Mayors Office: It's Time To Move Forward With Demolishing Landing

[Captain Zissou]

They could really use someone more polished and professionally educated with these types of issues to handle media.  Even if you're in and over your head, there are much better ways to promote your position.

It seems like Brian Hughes is being groomed for a spot in the Trump administration.  That's the only other place I've seen this sort of arrogance and ignorance blended together in one sentence.  He's definitely cranked the stupid to 11.

[thelakelander]

A lot of the interview sounds like Hughes just moved to town and does not have a good historical background of the city or the charrette done when Alvin Brown was mayor:

This quote is, at the same, hilarious and sad.
"To get public input is genuinely unnecessary because we've been there and done that."

Sleiman (who owned the building) proposed tearing it down and rebuilding a mixed-use project with a residential component and hotel. It wasn't a publicly owned facility where adaptive reuse was an option during the public engagement process. Here's Sleiman's 2013 plan:



The community went crazy with the surface parking lots along Independent Drive and a follow up rendering was released in 2014:



After this, COJ hired a design team to help shape a better layout for Sleiman's predetermined design criteria. Again, it was a privately owned development project and there was no opportunity to discuss the possibilities of adaptive reuse. The rendering produced by Wakefield Beasley below is what came out of the process.



At the time, COJ would provide $12 million in incentives to prepare the site for redevelopment and the public space around the building sites. Sleiman was going to fund the construction of the buildings. During the entire public engagement process, the goal was a mixed-use project that would make the area just as vibrant as Pikes Place Market in Seattle and River Street in Savannah. Here's a quote from the 2014 presentation:

Members of the Jacksonville community participated in a planning workshop last month with the goal of identifying improvements that would enhance The Jacksonville Landing to make it the centerpiece of the city's waterfront experience.

The workshop, "Making waves: realizing a world-class waterfront," was held Dec. 9, at the Jacksonville Main Library. Mayor Alvin Brown kicked off the presentation with his thoughts on what an improved mixed-use Landing would mean for the city: "We want to make Downtown a signature destination for every opportunity. Can you see a 24-hour downtown Jacksonville?" Brown asked. "Critical to improving Downtown is The Landing. It has not met its full potential, and a new game plan for The Landing needs to focus on housing."
JAX Chamber president Daniel Davis was equally as enthusiastic, saying "I am bullish about the future of Northeast Florida and Downtown. Let's get the bulldozers going and make it happen."

Echoing those sentiments was Downtown Investment Authority's Aundra Wallace: "The goal is not to reinvent the wheel nor do we want a lengthy planning process." Wallace showed images of successful downtown destinations, such as Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Pike Place Market in Seattle, Chicago's Navy Pier, and Savannah's River Street, among
others.

Full article: https://residentnews.net/2014/01/07/jacksonville-landing-heading-makeover/

So we clearly had a process where a private development had been proposed and the public was allowed to help make that particular privately funded mixed-use development project fit better on a publicly owned site. That process was anything but true public engagement focused on evaluating all potential options for the space.

Now, read this recent quote and see how Hughes even butchered it:

Hughes said the DIA solicited expertise from a real estate consultant and design firm.

"If you look back at the minutes, more than 100 people came from the community to sit hours at a time in that public input," he said.

Hughes said the process resulted in a master plan for the Landing that was unveiled in 2015 by Wakefield Beasley & Associates (WBA) in collaboration with Urban Design Associates.  He said that study cost taxpayers $100,000. WBA has worked on other Jacksonville projects, including the St. Johns Town Center and  Adamec Harley-Davidson's Baymeadows location.

"If you look at Mayor Curry's plan, as it was, as it unfolded last June, it's exactly the same plan. So this is nothing new," he said.

2015 WBA plan



2015 WBA site plan (the white spaces represent where Sleiman's mixed-use apartment and hotel buildings would go)



Mayor's Office Plan



Lol, so nothing changed? We went from having a public engagement process where people thought we were getting a mixed-use riverfront development with interactive outdoor space and where the development costs, the future use and the developer were already known to a large passive lawn and two small undetermined blobs of where some undetermined use could be added at an undetermined time for an undetermined cost by an undetermined developer? The 2015 WBA plan even has restaurant buildings right on the river.

To add a little more fact to this story, it was the council who would not approve $12 million in city for incentives and then Brown not getting reelected a few months later or else we'd have a redeveloped waterfront space already open in the heart of downtown by now. So instead of $12 million being invested for the scene shown in the 2015 WBA renderings above, we're spending $22 million to not even get what's shown in the Mayor's Office unexciting front lawn sketch from last year.

You have to be a pure fool to accept this type of revisionist story telling at face value if you were around before 2015. Unbelievable!

[Tacachale]

A lot of the interview sounds like Hughes just moved to town and does not have a good historical background of the city or the charrette done when Alvin Brown was mayor:

This quote is, at the same, hilarious and sad.
"To get public input is genuinely unnecessary because we've been there and done that."

Hughes moved to Jacksonville in January 2018 (yes, really) to serve as the mayor's chief of staff. Previously he was a political consultant for Curry and other political candidates. He has no apparent background in urban development or management.

[thelakelander]

If he moved to town that recent, then that would provide some important context to the wjct interview quotes. Quite frankly, you need to take the opinion of a newcomer with little background in urban development with a grain of salt when it comes to determining what's iconic locally and what you can and can't do with existing spaces. Better yet, we need to understand that public officials work for us, not the other way around.

[tufsu1]

While City Council chose to approve the Mayor's plans, they need to stand up now and not allow Hughes to become the Chief Administrative Officer. His background quals don't meet the minimum requirements developed by the Mayor & Council in 2015 - and to date has shown himself to be incapable of the job.

[Charles Hunter]

We are in Trumpworld now, where facts and qualifications don't matter.

[Kerry]

We are in Trumpworld now, where facts and qualifications don't matter.

Jacksonville is in a world all by itself.  Every other city is moving on.

[thelakelander]

^When it comes to DT, unfortunately you may be right.

[Snaketoz]

If you really care about Jacksonville, VOTE.  Vote against the Currys and all of his rubberstamp hacks on the City Council.  Please vote against Tommy Hazouri, Dem, who will OK everything Curry proposes to further his political life.  The "Dem." after Hazouri's name means nothing.  He is only a Curry clone.  Vote for Rachal.  He may listen to reason.

[Downtown Osprey]

This might take the cake as the most frustrating thing I've seen on this board (and that's really saying something). I honestly cannot wrap my head around why they think this is the best route to go. Money down the drain with no solid plan in place. Jacksonville, it's easier here! 

[Captain Zissou]

My mother refuses to vote for Hazouri solely based on party affiliation, and I doubt she's alone.  Do we know that his opponent will stand up against Curry?  If so, can't wait to check that box!

[MikeG1479]

MusicMan - Because Alvin Brown was such a better mayor for the City of Jacksonville.

[Tacachale]

MusicMan - Because Alvin Brown was such a better mayor for the City of Jacksonville.

Brown wasn't an effective mayor. But even his last plan for the Landing cost half as much as Curry's, and featured new buildings instead of a lot.

[Charles Hunter]

His website says absolutely nothing about his positions.

From the WJCT summary of Rachal's interview on First Coast Connect

As for why he's challenging Hazouri, Rachal said the city need a new perspective when it comes to getting things done. Asked whether he'd vote against the priorities of Mayor Lenny Curry, Rachal said, "When two people always agree, one person is not needed," and he doesn't mind "standing alone."


Rachal also said he believes it would be better to repurpose The Jacksonville Landing instead of demolishing it, and that JEA is an asset and "you don't sell assets."

Hmmm

[thelakelander]

MusicMan - Because Alvin Brown was such a better mayor for the City of Jacksonville.

Brown wasn't an effective mayor. But even his last plan for the Landing cost half as much as Curry's, and featured new buildings instead of a lot.

Nearly 50% cheaper for the taxpayer and that number included an $8.5 million interactive park space and would have been completed two or three years ago if council would have included it in the 2015 budget. Brown did not have the best run administration but part of his problems definitely were related to partisan politics at the local level.