Shipping container apartment community planned for Cathedral District

[DrQue]

I gave JWB the benefit of the doubt. Hotboxes typically don't lease well.

I think its a great little project to experiment with. Who knows were it will lead.

[bl8jaxnative]

There is not any included parking.

https://www.wokv.com/news/local/shipping-container-apartment-complex-proposed-for-downtown-jacksonville/Mx70kTeQK5KETaduKlqaHI/

The rent is low enough that most of the tenants probably do not have cars.

Even most the poorest of the poor have cars these days.

The nice thing is that it makes the cost of the parking obvious by having it seperate.

The disadvantage is that there isn't any obvious monthly parking nearby.  Yes?  No?   At least some parts of downtown, there's a ramp across the street and it'll run ya $90 / month for parking. 

[Steve]

Or you park on the street over there for free as that section of downtown is meter free

[bl8jaxnative]

It's not all meter free in the Cathedral district, is it?  I don't remember them removing the meters that were over there.  Maybe I missed that?

Either way, there aren't a lot of lots.  I'm assuming the proposal is for one of the vacant lots at Market and Ashley.  There isn't a lot of parking there.  What is available is largely has a 2 hr limit.

https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=Bu2xUwVJMWW0j_q4jshwew&lat=30.330027777777786&lng=-81.65328888888888&z=17&focus=photo&x=0.24190622408257412&y=0.41668244666188237&zoom=2.5074626865671643


https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=E2fLivt0HM9aXVpoX_UfdA&lat=30.329936111111124&lng=-81.65308333333337&z=20&focus=photo

[thelakelander]

It's mostly meter free east of Market and north of Duval.

[tufsu1]

What is available is largely has a 2 hr limit.

that is not enforced - some residents of the Parks @ Cathedral townhomes park their 2nd car on the street 

[fieldafm]

Unbundling parking, as Councilwoman Boyer's downtown zoning update proposes, makes it possible to develop this level of density on lots like these.

The zoning code currently requires you to have one on-site parking space per bedroom. That means on a 20x60 lot, you'd fit essentially a small duplex. In that case, you'd have just as much land dedicated to parking as you would have actual housing. Today's zoning forces you to build a product that is less dense than what the historical development pattern of the neighborhood once produced.

The kinds of missing middle housing that once dominated Jacksonville's urban core is very difficult to achieve within today's zoning code.
https://www.moderncities.com/article/2017-jan-the-missing-middle-affordable-housing-solution

Boyer's zoning changes are a really big deal within that context. There are a variety of factors that led to a net population loss of over 3,038 residents per mile within Jacksonville's per-consolidated city limits between 1950 and 2000.





But if Jacksonville is really serious about ever regaining the density lost in the central city, then there needs to more zoning changes like this that would once again allow the kinds of naturally affordable, dense housing stock that used to flourish here.

[bl8jaxnative]

What is available is largely has a 2 hr limit.

that is not enforced - some residents of the Parks @ Cathedral townhomes park their 2nd car on the street

How consistently restrictions are enforced is different from not having them at all. 

It also doesn't mean more enforcement won't occur in the future.  If neighbors start to complain about people parking for days on end in the street, the enforcement situation can literally change over night.  It just depends.

"
Today's zoning forces you to build a product that is less dense than what the historical development pattern of the neighborhood once produced.
"

While I'd like to see the city's regulations lessened and simplified, I'm not sure why this is a bad thing.    A lot of neighborhoods have empty lots that are ripe for consolidation.  Consolidation that would enable more duplexes, triplexes and quads.  That is, if the zoning is cleaned up in a way that allows for it.   

Any talk in city hall of implementing similar changes to Minneapolis?