The Forgotten Skyway Plan

[Metro Jacksonville]

The Forgotten Skyway Plan



When long term Downtown master plans continue to be rewritten with each mayoral administration, it's hard to achieve anything at all. The Skyway may be the most visible example of changed priorities, incomplete vision, and poor execution.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/940

[Charles Hunter]

Good article ... move those 60,000 jobs from SouthPoint / Baymeadows downtown and the Skyway and downtown would be crowded.  When the Skyway was being planned, those were cow pastures and sand dunes.

Also, I seem to recall there was supposed to be a major development - not unlike the current "Bay Street Station" plan around the Jefferson Station.

[GatorShane]

Good article ... move those 60,000 jobs from SouthPoint / Baymeadows downtown and the Skyway and downtown would be crowded.  When the Skyway was being planned, those were cow pastures and sand dunes.

Also, I seem to recall there was supposed to be a major development - not unlike the current "Bay Street Station" plan around the Jefferson Station.

I believe that was the Bucky Clarkson hotel plan. If I am not mistaken it was going to be 23 stories and possibly a Marriott.

[9a is my backyard]

move those 60,000 jobs from SouthPoint / Baymeadows downtown and the Skyway and downtown would be crowded. 

Exactly.  It amazes me to see how much downtown has fallen off in such a short period of time. 

[Coolyfett]

When long term Downtown master plans continue to be rewritten with each mayoral administration, it's hard to achieve anything at all. The Skyway may be the most visible example of changed priorities, incomplete vision, and poor execution.

I blame Hazouri & Austin. They should have finished it, especially after the city was awarded the Jaguars, they should have made it a priority to get the Skyway down Bay Street. I still don't know what the COJ is waiting on. Why let the Town Center go to Gate Parkway when it could have easily been in that craphole they call a parking lot on Bay & Jefferson. BACKWARDS....There needs to be some sort of incentive to build near the Skyway. Peyton like Austin & Hazouri has done nothing! Who's next already?

[Keith-N-Jax]

move those 60,000 jobs from SouthPoint / Baymeadows downtown and the Skyway and downtown would be crowded. 

Exactly.  It amazes me to see how much downtown has fallen off in such a short period of time. 

Dont forget St Jonhs Town center, that would get people downtown.

[9a is my backyard]

There needs to be some sort of incentive to build near the Skyway.

Do any such incentives exist?  What's the main roadblock keeping businesses out of downtown?  I know rents are high, there's little foot traffic, and it's hard to deal with COJ, but would it be possible to set up some kind of program to subsidize rents for a few years to help businesses get on their feet?

[Keith-N-Jax]

Very good article, I remember when sears was downtown.

[copperfiend]

move those 60,000 jobs from SouthPoint / Baymeadows downtown and the Skyway and downtown would be crowded. 

Exactly.  It amazes me to see how much downtown has fallen off in such a short period of time. 

Dont forget St Jonhs Town center, that would get people downtown.

Would it? Is that what the Landing was supposed to do?

[Matt]

Would it? Is that what the Landing was supposed to do?

The Landing and the Town Center are two completely different animals.
If Town Center was Downtown people would go. Maybe not as many but people would go.

[ProjectMaximus]

Dont forget St Jonhs Town center, that would get people downtown.

SJTC couldn't go downtown, though. The design is such that it just couldn't exist there.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Then make a design that would fit, plenty of land downtown on the Northbank.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Another thing the Landing never had the kind of dining and shopping that the St. Jonhs Town Center has.

[Coolyfett]

Then make a design that would fit, plenty of land downtown on the Northbank.

Yep, there sure is. Where the Bay Street Station is suppose to go, would have been a great location. The area where the Kings Avenue Station is being built could have also had the same type of developments. I am not even sure SJTC is inside the 295 Beltway...

[ProjectMaximus]

Then make a design that would fit, plenty of land downtown on the Northbank.

Then it might not be so popular. You change the design and you change what it is. You pick it up and put it downtown and you have a bunch of isolated one-story shops surrounded by enormous surface lots NOT contributing to the urban connectivity downtown. All I'm saying is, dreaming we could move the Baymeadows/Southpoint office complexes downtown and convert them to more appropriate urban office space is conceivable (though I'd bet quite a few businesses would tell you that they're happier in a suburban campus environment than in a downtown). But the SJTC is not as likely to translate as well and still have the same kind of success with the same demographic.

Anyway, sorry if I sound too argumentative. I just made a comment earlier and felt I should back it up since I had already thrown my hat in the ring. I've never studied urban planning of any sort, so this is all just my opinion.