Live blogging DDRB Review of Parador Garage

[thelakelander]

But Lake, if garages werent crowd generators, then why is more than 65% of downtown devoted to parking?  All that success cant be wrong!

Yeah, downtown's streets should be bustling with activity from all the garage frontage we've built.  We should be winning ULI awards and having other economic development councils visiting downtown to take lessons on how to build garages with the best of them.

[thelakelander]

Transportation Concurrency Exception Area: Downtown was designated as a Transportation Concurrency Exception Area (TCEA) to promote mixed-use development tied into mass transit options to mitigate the impacts of development on the downtown and surrounding roadway system.

The Office of Economic Development is the master developer of the Consolidated Downtown Development of Regional Impact Development Order (DRI DO), approved March 12, 1993, and the Transportation Concurrency Exception Area (TCEA), approved December 13, 2005. The Downtown Zoning Overlay requires a developer obtain DRI development rights prior to receiving final DDRB approval.

DRI development rights are obtained only after receiving conceptual approval by the DDRB. All new and rehabilitation projects require DRI development rights, which are made available through the Consolidated Downtown DRI DO. A developer of a proposed project must obtain DRI development rights prior to receiving final DDRB approval. DRI development rights are allocated to a developer through a Redevelopment Agreement, negotiated by the Office of Economic Development and approved by City Council. Developers are required to mitigate the impacts of their proposed development by adhering to the Consolidated Downtown DRI DO conditions and agreeing to applicable TCEA Mobility Performance Standards.

The downtown area is designated a TCEA and requires developers to agree to implement applicable mobility improvements that promote mixed-use development, increased efficiency of existing roadways, enhanced streetscapes, mass transit ridership, transit oriented design, etc., in lieu of traditional road widening improvements.

I don't think this would have much influence on what they've proposed, since they're getting the retail requirement waived as an initial phase.  They could simply say they are complying with the guidelines, they're just phasing the mix of uses in, which the JEDC/DIA has already agreed too.  Also, they could probably argue that an "enhanced" sidewalk over what exists today, does improve mobility around the site.

[Tacachale]

Who all are the board members?

[thelakelander]

Chair - Timothy Miller, AIA, ELM - Downtown Property Owner Representative

Vice-Chair -  John A. Fischer, AIA, Danis Construction - Architect Representative

Secretary - Logan Rink, Design Cooperative, LLC - Downtown Property Owner Representative

James F. Bailey, Jr., Bailey Publishing and Communications, Inc. - Downtown Property Owner Representative

Christopher D. Flagg, RLA, ASLA, Flagg Design Studio, LLC - Landscape Architect Representative

Jonathan R. Garza, Garza Constructors, Inc. - Contractor/Developer/ Realtor Representative

Andy Sikes, Baptist Health - Urban Planner Representative

Montasser (Monty) M. Selim, Urban Planner Representative

Roland Udenze, Haskell Architects and Engineers - Architect Representative

[dougskiles]

Transportation Concurrency Exception Area: Downtown was designated as a Transportation Concurrency Exception Area (TCEA) to promote mixed-use development tied into mass transit options to mitigate the impacts of development on the downtown and surrounding roadway system.

The Office of Economic Development is the master developer of the Consolidated Downtown Development of Regional Impact Development Order (DRI DO), approved March 12, 1993, and the Transportation Concurrency Exception Area (TCEA), approved December 13, 2005. The Downtown Zoning Overlay requires a developer obtain DRI development rights prior to receiving final DDRB approval.

DRI development rights are obtained only after receiving conceptual approval by the DDRB. All new and rehabilitation projects require DRI development rights, which are made available through the Consolidated Downtown DRI DO. A developer of a proposed project must obtain DRI development rights prior to receiving final DDRB approval. DRI development rights are allocated to a developer through a Redevelopment Agreement, negotiated by the Office of Economic Development and approved by City Council. Developers are required to mitigate the impacts of their proposed development by adhering to the Consolidated Downtown DRI DO conditions and agreeing to applicable TCEA Mobility Performance Standards.

The downtown area is designated a TCEA and requires developers to agree to implement applicable mobility improvements that promote mixed-use development, increased efficiency of existing roadways, enhanced streetscapes, mass transit ridership, transit oriented design, etc., in lieu of traditional road widening improvements.

I don't think this would have much influence on what they've proposed, since they're getting the retail requirement waived as an initial phase.  They could simply say they are complying with the guidelines, they're just phasing the mix of uses in, which the JEDC/DIA has already agreed too.  Also, they could probably argue that an "enhanced" sidewalk over what exists today, does improve mobility around the site.

Perhaps.

It does open the door for city council to weigh in.  Not saying they will.

[thelakelander]

Good point about council.

[JeffreyS]

Members of the council have expressed to me concern about the use of that site being a parking garage. Well ok it was only two of them but hey lets do whatever we can to keep improving this project that the tax payers are ponying up for.

[simms3]

This parking garage sounds like if it does get voted in now it will have to be grandfathered in before the new JTA guy would have said "What are we Doin?"

The new JTA guy has nothing to do with this project.

Just thinking of the pedestrian experience. How close to a bike rack. Transit. Don't pretend to be an expert but if we have a new JTA guy what is an example from where he is coming from?

LoL...not sure there is an example of that kind of impact being generated by Ford in either SF or Atlanta.  This is what I tried to say before on another thread.  Lake would know better than probably most (or Oklawaha being the transit expert), but to me Ford is a big city transit chief who simply knows how to run a big system.  He's not Mr. Creative trying to implement new things or change any paths.  Arguably under Scott and Ford MARTA deteriorated, both in terms of perception in the public and state government and in terms of operations and finances.

Scott is now going to head MBTA in Boston (again these big cities just trade people...Ford went from Atl to SF back to Atl).  Atlanta took a new route and hired a guy from much smaller San Antonio, which only has busses.  This guy had a stellar reputation there and someone from their authority even wrote an editorial in an Atlanta paper saying how blessed we were and how sad they were that he would leave.  He is most known for getting the ball rolling on streetcars there (though nothing has broken ground yet).  Atlanta is laying track now for its first streetcar in generations, so perhaps he was chosen for a reason (reputation builder and streetcar implementer back where he was from, exactly what the board at MARTA feels the system needs).

[simms3]

And to add, I know in Atl MARTA has nothing to do with improving bike transit or building complete streets.  All up to stakeholders in local CIDs, local NPUs, and non-profits such as Bike Atlanta, Bicycle Coalition, PATH, etc etc.  The city gets involved, but the transit agency has nothing to do with it.  In fact the DRC that impacts me is tied to the NPU and CID in my neighborhood, not to the city.  Code is generalized by the city and specified at the neighborhood level with local representation.  Street projects are funded by CID, not by city.  Even my local police force is barely attached to APD and is instead split funded by APD and the CID and run as a sub-organization called the Midtown Blue (separate uniforms, separate vehicles, separate police station, etc).

If downtown Jax is going to improve, it needs to get serious.  It needs to be its own entity in every way.  DVI needs to advance to the next step and it sure as hell needs a much larger annual budget to get anything substantial done (like all of the complete streets and aesthetic/quality of life improvements we all want built and maintained downtown).  Code needs to be customized to downtown moreso than it is and the DRC should be specific to downtown only, so it can properly serve downtown needs.

[thelakelander]

During the presentation the other day, Ford claimed, while over MARTA he oversaw the implementation of the Lindbergh Station development (billed himself as a TOD expert over the other two finalist).  He also said he implemented the Breeze smart card program.

[simms3]

Breeze maybe, but that was easy...it would have been the only transit system still using tokens if it had not adapted with the times.

TOD?  That's been one of MARTA's big problems (lack of TOD like in DC).  The visionaries behind Lindbergh are a couple of Atlanta developers (someone at a party I was just at was credited and I can't remember who right now).  He may have overseen stuff, but that doesn't mean the ideas were his and seriously, Lindbergh is nothing yet is all Atlanta has in terms of TOD.  There are news articles up here all the time about how pathetic it is.  The last article last week was how MARTA "identified" some stations that could be ripe for TOD.  Stupid.

[thelakelander]

Breeze maybe, but that was easy...it would have been the only transit system still using tokens if it had not adapted with the times.

Lol, that would be JTA.  The SMART card just came out less than a year ago.

TOD?  That's been one of MARTA's big problems (lack of TOD like in DC).  The visionaries behind Lindbergh are a couple of Atlanta developers (someone at a party I was just at was credited and I can't remember who right now).  He may have overseen stuff, but that doesn't mean the ideas were his and seriously, Lindbergh is nothing yet is all Atlanta has in terms of TOD.  There are news articles up here all the time about how pathetic it is.  The last article last week was how MARTA "identified" some stations that could be ripe for TOD.  Stupid.

It's better than anything we have hear in Jax.  Compared to the others who presented, he stood head and shoulders above them.  Bland was......Bland and too general.  Martin didn't even bother to have someone spell check his power point.

[dougskiles]

I am happy with the choice of Ford.  As far as who gets credit for a project, there is rarely one person who can take full credit for anything.  It takes a number of people working very hard to make anything different happen.  And sometimes the most critical element is the agency director allowing the developers to do their thing.