect for several more decades from my understanding), then dedicated parking certainly plays a role in any type of redevelopment scheme.  With that said, regardless of how we personally feel about parking, the city made a committment that hasn't been fulfilled since the place opened in the 1980s.  At what point do you officially not decide to live up to the promises that were originally made to get the place built and what will be the impact of being known as a public government that reniges on multimillion dollar deals with the private sector?

[thelakelander]

You know lots of the businesses the Landing would like to pursue require dedicated parking.  The bigger issue is Downtown if it was full of residents and visitors to compliment the daytime workforce it would all be fine.

In reality, downtown hasn't been full of residents living in what we consider as the core since the 1920s/30s and it won't be anytime soon.  What it did have was high density residential districts surrounding it (connected by streetcar) and a built in economic backbone (where the rail & maritime industries met).  On a larger level, perhaps its time to focus on re-establishing that lost network of connectivity and commerce.

[JeffreyS]

Should be easier.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

The city owes a garage to the Landing.

The city wants to build a garage caddy-corner to the Landing - but not for the Landing.

Most national chains won't move in without a set # of DEDICATED parking spots - doesn't include street parking or other garages

'People' complain that we don't have the retail DT that we have elsewhere (read:  Big Name Nationals)

'People' complain that there's never any parking DT when they finally decide to try the Landing

WTF?  If this isn't political hamstringing then I don't know what is.   

[tufsu1]

Yeah, they're going around in circles at this point.

you mean they keep driving around the roundabout 

[avonjax]

The bottom line is the city owes parking to the Landing.

[Garden guy]

Parking is not an issue in downtown...the issue is people who think they should have a parking spot at the front door of every place they visit....if you can't walk a few blocks then move to lake city and have a good time....i never have understood the whole hoopla over parking downtown...i have never had a problem..and one other thing i'm sure the city would be willing to put a parking lot there if the place were'nt empty half of its life..just because you make a parking space does'nt make the demand for your business go up...

[thelakelander]

^The issue of dedicated parking is completely different than the issue of some people looking for a parking space at the front door of some place they are trying to access.  The dedicated parking issue can be taken care of by better utilizing existing parking spaces, which is what the dead deal for the Omni lot would have done.  Nevertheless, if the city is going to invest in a garage (highly questionable investment, imo), they might as well provide the exact number of spaces for the Landing that they agreed to in their deal.

[JeffreyS]

GG there are bureaucracies that are inherent in many big businesses. So even if parking isn't an issue, their check list says something like we require 300 dedicated spots so if the Landing doesn't have those spots they just look elsewhere without doing some parking investigation.