SPAR Tries to Pass Law to Ban Non Family Members from Living Together.

[Jth]

notice anything different about the RAP credo?

Riverside Avondale Preservation Inc. (RAP) is a private, non-profit membership organization whose mission is to enhance and preserve the architecture, history, cultural heritage and economic viability of the historic neighborhoods of Riverside and Avondale. RAP encourages community participation, promotes preservation education, and sponsors events that highlight the history, architecture and cultural vibrancy of the district.

Historic Preservation:

What’s in it for me? Why should we preserve our city’s historical resources?

Old Homes are built better. * Old neighborhoods are convenient. * Old Homes are Green. * Old Homes hold their value. * Saving Old Homes is good business.

Resources

Historic preservation is about protecting the details that mark a structure as a unique reflection of its setting, style and period of construction. So how can you learn to recognize the details that make your own home special? The first and most important step is to open your eyes. In Walk Through, a terrific long-distance learning program created by the National Park Service, you’ll discover how to identify the visual characteristics, both interior and exterior, that make historical structures so distinctive; it is the careless replacement or alteration of such features that contributes to the loss of historical fabric in our districts.

Then, feel free to browse through the many articles and resources we’ve gathered here to guide you in your own maintenance and restoration efforts. Even better, why not send us an email with your own favorite books and web links and we’ll add them to our list!

Support Your Local Merchants

Our district has some terrific historic commercial corridors. Why not get out and support them, especially since your local merchants make it so easy to have fun while you do it? Head on over to Funky Five Points for a great urban experience. The shops and restaurants there host the First Friday block party every month, with stores open late, wine tastings, art exhibitions and live music.

Or join your neighbors at the historic Shoppes of Avondale every third Thursday evening for music, dining, art and shopping. The Park & King area, grounded by the historic Whiteway Corner, showcases a growing dining scene. The Stockton area shops include a terrific tapas restaurant and an array of neighborhood services. So . . . what are your waiting for?

History of RAP

    “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” â€" Margaret Mead

In the 1970s, a handful of residents watched with dismay as unique historical structures were left in disrepair or demolished before their eyes. These concerned citizens, led by Dr. Wayne Wood, decided to take action and formed Riverside Avondale Preservation in 1974 with the aim of preserving the unique scenic, cultural and historical atmosphere of the neighborhood.

In that first year the organization hired an Executive Director, published the first newspaper, and developed and coordinated member events like the Arts Festival, the Home Tour, a Fourth of July Picnic and a Haunted House on Halloween. The group also began to identify and organize opposition to activities that threatened the area’s well being, such as large-scale developments, proposed bridges and roadways that might divide the district, and the possible loss of a neighborhood school and library.

In 1979, the nomination of the Riverside area (Old Riverside, Riverside Annex and New Riverside) to the National Register of Historic Places was made a top priority. Volunteers began making records for every home in the district that was over 50 years old; according to preservation guidelines, such buildings are deemed “a contributing structure.”

In 1985, after years of survey and research, Riverside and Riverside Annex became the first Jacksonville neighborhoods to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. This addition to the National Register helped to protect historical properties and bring attention to the significant and varied architecture of our area.

An architectural and historical survey of Avondale was initiated in 1985 and by 1989 Avondale, too, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. That same year, the long-awaited preservation ordinance was introduced in City Council and the city included a state-required “historical preservation concern” as an “element” of the city’s 2010 Comprehensive Plan.

In 1990, Ordinance 90-706-486 passed through City Council. This Historic Preservation Ordinance, which established the seven-member Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission, brought RAP closer to what it had been working for since 1974 by protecting landmark sites and historic districts.

That same year, the building that served as RAP’s headquarters was itself placed in jeopardy. RAP had leased the building located at 2624 Riverside Avenue from a local family for twelve years when the family decided to sell the property to St. Vincent’s Medical Center. RAP not only had to find a new home, but also had to save the old one, plus two others still on the property that were in danger of demolition. The old RAP house was saved and moved to a residential area. Soon thereafter, a woman from Ohio heard about RAP’s need for a new headquarters and donated the Buckland House at 2623 Herschel Street to RAP!

In an effort to speed up restoration efforts in the most neglected part of the neighborhood and to provide an opportunity for home ownership, RAP formed a separate organization called Riverside Avondale Development Organization (RADO) in 1998. The goal was to purchase homes, restore them and sell them to low and moderate-income purchasers, which continues to be RADO’s mission today.

Riverside Avondale Preservation is now one of the South’s largest neighborhood preservation groups, guarding and guiding the ever-evolving mix of history, architecture, culture, and commerce in the Riverside Avondale area. The organization continues to focus on balancing progress and preservation, provides services and educational opportunities to members and property owners, and works to address quality of life concerns for our neighborhood.

If you think RAP wouldn't be highly opposed to new rooming and boarding houses in their neighborhood than I have some real estate to sell you in Nocatee.

If you also think RAP wasn't heavily involved in the writing and enforcement of the Riverside Avondale Overlay than come see me about buying some Madoff stock.

[Jth]

that is unless they dont like what the codes say, then they want to change them.

In secret.

Dated: 10-06-09

Thank you Bridgette,

Did you get my voice mail last week relating to the rooming house report?

Claude Moulton is anxious to have some report for the Board meeting on Monday. Joe Markusic has set up a "clearinghouse Number" that anyone can call, and he will place them somewhere in Springfield.

It is quite obvious to us in the district that this neighborhood holds the key to a lot of money for him, and he is not about to give up.

He is still bragging that if SPAR or the City could have stopped him. they would have already done so.

We find it astounding that someone with so little civic conscience can be allowed to get away with so much.

If it is actually necessary to write some legislation, we would like that done sooner rather than later. In the meantime we need to know how much of what he says is true; can he legally do what he is doing, or is part of it still enforcement?

Thanks again for your help on this.

Its a vengeance campaign.  A conflict of personalities and their heels are dug in, and they do not care what side effects their demands will have on the rest of the city if they get their way.

Thats what it seems to be, and if that is true, they need to cash out and go home.

Now they are trying to change the zoning codes in secret? Maybe you should call Sean Kelly about that, I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it.

[Lucasjj]

Stephen, correct me if I am wrong, but to summarize this...

The current overlay law only allows five unrelated individuals to occupy housing that is coded for a single family. SPAR does not not believe this is being enforced and has asked that something be done to enforce this, and also recommends that new legislation should be created to remedy the issue better.

In the first scanned email you included, the author of that email has said that SPAR does not believe 4 or 5 unrelated people should be considered a family, therefore bringing you to the conclusion they want the new legislation set at 3 people.

[Sigma]

Its the constant harrassment of two fine people, strider and sheclown, that pisses me off.  There are perhaps some other houses with absent landlords that should be examined further. But leave strider alone!  Why is it that the war on strider is at the top of their list?

[fsu813]

(yawn).

Stephen, Sigma, etc.....

Residents don't want boarding / rehab houses in thier 'hood for a variety of reason that seem to boggle your mind. Sorry you don't understand.

As someone said earlier, if you think RAP would be ok with this in thier 'hood you are sadly mistaken. They'd fight like hell to stop new boarding/rehab houses from opening.

By all accounts, Joe/Strider/Bargin is exploiting a loophole in the law and SPAR is trying to close that loophole. Other rehab/boarding houses are now trying to do what Joe is doing. (ie, ever heard the expression that it's not ok for you to throw your trash on the ground, b/c what if everyone did it?)

Doesn't help that he makes money off of these houses and does not live here. That thorws his credibility out the window when it comes to this specific issue.

However, this is not a unique situation to Springfield, as I've chronicled earlier in this post. It's in most major cities, and some not so major.

And......a suggestion......perhaps you should care more about the opinions of home owners in Springfield, and not those just passing through.

Homeowners count more than temporary residents who may pack up and leave next week, next month, next year - when it comes to shaping the neighborhood agenda.

So there =P

[Sigma]

It's funny, strider didn't exploit anything until SPAR started this vendetta against him.  Now he's exploiting loopholes? He's simply defending his legal rights from a hypocritical group of do-gooders.  He's been around longer than any of these new 'saviors' in the community.  His name was never before brought up as one of the slum lords in the area.  But you folks tend to paint with a wide brush..I get that.

I will continue to support SPAR with preservation and revitalization efforts.  But this is off the charts IMHO.  Leave the guy alone.

[fsu813]

That's why it's called a loophole, Sigma. It's a legal way of avoding the intent of the law. Kinda like companies who move thier 'home office' offshore to avoid paying taxes. A loophole.

Now you're exaggerating/lying. Remind me who has said that he's a 'slumlord'? By all accounts he does a fine job with his physical properties, we just don't want more & more people in rehab from this or that to move in. Not from him or any of the various other people/organizations that may not be quite as stand up as Strider / Bargin is. Actaully, rehab isn't the main problem. More like ransdom people with major issues living 5 to a house throughout the nieghborhood. Not cool. Kinda opens the flood gates, ya know.

[Jth]

If its an open process, jth.  Why does only Sean Kelly seem to know about it?

If it is your contention that its not happening, then you are in the position of Calling Louise DeSpain a liar.

Louise is a complex and fascinating woman, and no matter how we might have differing opinions, I have never found her purposefully untruthful and as far as I know, she most certainly is not a liar.

The point about you calling Sean Kelly about this is that he would laugh at your little conspiracy theory. The notion that the director of a non-profit and a city councilman would be able to "secretly" amend something that passed through the city zoning board and city council is a little out there. In fact it couldn't even happen. If there were to be some new legislation or an amendment to the old legislation it would have to pass through the zoning board and then city council. The public would be allowed to voice their opinion at both meetings, so its not as if this is some cloack and dagger operation as you imply. I attended the Riverside Zoning Overlay hearing at the Zoning Board which was in open hearing. Where guess who spoke? Your model organiztion RAP. The director spoke about how their organization had been heavily involved in the drafting of the document. So its not as if SPAR is overstepping its bounds or acting unethical as you say by being involved in the overlay process.

If you have those 30 odd emails, please post one where someone from SPAR overtly says they would like the definition of family to be changed from 5 to 3. Everything else you have posted simply points to SPAR being concerned with the city's inability to enforce the overlay.

Like I said call Sean Kelly about your cloak and dagger theory on the matter, he's a public servant and its not very hard to find his contact info.

[Sigma]

No Loophole. No exaggerating, no lying.  He's been lumped in with the Redwines, Moats, Davidsons, Stockwells as if he runs the same type of operation.  He doesn't.

However, I do get your point and would resist the true slumlords moving in the neighborhood.

I will restate

Its the constant harrassment of two fine people, strider and sheclown, that pisses me off.

[cindi]

Well thats true Cindi.  Do you think that the all people should be screened for their background of drugs, alcohol, divorce, credit, or sexual past before they can buy a house in Springfield?  because a fair number of people with those issues are you other next door neighbors as well. 

SPAR isnt on a crusade against the same kind of people as long as they have good credit.

Does anyone care that people are selling houses to criminals?

Here is a blurb where spar is very disappointed at the current laws, as interpreted by the General Counsel's office.



The question is "where does this stop?"

Why is this organization defined by what it is against, and why cant it work for something?

As I said earlier, on an individual basis these people are lovely, wonderful human beings.  I don't know why they are so destructive the minute they walk through the front door of that building.

actually many property owners do run background checks on their tenants to include credit checks.  why would they want to rent to someone that historically has had “issues” in the past? as for the renting to baby rapers, no, i don’t think it is very neighborly (regardless of the neighborhood) to purposely rent to one.  jacksonville has approximately 1515 registered sex offenders in it’s 874 square miles (the estimate is 522 people per 1 baby raper) or about 2 per square mile.  however, in our 1 square mile of springfield we have approximately 115 - or if you use a population of 2000 that’s about 1 baby raper per 17 people.  these people are renting from someone, people that don’t care about the people that they are placing in harms way.  people that just want to make a quick, easy buck. 
some boarding/rooming/recovery/insert whatever you want to call it houses actually check out their tenants, it’s the ones that don’t, and have filled their places with anything with a pulse that are problematic.  for instance, the one at the corner of 7th and pearl - has a known offender living in it that has actually been re-arrested not too long ago, as well as someone that “stays” there that deals/buys drugs daily on the corner of 7th and perry (guess he’s recovering from sobriety not the other way around) and in our alleys.  if they are going for the picture of what we don’t want - they are it. so, do i think that a group like that living together is a good idea - no.

[Jth]

really jth?

So you think that the neighborhood that St. Vincents is in has no recovery homes in it?

And do you think that they have ever tried to limit the number of people who are allowed to reside in a house?

Because if you do, then there is a place on the SPAR board for you.

Dr. Wayne Wood, one of the finest and most genteel men that it has ever been this city's honor to count among its citizens, has been a driving force for RAP since its inception.

His attention has been on the positive restoration of the architecture since the very beginning, and he personally fought the kind of rapscallion developer driven mentality that has guided spar, when that mentality reared its head in Riverside.

He is a gentleman, a scholar, and a humanitarian, we could all benefit by another hundred Wayne Woods.

I certainly hope that you can refrain from smirching the public reputation of this fine man.

What are they recovery homes for heart attack patients? My parents have lived in Avondale for over 15 years and I've never once heard of a recovery home, boarding home or anything similar for that matter. Not saying they definitively don't exist, just that I'd love to see some proof. You can't just say something and then have it magically come true.

Yea I absolutely think RAP either has or would try to limit boarding houses, rooming houses, etc from coming into their area. As I said in my other post, RAP was heavily involved in the writing of the Riverside Avondale zoning overlay. So I would imagine they made sure there was plenty of language in it that protected their neighborhood from threatening interests.

So I "smirched" the public reputation of a guy that is involved in RAP because I mentioned that RAP would also fight from having boarding houses? So then in turn aren't you doing the same to everyone involved with SPAR with the nastiness you've spewed in this thread? Thats a bit of hypocrisy don't you think?

[Sigma]

Cindi, you have done your homework and make some good points.  Focusing on those houses/apt buildings where you know of shady activity is where the efforts should be. 

[strider]

I've been trying to avoid posting, but....

The definition of a "family" as far as the current code goes:

Family means one or more persons occupying a single dwelling unit; provided, that, unless all members are related by law, blood, adoption or marriage, no family shall contain over five persons.

Then, to repeat the bit from August 7th, 2009 "SPAR Speaks", which, by the way, was only distributed to a select few, or at the very least, some members (like me) were not included.

The overlay does not allow four or five unrelated individuals to move into a house that is single family home, that does not constitute a family.

First and foremost, the overlay does not address the definition of family in any way. It is done by the general code as defined above. Which means that a family is currently defined as including up to five unrelated adults. So, not only can we see that SPAR Council out and out lied about what the overlay says, they do not consider more than three (3) unrelated adults to be a family. Stephen is right in his assessment of what SPAR Council is going to try to do.  The secret part is that they  do not let anyone else know what they want to do until they do it.  Particularly the likes of me. 

What also can be seen is that there is no loophole.  To be a loophole, it has to be "grey".  This is simply black and white.  Rentals to legal families are legal all over Jacksonville, even in Historic Springfield, apparently much to the chagrin of SPAR Council.

I may not currently live in Springfield, but then again, neither does SPAR Council’s favorite son anymore.  At least I am in good company.  Is Mack’s name now going to be dragged through the mud as much as mine is? It is ludicrous to think that even though I only have business and home investments in Springfield that I do not care what happens to Springfield.

[sheclown]

Residents don't want boarding / rehab houses in thier 'hood for a variety of reason that seem to boggle your mind. Sorry you don't understand.

Oh we understand quite well.  You don't get to make that decision.  That is something that you don't seem to understand.

[Dark Knight]

Maybe people like myself and my friends , who are in recovery and work in the area, and you would be amazed at some of the employers and the skills with who we work and provide for are just not welcome here . Maybe I will move back to Ortega ,where the people are nice and leave Springfield to the crack dealers nobody seems to be able to control.