Live blogging DIA

[thelakelander]

I'm tentatively planning on attending.

[dougskiles]

^same here - should be a good one.  Mayor Brown signs the $9 million bill at 1:45 before the DIA meeting.

[Noone]

7 hours out. For Historic DIA Day.

[Noone]

So what happened at our DIA in the USA Board meeting?
Took place right after the photo op signing of the $9,000,000 taxpayer dollar check that will be going to DIA.

I brought my check book to add to this momentum but was basically told to forget it. I'm serious! "Take it to city council." OK!
How about the Governor? Let's get to work, just not in Jacksonville.
Public, Private, Partnership, still trying to wrap my arms around this.
Anybody feel free to jump in on this but it looked like a loaded agenda and maybe it's just me but they did NOTHING!

The highlight of this DIA Board meeting and let's try and fill in the blanks. Again anyone feel free to jump in on this.
Right from the 3/20/13 agenda
Action/Information Items
Approval of 2/13/13 DIA minutes
One Spark- Elton Davis ( The new guy) Tony A my new river buddy. Maybe I need to write that on my hand for the next meeting had a funny line. "That's Elton Rivas and maybe that's why he's not here."  It was an awkward moment and that stuff happens.
Introduction after 60 days Ted Carter
Jorgenson Consulting, Todd Jorgenson
DIA CEO Selection Committee
Jacksonville Lady, Eric Lindstrom
LaVilla Update, Karen Nasrallah
Ord. 2013-89 Council enacted Ted Carter and Paul Crawford

Legislative Update
Ord. 2012-730 New Supervisor of Elections Bldg.
Ord. 2012-657 Bostwick Bldg.
Ord. 2013-94 Mobility Fee Legislation

Committee updates
Hemming Plaza -Jim Bailey, Heart goes out to Jim, He needed the new parking guy for info on another subcommittee that he is working on and will have another reschedule.
CRA Plan committee- Melody Bishop, Heart goes out to Melody as well on some scheduling issues.

The highlight for me was The Jacksonville Lady and her arrival to Downtown and the immediate impact that Capt. Mitch and his crew will have for this city and the region on our St. Johns River our American Heritage River a FEDERAL Initiative in our newly created DIA in the USA zone.

On a side note. Is there a new Pier or dock being constructed at the JEA site?

Tides look great next week for kayaking. Special shout out to any FBI RICO interns that are in town during our corruption tour. If you have your fishing license that is a plus. We'll take it under the brand new No fishing signs that was never before Waterways. Hey better yet we can take it over to the JEA site and we can call it the undercover paddle.

Also open to anyone else that wants to participate in what is a Public, Private, Partnership.

Who's next?

[thelakelander]

Some other details I remember off the top of my head:

1. Todd Jorgenson mentioned that they expect the new DIA CEO would be hired by June 2013.

2. Karen Nasrallah also mentioned that there was a lot of interest from the private sector for the LaVilla RFP.

3. Jim Bailey mentioned possibly using the $9 million to tear down the old courthouse but it didn't appear that the majority of the other board members shared that same position at this point. 

[fieldafm]

3. Jim Bailey mentioned possibly using the $9 million to tear down the old courthouse but it didn't appear that the majority of the other board members shared that same position at this point. 

Good God, what an awful use for that money...

How about taking $500k of that for a matching grant program for business incubation and get storefronts filled at street level?!?!  That would have an IMMEDIATE impact on downtown. 

I cannot support any more 'addition by subtraction' policies.  We've had three decades of that.  It doesn't work.  It's time we move on.   

Karen Nasrallah also mentioned that there was a lot of interest from the private sector for the LaVilla RFP.

Why this is shocking to some is beyond me.  Those two thoroughfares have great traffic counts and those particular parcels have highway access and visibility. 
The key would be that anything that goes there must be context sensitive to the urban environment they are in so that the development contributes to the walkable characteristics (or current lack thereof) of downtown... that means no suburban layouts. 

[thelakelander]

3. Jim Bailey mentioned possibly using the $9 million to tear down the old courthouse but it didn't appear that the majority of the other board members shared that same position at this point. 

Good God, what an awful use for that money...

How about taking $500k of that for a matching grant program for business incubation and get storefronts filled at street level?!?!  That would have an IMMEDIATE impact on downtown. 

I cannot support any more 'addition by subtraction' policies.  We've had three decades of that.  It doesn't work.  It's time we move on.

I definitely agree.  Luckily, I don't believe burning millions for demolishing a building that size will gather much support.  There's a lot of low budget low hanging fruit that can be easily picked off that actually immediately leads to feet on the street. Putting another hole in the urban grid and sodding it over doesn't achieve that.

Karen Nasrallah also mentioned that there was a lot of interest from the private sector for the LaVilla RFP.

Why this is shocking to some is beyond me.  Those two thoroughfares have great traffic counts and those particular parcels have highway access and visibility.  The key would be that anything that goes there must be context sensitive to the urban environment they are in so that the development contributes to the walkable characteristics (or current lack thereof) of downtown... that means no suburban layouts.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty crazy to even consider allowing SOE to think about building a warehouse on that property.  Out of all the city-owned vacant parcels in LaVilla, it's the one that makes sense for market rate commercial.  In the last few years, we've seen 7-Eleven, McDonalds, Winn-Dixie, Burger King, Goodyear, etc. either build from scratch or renovate along State & Union without asking for public help.  Toss in the facts that the city's parcel is only a block or so east of a full I-95 interchange, this is dirty with nothing on it (excluding Sax) and it should be a no-brainer.

If they consider that horrible Sax Seafood building as a possible tear down, you could land something like a CVS or Walgreens pretty easy.  The same goes for chains that litter the suburban arterials such as Steak & Shake, Denny's, Dunkin Donuts, Krystal, Waffle House, etc. because despite being all over Jax, the core is the one spot where most don't have a presence, but demographics still meet their site selection criteria. The site also works for something like an Aldi, which is rapidly expanding across Florida but still has no Jacksonville presence.  Given the trend towards infill apartment development, you could probably get away with a mixed use project as well, although it would be a little more difficult to pull off.

As you mention, the key here is to make sure whatever proposed is designed to fit into a pedestrian scale setting that can also be a stimulant for additional infill for the properties to the south and east.  What really burns me is if we could modify our zoning regulations, at least within the urban core, site design would not even be an issue. It would be a given that your project would be pedestrian scale and attempting to do anything contrary to the established surrounding urban context would require a more strenuous approval process on the developer's part.

If it were me and I had the cash, this would be a pretty easy RFP to respond to and throw together.  I'd probably pay for the land, develop a plan that parcels it out to the types of places mentioned above, but with a site development plan and guidelines that ensures the infill seamlessly fits within the neighborhood's historic pedestrian scale context (you have the freaking Ritz Theatre across the street for crying out loud), making it an anchor to attract more infill to LaVilla and section of DT.  Given the expansion mode of some of these chains, you could probably get something like this sold, under construction and done by this time next year.

[Noone]

Next DIA sub committee meeting two days out Thurs. 3/28/13, 2 pm City Hall 1st floor. Formulation of a project list for city council. RICO updates too.

[Noone]

8 hours out from the next DIA in the USA meeting. Anyone going?

[Noone]

Did anyone go? Someone talked about huge announcements of the USS Adams still coming to Downtown. Maybe slightly mentioned.

So when is the next full DIA Board meeting?

A new Authority
Embrace It
Or
It will Embrace Us

[Noone]

8 hours out from another DIA in the USA meeting that will have the DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE as the number one issue for this meeting. The last committee meeting was on the Environment and Downtown Redevelopment and as we all know if you were there it had my new river buddy Tony A and fellow DIA Board member Barakat having one other most lively engaging discussions on what to do with this $9,000,000 that you could have watched. Pay per view stuff if you ask me.

Does everyone remember the first DIA Board meeting with Carla Miller and Cindy Laquidara and the discussion of Ethics? Should the DIA offer a resolution of support that text messaging should be part on the new Sunshine legislation? I'd say yes. The Public Trust has just been totally destroyed in this community. This new DIA has the moral compass opportunity to show the state that the Public Corruption that has been allowed to run unchecked for years is over. Pick and choose the winners and losers.

The DOWNTOWN EXPERIENCE - I can't wait to talk about it with our new DIA today. Community First Sat. Tides look good in the AM. 2009-442 Artificial Reef Trust Fund. Jacksonville Waterways Commission meeting 5 days out. Is there anyone. I mean anyone that would write a single buck to this TRUST fund and I will deliver it to the full meeting of the Jacksonville Waterways Commission on your behalf. Special shout out to FBI RICO interns. Also hoping for expanded Happy Hour announcements. What a great way to end a meeting.

I am Downtown and why you aren't.

[Noone]

I just had a super long post about this meeting and lost it for some reason. Don't want to write everything over but when you are doing the Community First event today look at the busted up dock behind the Times Union Center next to the river.
The Downtown Experience and we will be showcasing to the world One Spark.

It was a positive meeting.

[Ocklawaha]

The Adams will be a great addition to our city, I would hope someone has an eye on the USS jacksonville too. I believe she is deactivated in the Pacific fleet sub base, Submarine Squadron 1 (COMSUBRON One). Also Huckin's Yacht of Jacksonville is rightfully the home of the PT boat. Frank Huckin's took his design to Washington in 1940 at a time the Navy was having a devil of a time trying to create a small fast attack boat. His easy plaining 'Quadraconic Hull' design became the standard for Navy boats from 1940-mid-1970's. Huckin's never got so much as a 'thank you,' from the Navy, though many boats were built by other companies on his concepts. Yet we don't have a shred of an artifact or museum for Jacksonville's unique contribution to WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Would it not be very cool to have a PT Boat downtown?

[urbaknight]

The Adams will be a great addition to our city, I would hope someone has an eye on the USS jacksonville too. I believe she is deactivated in the Pacific fleet sub base, Submarine Squadron 1 (COMSUBRON One). Also Huckin's Yacht of Jacksonville is rightfully the home of the PT boat. Frank Huckin's took his design to Washington in 1940 at a time the Navy was having a devil of a time trying to create a small fast attack boat. His easy plaining 'Quadraconic Hull' design became the standard for Navy boats from 1940-mid-1970's. Huckin's never got so much as a 'thank you,' from the Navy, though many boats were built by other companies on his concepts. Yet we don't have a shred of an artifact or museum for Jacksonville's unique contribution to WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Would it not be very cool to have a PT Boat downtown?

We could have several ships combined to be a large maritime museum, like the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Penn's Landing in Philadelphia or even the Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum in lower Manhattan.

[Noone]

DIA in the USA board meeting today at 2 first floor city hall.  Took advantage of the Happy Hour announcements at the last meeting.