Downtown's Blighted Surface Parking Lots Under Fire

[Ocklawaha]

Hell, MI




Here we go on an Ocklawaha photo adventure... looking for look alikes? How about Jacksonville (above) or the Gleeson, AZ, Saloon, where Johnny Ringo was last seen alive... probably just before meeting our local boy (Valdosta) Doc Holiday.









How about strange metalic things jutting out of the walks and foundations? Jacksonville or Gold Center, Nevada?









Like grass covered wide open spaces? You could visit Jacksonville or Fort Larimie, Wyoming...








My favorite is a sidewalk that is 500 miles from nowhere and 2 feet from HELL... Like Jacksonville (above) or The Manzanar Concentration Camp near Death Valley, California.








I've always found some people are fond of bricks, something we have had an abundance of just like the Ghost Town of Elk Falls, Kansas... One has to wonder if we're next?






OCKLAWAHA
Smile Lunican 

[sheclown]

Here's a simple solution that will satisfy the garage owners AND be good for the environment.

Require that all concrete be removed from every vacant site as part of the demolition.  Make it retroactive.  No surface parking available and much less storm water runoff since there will be a lot more exposed dirt.

I totally agree.  And everywhere in the city, not just downtown.  A meadow is better than the scabs.

[Dog Walker]

SCABS!  Perfect, just perfect description!

[Jdog]

ooph:
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Articles   2010   December   10th   Parking lot proposal receives chilly reception at JEDC, Tax refund for aircraft assembly plant approved 
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Special to the Daily Record

The Embraer Super Tucano light attack aircraft could be assembled in a hangar at Jacksonville International Airport.Parking lot proposal receives chilly reception at JEDC, Tax refund for aircraft assembly plant approved
12/10/2010
by Max Marbut
Staff Writer

Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Executive Director Ron Barton presented a plan Thursday to the JEDC to mitigate blight among Downtown parking lots.

The proposal, if enacted by City Council, would require owners of affected properties to meet higher standards for appearance and safety and require any property used as a parking lot to be licensed as a business.

Before he completed his presentation, commissioners expressed skepticism.

Primarily aimed at surface parking lots in the vicinity of the new County Courthouse, the proposed changes would apply to almost 50 percent of Downtown’s total acreage west of the sports complex.

Of 263 surface parking lots in the plan, Barton said 32 percent are “acceptable” and the remainder “need some, or a lot, of help.”

In addition to parking lots, the proposed amendment to the zoning code would also require owners of vacant lots to remove foundation slabs, grade the property and plant grass, even if the property is not to be used for parking.

Commissioner Jack Meeks, who lives and owns a business in Springfield, asked what the City’s recourse would be if a property owner refused to comply with the regulations.

Barton said the reason for requiring a license to operate a parking lot would allow the City to “send a badged employee to shut down the illegal lot.”

Meeks responded that when he has requested the City to enforce municipal code violations, even in cases of possible public safety or health violations, the City has been reluctant to enforce the code due to lack of resources.

Commissioner Randle Shoemaker-Crump, who is senior vice president and major claims counsel for Fidelity National Title Group, said, “It’s not fair to ‘slap down’ on parking lot owners. We should offer incentives for owners to improve their lots.”

Barton said that owners of the lots “are not rational investors” and “most bought the property 20 years ago at $2 a square foot and then didn’t do anything with it during the hottest real estate market in history.”

He also asked, “Why should we give a tax credit to someone who hasn’t invested in their property in 20 years?”

Commissioner Barbara Moore, division president of Lennar Homes, said perhaps owners of surface parking lots are providing a product the market prefers over parking in covered garages, which usually are more expensive and located outside the urban core.

“We have to listen to what the buyers are telling us. Some people will only pay for cheap parking,” she said. “How downtowns worked 20 years ago is not how downtowns work today. Now people want to park close to their destination.”

Before hearing the parking lot presentation, commissioners approved a Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund for Embraer Aircraft Holding Inc. that could set the stage for the company to open an aircraft assembly plant in an empty hangar at Jacksonville International Airport.

Embraer also is considering sites in Nashville, Tenn., and Hartford, Conn., for the facility. The product involved is the Super Tucano light attack aircraft, a two-seat turboprop plane that’s currently used by five air forces, including those in Brazil and Colombia.

Embraer President Gary Spulak said the company has submitted a Request for Proposal to the U.S. Department of Defense for a program at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to help the government of Afghanistan build an air force for counterinsurgency operations.

If the Defense Department awards the contract to Embraer and if the company selects Jacksonville for the assembly plant, 50 jobs would be created at an average salary of $49,500, plus benefits, which would qualify for a tax refund of up to $150,000. The state’s share of the refund would be $120,000, with the City responsible for the $30,000 balance.

In addition, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority has agreed to provide $2 million in improvements to the former Piedmont Airlines hangar at JIA for the assembly plant.

“We have a strong partnership with Jacksonville already,” said Spulak. “Our company sees Jacksonville as the location of choice, particularly for defense contracts.”

The proposal will be presented to City Council for its approval.

[Captain Zissou]

Wow.  It's Ron Barton vs the small town hicks apparently.  The points he raised were valid and accurate.  Most of the lot owners aren't budding developers just waiting on the market to turn around in order to develop their parcel.  They're crooked business men who bought a lot for dirt cheap in the 80's, haven't invested a dime, and are waiting to sell the lot for $3 million after the courthouse is finished and the market turns.  It's time to hold these guys accountable.

Most of the legitimate surface lots in downtown already fall into the 'acceptable' category.  This legislation targets the slumlords.

[fsujax]

A rep from Lennar homes sitting on the JEDC Board and making comments about Downtown. Has Lennar ever invested in Downtown redevelopment? This is exactly why Downtown needs to have the DDA back!

[Bativac]

"We should offer incentives for owners to improve their lots."

I LOLed

"Clean this up, and we won't shut it down!"

My neighbors can call the city on me if I let my lawn go for months on end, but these lots can sit around looking some something out of Life After People and the city is helpless?

I don't think downtown Jacksonville is ever going to make any kind of comeback. It's doomed. There, I said it.

[urbaknight]

"We should offer incentives for owners to improve their lots."

I LOLed

"Clean this up, and we won't shut it down!"

My neighbors can call the city on me if I let my lawn go for months on end, but these lots can sit around looking some something out of Life After People and the city is helpless?

I don't think downtown Jacksonville is ever going to make any kind of comeback. It's doomed. There, I said it.

I'm giving Jax a few more years to get it together, or if we end up with the same leadership after the election, I may have to move back home. I need a city to be able to get around in; and I need lots of diversity and lots of places to go.

I'm cautiously hopefull that Jax can turn it around.

[stjr]

Here is a novel idea.  Tax each parking space downtown, the proceeds of which go toward funding mass transit improvements to make parking unnecessary downtown. 

[fieldafm]

It's official... Barbara Moore and Randle Shoemaker-Crump are officially on the watch list.

I literally picked my chin off the floor when I read the tax incentive comment this morning.

[tufsu1]

does anyone else find it odd that the comment about parking garages is that they are usually more expensive and OUTSIDE the urban core.

[ChriswUfGator]

does anyone else find it odd that the comment about parking garages is that they are usually more expensive and OUTSIDE the urban core.

Shows you how little any of those commissioners actually go down there. Half of the core is parking! What idiots.

[Ocklawaha]

Yeah TU, Barbara spoke like a true suburban sprawl queen...  There comes a time when you have to ask yourself, does she know what urban density is?  Can she spell MASS TRANSIT and/or SKYWAY? Could it be she's never experienced Park and Ride?  Maybe someone should point out that parking might be a problem rather then a solution. Parking could also be a means to an end...

STJR, yep what I've been saying all along... carrot and stick, transit or pay?

OCKLAWAHA

[Ernest Street]

OK, I might be shooting from the hip here, but doesn't COJ send a bill if they have to mow a neglected yard? I have seen the city actually mow an out of town owned property several times here on Ernest Street, and assumed the owner was billed or taxed for this.

[strider]

While I still believe the parking lot issue is more of a symptom rather than the disease, I do see how parking lots have become advantageous to a small group and I understand very well how a small group like that will fight to hold onto what they perceive as theirs.

I do not have a lot of knowledge about what transpires Downtown, but I do have that experience in Springfield.  Mr. Meeks is not a friend of a dense, vibrant Urban environment.  SPAR Council’s traditional vision of Springfield with Mr. Meeks very involved along with the developers was more of a semi-gated, neo-suburbanite one that had only the “cool people” allowed to join. It is not the vision that will make a successful Springfield let alone a successful and vibrant Downtown.

From this thread, it does seem like the current JDEC is not on track for the right vision for downtown and that changes are needed. 

I do like the idea that the surface lots need to meet some new standard.  That way, they can pull up the old foundations and such and make it a pretty empty lot or spend the money to repave part of it and make the rest meet some runoff standard if they really want to stay a parking lot. Whatever that standard is, every single stand a lone lot in the city limits, not just Downtown,  must be required to meet it or it will not be enforceable in the end.