Jackson Square Controversy Brewing

[ac]

The economic conditions are not conductive to building a dense multifamily TOD with no transit system truly committed or funded to support it.  If we want to see places like Jackson Square come to life we need to make a financial commitment to our rail corridors.

This. I sure wouldn't go it alone, only to get hung out to dry by JTA.

[blizz01]

Interesting -

A new bloom on Philips Highway plants seed of change

Behind a fence full of “No Trespassing” signs and beside hills of fill dirt and asphalt millings, a football-size field of flowers is sprouting in an unlikely spot along Philips Highway.

A few months ago, developer Steve Cissel planted the garden of blooms including zinnias, crimson clovers, black-eyed Susans and California poppies on the property just outside Jacksonville’s downtown.
In a mostly commercial area with a reputation for other kinds of seedy activity, Cissel said someone asked him if the poppies were an opium den in the making.

“People say ‘Philips Highway? That’s Hooker Highway,’” he said.
The land is actually part of a plot of about 18 acres slated to become a cluster of apartments, retail and office space. In the future, it also could include a commuter station for people to board buses or a light rail bound for the downtown.

But with no money to break ground because of the economic downturn, Cissel’s trying to attract positive buzz to a site that once included an old Chevy dealership.
While the blooms are mostly past their peak now, for months Cissel let people cut flowers for free. Now he wants to develop a community garden, and has no-cost plots available in what will become a winter vegetable garden.

City Planning Department supervisor Sean Kelly said the city approved the Jackson Square at San Marco development in October 2008. The go-ahead came despite strong objections of some residents who live on the ritzy side of nearby River Oaks Road railroad crossing at F.E.C. Park.

He said some of those San Marco residents complained about traffic that a new mixed-use development would bring to their streets and the San Marco Square area. But a city study showed the impact would be minimal.

“This is a dream kind of project,” Kelly said. “...This is exactly what we should be doing all over the older urbanized areas.”

Controversy about closing the railroad crossing and blocking the road between the two neighborhoods lingers. Department of Transportation officials said they issued a notice they intended to close the crossing after a River Oaks Road resident appealed to them to do so, including a petition with 95 signatures.

But DOT officials said the city and Cissel filed an appeal, meaning an administrative law judge would recommend an outcome to the DOT’s secretary, who would make the final decision. The parties are scheduled to meet next month to try to resolve the issue, DOT spokesman Dick Kane said.

At the same time, Cissel is hoping to stir a rebirth of perceptions about the interconnected highway strip. Southside resident Carol Kartsonis grew up on land that will include the new project, and sold him her grandmother’s house and land.

“Whether the people in that neighborhood like it or not, I believe they would be well served by a project that promotes mass transit,” the 42-year-old said of those on the rail crossing’s other side. “...I was born on that street. It’s been the wrong side of the tracks in San Marco the whole time.”

Across Philips Highway, some who live in houses that back up to Interstate 95 are also looking forward to a boost in a residential neighborhood that is dying out, including Unita Barnes Fowler.

She and her extended family have lived on Crawford Street for more than 50 years. The 67-year-old said she’s pleased to see something sprouting on the mostly vacant lot if construction isn’t starting.

“I’d much rather see something growing or going up,” Fowler said.

Fans of the Cissel’s flowers said it was a surprise to see the field pop up while driving down the highway.

San Marco resident Leone Faust noticed the zinnias one day because they were a favorite of her mother’s, who had been in a nursing home for several months. When her mother died a few days later, Faust and her sister cut some of the blooms for their loved one’s funeral service.
“It was just meant to be,” Faust said.

San Marco resident Michael Hayden, a 66-year-old retiree and gardening enthusiast, said he’s stopped several times to cut flowers since the day he found the field.

“I said ‘My God!’ I was amazed.”
Hayden said he brings the blooms to friends in retirement homes and likes seeing new life along the tired stretch of highway.
“If he’s allowing vegetables,” Hayden said of Cissel, “maybe I’ll do that, too.”

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-11-20/story/a_new_bloom_on_philips_highway_plants_seed_of_change

[Ocklawaha]

A few months ago, developer Steve Cissel planted the garden of blooms including zinnias, crimson clovers, black-eyed Susans and California poppies on the property just outside Jacksonville’s downtown.
In a mostly commercial area with a reputation for other kinds of seedy activity, Cissel said someone asked him if the poppies were an opium den in the making.

“People say ‘Philips Highway? That’s Hooker Highway,’” he said.
The land is actually part of a plot of about 18 acres slated to become a cluster of apartments, retail and office space. In the future, it also could include a commuter station for people to board buses or a light rail bound for the downtown.

FIRST, RELAX THIS ISN'T OPIUM... LOL!



California Poppy
Sedative; DiureticDESCRIPTION
Eschscholzia californica is a perennial herb growing approx 30 cm tall. Leaves are grayish green and finely divided. Four petalled flowers range from white to red, though most commonly orange and yellow. It is the state flower of California. Does not contain opium. It IS mildly stoning and contains LEGAL Hallucinogens when the leaves and seeds are dried and smoked. While it is a legal Psychoactive Plant anyone looking for a wipe out high is going to be major league disappointed.

TAKE IT EASY PEOPLE, TOMATOES CAN GET YOU STONED!

No kidding as they are a close relation of  canibis, so what to do? Well, you can't make twine out of a tomato plant, but if someone were to dry it and smoke it, all of the medicinal and psychotropic effects of marijuana would be present. tetrahydrocannabinol or THC (the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis) and CBD (cannabidiol, another component in cannabis that may decrease anxiety).  But is it legal?  Actually, yes, since tomatoes and other plants are not illegal, a person would be well within the law to grow them and use them as they please.

Talk about funny, check out THIS legal plant:


The Opium Poppy, Papaver somniferum, available in all of your favorite colors at you local garden supply.

Opium poppies are specifically scheduled under U.S. Law. The Controlled Substances Act, Schedule II, lists "Opium poppy and poppy straw" as well as "Concentrate of poppy straw (the crude extract of poppy straw in either liquid, solid or powder form which contains the phenanthrene alkaloids of the opium poppy)". Opium and its constituent chemicals are listed in Schedule II and some derivatives (such as Heroin) are listed in Schedule I.

There is some confusion in the law, however, because opium-producing poppies are widely grown around the US and Canada and the opium poppy seeds are omnipresent in cooking, breads, and deserts. The grey-blue poppy seeds sold in virtually every grocery store in the US contain low levels of opiates (not psychoactive at amounts used in cooking). Poppy pods are widely used in dry flower arrangements.

Law enforcement in the US is somewhat inconsistent about these plants, although there are continual attempts to try to stop them from being sold or grown. If poppies are grown as sources for opiates, there is no question that it violates the CSA. If poppies are purely grown for ornamental purposes, their legal position is somewhat less clear cut, since they are so widely grown and available.

The other clearly illegal act is cutting the bulb under the flower, which causes it to bleed the psychoactive chemicals. Not that I've ever done this, but I've read the book, seen the movie...

THEN THERE IS THE DEADLIEST PLANT ON EARTH! THE DREDED CANNABIS SATIVA (marijuana).


GOD WHAT A COUNTRY!

OCKLAWAHA

[southerngirl]

FYI...if the T-U had done a BIT of research, they would have found that the neighborhood on River Oaks behind this property is not, in fact, "ritzy" -- it's got 75 or so bungalow homes...homes that are full of working class people who are concerned that this development is going to dump all of its traffic onto a small neighborhood street with a railroad crossing that FDOT has determined after years' worth of research and traffic studies should be closed.

Steve Cissel's wildflowers can't camouflage the ugly reality that this massive development got a free ride on a "transit-oriented development" plan that has no base in reality. They're already talking about their desire to lower the number of apartment units (b/c they won't be able to fill them) and subsequently lower the number of commercial/retail sq feet in Phase 1.

The dead wildflowers are somehow very fitting. But leave it to Steve Cissel to put a wildflower garden in the middle of his trough.

[Coolyfett]

L A M E ! ! !

[Captain Zissou]

L A M E ! ! !

Not really.  The development isn't dead, just in a holding pattern.  While the developer waits, he wants to beautify his site.  I wish the market was better and this could move forward, but for the time being this is a good use for a derelict site. Imagine if the Shipyards did this! What a beautiful site that would be.

[Captain Zissou]

Just drove by the property and they have sprinklers going on about 2 acres of the property.  The area still has the dead remains of last years flowers all over it, but I imagine they spread new seed over top of it.

[Jagsdrew]

With all the apartment/condo development on the Southbank and San Marco, do you think this one starts to turn the corner and gets moving?

[MusicMan]

I think it would be a great spot for a skate park, community swimming pool, and small soccer field for practice. Room for an olympic sized track as well. There's nothing like that serving the greater area is there?

[acme54321]

I don't think the economics would work out in favor of a skate park, pool, and track.

[MusicMan]

Most likely you are correct. That being said, he has been sitting on it for 10 years or so, and not sure what type of income it is producing right now.

[thelakelander]

This project is back: 



http://residentnews.net/2017/05/03/developers-plan-less-intense-jackson-square-development/

[BridgeTroll]

Gamechanger...

[MusicMan]

With a little luck this could be completed before Publix breaks ground!

[dp8541]

So this is the same firm that apparently is out of money to finish the project in Avondale that stalled out after the demo?