Baptist Health Jax hotel headed to DDRB

[Tacachale]

My only devil's advocate here would be that if the project expects a REV grant from the DIA/Southbank CRA, I don't think it's unreasonable to hold it to quality design standards. That said, the DDRB is effectively a rubber stamp in practice, so who knows...

That's fair, I can get behind the idea that property tax-breaks should result in design review. Do you know if REV grants outside of the DIA's geographic scope also result in some sort of design review? (Are REV grants even a thing in other parts of the City?)

Someone might be able to add some extra nuance or correction, but from my understanding:

1. In the 1980s, Jacksonville created redevelopment CRAs for both the Downtown Northbank, and the Downtown Southbank.
2. The basic idea was that - at that moment in time - existing property taxes in those two areas would be treated as baseline property taxes that continue to go to the city. Any incremental property taxes above that each year in the future would be put in a development fund specifically set aside for either the Northbank or Southbank.
3. The DIA was established to manage those incremental tax funds.
4. REV grants are a downtown-specific mechanism deployed by the DIA to incentive projects.

So, in other words:

Shad Khan is considering adding a Four Seasons hotel to the Northbank. Projected annual property taxes for the Four Seasons are $100. Because those property taxes are incremental/net new, instead of going towards into the general fund, they would go into the Northbank TIF/CRA fund, for use at the DIA's discretion. The DIA, with $100 potentially in its pocket, says to Shad Khan, "Hey, I'll give you back $75 of your property taxes each year for the next 20 years if you build the Four Seasons. And I'll keep $25." Shad Khan agrees.

So, long way of saying, although incentives exist elsewhere in the city, the REV grant is unique to downtown, and only available because the DIA has necessary access to the incremental property taxes to refund them.

To answer the question, there's nothing like a DDRB in the rest of the city, but there are specific design requirements in other areas, not only through zoning and land use reqs but in certain historic areas or places with private HOAs. At its best, the DDRB makes sure that properties in the greater Downtown -- including those that are also targeting incentives as noted above -- maintain core urban design principals. As it functions now, it helps back up the basic guidelines and DIA staff recommendations without slowing projects down too much. In the past, there was a lot more rubber stamping of shit designs, but this was less about the DDRB, DIA or design guidelines per se, and more to do with the former mayor's administration pressuring them to rubber stamp terrible designs. We've gotten a lot better designs the last several years where the process is allowed to work.

There are still issues where the guidelines may not be optimal (signage is one that comes to mind) and certainly room for improvement on other things like primary street frontage (as in, which street should even be considered the primary face). But it works a lot better than it used to.