Jax Kennel Club to open poker room near Regency Square Mall

[duvaldude08]

I'm not aware of any plans to renovate Regency into a lifestyle center.  The stuff discussed here was vision plan oriented on a public level.  More or less, dreams from local residents who want to see the place improved.

Youre right. Here's the article.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-feb-rethinking-regency-mall

[duvaldude08]

JD Byryder is opening up a dealership at the old sound advice location AND the old Toy's or Us building is under contract to be purchased.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/212776/483/Regency-Eyesore-Back-in-Business

[Bativac]

JD Byryder is opening up a dealership at the old sound advice location AND the old Toy's or Us building is under contract to be purchased.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/212776/483/Regency-Eyesore-Back-in-Business

WHATEVER goes in at Sound Advice will be an improvement. That place has been an eyesore for what, ten years?

[duvaldude08]

JD Byryder is opening up a dealership at the old sound advice location AND the old Toy's or Us building is under contract to be purchased.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/topstories/article/212776/483/Regency-Eyesore-Back-in-Business

WHATEVER goes in at Sound Advice will be an improvement. That place has been an eyesore for what, ten years?

Sound Advice has only been closed since December 2008.

[Arlingtondude]

The Kia dealership has also reopened on Atlantic next to Pier One. It is now Southside Kia.
The old Chrysler dealership on Southside is now Tulsa Welding School.
I shop at the big box stores to the north of Regency and go to the IMAX. They are always crowded.

[AFCassidy]

Lots of good stuff in Arlington lately. 

I have mixed feelings.... but I will say, though, that a great deal of our publication's readers are furiously opposed to the Monument Poker Room proposal. 

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Maybe they should have been more opposed before it went through permitting....

[thelakelander]

AFCassidy, if they are furious opposed to the poker room proposal, they could take it up with themselves and the city they pay taxes to.  They have direct control over zoning and land use policies and should work to modify them at the public level, if they believe what's currently allowed should not be.  They'll accomplish nothing by taking it out on some private entity that builds something that zoning allows in that location.

[Charles Hunter]

Non-Redneck - no permitting needed, the very broad zoning category allows many things from retail stores (Garden Ridge) to gambling halls.  The only permit issue will come up if they want to serve alcohol.

Lake - the zoning code, I believe is currently being rewritten* - how much public input has been invited, and I don't mean by the legal notices in the Financial News for committee meetings held in the afternoon?  Perhaps I am cynical from watching the process for a long time.  I do not think the average citizen - or even highly interested citizens like yourself and others on this board - really has much influence over the developer-controlled process.

* or are they done?  I am interested in the process, and I don't know where they are in it.

[thelakelander]

I don't think zoning is developer controlled (ex. RAP and the Riverside Overlay).  If so, our zoning policies would allow for much higher densities and mix of uses because the more stuff one can pile on a site, the more money they'll make.  I believe our policies have been implemented by community demand over issues that might have not been fully understood (ex. I don't want a McDonald's drive thru near my house, so let's completely outlaw commerical even though a small coffee or tea house would have been compatible).

I also don't believe the revising off the zoning code has started.  There have been some comp plan changes with the mobility plan and that was highly community oriented (remember the COJ Visioning Plan process?).  Here is a link to the community visioning plans that have already been adopted by council.

http://www.coj.net/Departments/Planning-and-Development/Community-Planning-Division/Plans-and-Studies/Vision-Plans.aspx

The 2030 Mobility Plan and future rezoning process both are/will be generated from the results of the visioning process.

[AFCassidy]

Ditto to what Charles Hunter said.  The only approval they needed was from the state and that came swiftly.  No local review was required from the city council. 

It's located near a library and a school.   

I think the concern is probably overblown, but the feeling from our readers (about a dozen letters to the editor on just that topic) was that the poker room would draw crime, prostitution, etc. 

Hard to sell a poker room as anything particularly family-friendly, so I'm guessing they just want to get it built and open as quickly as possible... and prove to people that it won't drag down the surrounding areas or cause some kind of massive "crime wave" or whatever. 

[Charles Hunter]

OK, you have one counter-example in Riverside.  Maybe Springfield.
And I do remember the 6 Vision Plans - lots of public input.  Is the City actually using them in zoning or land-use decisions?  I don't remember anything in the Arlington Vision Plan about a poker room at Regency.

Oh, and as an Arlington resident (but not next to the poker room), I don't think it will be a problem* - just using it as an example of how little control we the citizens have over zoning and development. 

* I would have more confidence if the Kennel Club would provide crime stats from their two current locations during their "everything is wonderful" visits to community groups.

[thelakelander]

OK, you have one counter-example in Riverside.  Maybe Springfield.

Because we're late to the party.  There are tons of cities across the US already doing this.  There's no reason neighborhoods like Arlington and Jacksonville as a whole can't. 

And I do remember the 6 Vision Plans - lots of public input.  Is the City actually using them in zoning or land-use decisions?  I don't remember anything in the Arlington Vision Plan about a poker room at Regency.

They don't have any impact at this point because the land use and zoning modification hasn't occurred yet.  However, they will play a role whenever it starts.

Oh, and as an Arlington resident (but not next to the poker room), I don't think it will be a problem* - just using it as an example of how little control we the citizens have over zoning and development.

We have all the control in the world and significantly more than we have in overturning a private development that's already allowed to build their product under our zoning ordinances.  We're just a decade or two behind several of our peer communities in realizing and modifying it to reflect what specific communities want. 

* I would have more confidence if the Kennel Club would provide crime stats from their two current locations during their "everything is wonderful" visits to community groups.

I'm fine with whatever goes there personally but if your zoning allows the Kennel Club's use, then they're not required to show anything that a McDonalds, Best Buy or Home Depot, etc. wouldn't have too.  If you want more analysis before giving approval, then the use needs to be modified to force something like this to go through the PUD or variance process.

[thelakelander]

Ditto to what Charles Hunter said.  The only approval they needed was from the state and that came swiftly.  No local review was required from the city council.

This is because the land use and zoning regulations for that site already allow the type of use the Kennel Club proposed.  On the flip end, they'd have trouble getting something like that in Springfield or Riverside because of the overlays that make such a use difficult to get approved.

[AFCassidy]

Riverside and Springfield are geographically small and heavily-historic districts, Arlington is gigantic.  If we made development as difficult in Arlington, nothing would ever get done and that area of town would be in worse shape than it already is.