New hotel to be built at A1A and Beach

[thelakelander]

Probably the economy.  Judging from the looks of the overgrown site, my guess is its on ice.

[thelakelander]

The website is still up.  It claims the project will be completed Summer 2010.

[cdb]

The condos squeezed through before the rules went into effect.
People are trying to keep the beaches NOT LIKE Daytona.

I agree 100%. I live at the beach and I love that it doesn't look like Daytona.... Its never going to be South Beach, so if it isnt going to be South Beach, then please just leave it the way it is. Daytona is terrible...

[JaxNative68]

The 35' height rule is a joke.  There was always a 35' height limit outside of the central business district of Jax Beach where the majority of the condos are located.  Unfortunately the city government kept giving variances to the developers in return for money.  Unfortunately nobody at beach knew this and got the 35’ height limit put on the ballot and voted for it.  Maybe if the city wasn’t so greedy, and the beaches residents were informed of the height limits on the books, buildings could still be built higher than 35’ within the central business district of Jax Beach.  But as we have it now, building at the beach isn’t that profitable when you have to try to squeeze in the required parking with an office/retail/condo building into a three story building.  What the beach has reduced it future construction to, is a land of strip malls and cheaply built townhouses.  Maybe if the developers did a better job of incorporating retail and pedestrian friendly streetscapes into the condo that are at the beach it might not have become such a hot button issue with the residents of the beaches.  But it truly boils down to the city leaders not respecting what was already in the zoning codes due to greed.

[thelakelander]

The height limit is a joke.  Even in its best days, Jax Beach was never going to turn into a Daytona or South Beach.  Different demographics and zoning regulations....enough said.

However, if people really want to improve the beach, they need to be looking at "design based" codes instead of height.  Most of the stuff that went up and continues to go up is architectural crap and non pedestrian friendly.

[JaxNative68]

very true, but unfortunately it did get built how it did and we now have to live with it and the backlash it created.  Leave it to the developer to always overlook the design for the extra dollar in his pocket.

[thelakelander]

Its the city's fault.  Their zoning allows for crap style development.  If the zoning can be changed, you can limit the amount of new crap being approved.

[reednavy]

About the only descent looking high rise is Costa Verano, but even that's a stretch.

Could be worse:
http://www.miamioceanfrontliving.com/Portofino_Tower_South_Beach

[reednavy]

Found a list of the crap:
http://www.jaxbeachcondos.com/current.htm#LandMark

[Ocklawaha]

Do y'all really think 35' feet is enough? I was thinking more like 12' - 15' max.. Do the math, at 35' feet in the dead of summer, July 4, the angle of the sun will start to throw a shadow toward the beach, by 5pm that shadow, will extend 623' feet, and by 6pm, the whole damn beach goes dark!This isn't tolerable, it's insanity! What we need here are some rules. Strong statements that put developers on notice that this isn't just "another" Miami, Cocoa, or Daytona, they are fooling with here, this is JACKSONVILLE BEACH. Hell, I'm all for putting a limit of 12' feet high and only 2 rooms per acre on the whole damn city, and make the law retroactive to 1890. We'll teach these corporate giants to come to our city with money... absolutely apocalyptic.

...and while we're at it, we want our damn railroad back too!

OCKLAWAHA