Peter Rummell's Healthy Town Site Plan Released

[Tacachale]

In a jaxdailyrecord article today, there seemed to be a suggestion that there have been unnecessary delays in issuing the development rights agreement. 

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What's the story here?  Does the city drag its feet on downtown projects?  I believe during the mayoral campaign, Curry alluded to too much bureaucracy in getting things built downtown.  What are your reactions to that?
 

Long story short, the city screwed around for months writing up the development agreement. It's not the first something like that happened in recent years, though I'd blame simple incompetence over intrigue. And yes, Curry did say these bureaucratic hoops were something that had to change, so hopefully things will improve. We shall see.

[jaxnyc79]

Yeah, 7 months to approve development rights...seems excessive, no?  Is DIA the bottleneck, or a broad Jax issue.

In a jaxdailyrecord article today, there seemed to be a suggestion that there have been unnecessary delays in issuing the development rights agreement. 

[/color]

What's the story here?  Does the city drag its feet on downtown projects?  I believe during the mayoral campaign, Curry alluded to too much bureaucracy in getting things built downtown.  What are your reactions to that?
 

Long story short, the city screwed around for months writing up the development agreement. It's not the first something like that happened in recent years, though I'd blame simple incompetence over intrigue. And yes, Curry did say these bureaucratic hoops were something that had to change, so hopefully things will improve. We shall see.

[Tacachale]

Yeah, 7 months to approve development rights...seems excessive, no?  Is DIA the bottleneck, or a broad Jax issue.

In a jaxdailyrecord article today, there seemed to be a suggestion that there have been unnecessary delays in issuing the development rights agreement. 

[/color]

What's the story here?  Does the city drag its feet on downtown projects?  I believe during the mayoral campaign, Curry alluded to too much bureaucracy in getting things built downtown.  What are your reactions to that?
 

Long story short, the city screwed around for months writing up the development agreement. It's not the first something like that happened in recent years, though I'd blame simple incompetence over intrigue. And yes, Curry did say these bureaucratic hoops were something that had to change, so hopefully things will improve. We shall see.

I doubt it was specific to DIA, similar problems were pretty pervasive in various city departments. Businesses were getting held up because officials would just let things sit on their desk for 30 days so they'd go through without a signature, rather than just signing off. Hopefully things will start improving, it's part of what Curry campaigned on.

[brucef58]

This is a beautiful plan.  I hope that Elements will work with JTA and have a CNG Trolley run from the ASE station through the development every 10 minutes.  This would provide connectivity and make it a Transit Oriented Development (TOD).  On the comment about Berkman II being demolished and the Shipyards being bare land.  I am certain the artist could not fill the Shipyards renderings because they are copyrighted the design firm that is developing that property.

Both properties will almost certainly be developed.

[thelakelander]

Since the theme appears to be about building exercise naturally into everyday living, there's no need to run a CNG Trolley back and forth. It's roughly a 1/4 mile walk (five minute walk) from the nearest ASE station to the densest part (the roundabout in the renderings) of this proposed development. Another 1/4 mile walk would put you in the wetlands, east of Healthy Town. Considering the apartment complex being proposed on the old Crawdaddy's site, just streetscape Prudential Drive and call it a day.

[Tacachale]

Yeah, I was thinking it's actually pretty cool this is going to be within walking distance of a Skyway station.

[CCMjax]

Since the theme appears to be about building exercise naturally into everyday living, there's no need to run a CNG Trolley back and forth. It's roughly a 1/4 mile walk (five minute walk) from the nearest ASE station to the densest part (the roundabout in the renderings) of this proposed development. Another 1/4 mile walk would put you in the wetlands, east of Healthy Town. Considering the apartment complex being proposed on the old Crawdaddy's site, just streetscape Prudential Drive and call it a day.

Agreed.  I used to walk 1/4 to 1/2 mile to the train everyday for work before moving to Jax.  Not a big deal at all, no need to extend anything to healthy town, or provide any special service for it. 

[acme54321]

Surveyors have been out there for at least the last week.  Hopefully they are getting ready to close on the property and kick this thing off.

[Lunican]

It would be nice to see these brownfield developments employ the design principals of traditional cities. Narrow streets and more density would make this a lot nicer. It still looks like it is built for cars with a few people added to the mix.

[Lunican]

For example: Why do we need a massive auto oriented road leading to the river?



These streets should be more like this:

[thelakelander]

For example: Why do we need a massive auto oriented road leading to the river?

Unfortunately, marketing only goes so far. The majority of the people coming and going to this site will do so by automobile. That, in turn, will force streets to be designed a certain way to comply with the city's roadway design standards.

http://www.coj.net/departments/planning-and-development/development-services-division/city-standard-details-(dwg---pdf-formats).aspx#roadways

For example, you'll be lucky if individual lane widths are 10' each. That alone, kills the environment shown in your last image.

[Lunican]

^ It looks like private drives can go down to 20'. Kind of wide but better than 120'. Not to mention the fact that not everything must be a road for cars. Roads for walking work too.

I see a lot of dead space in their plan. Why not maximize the limited space they have?

[thelakelander]

^We're decades in to designing roads for automobiles instead of people. Nationwide, things are changing for the better. The concept of Complete Streets and Context Sensitive Solutions have become more than buzzwords. Some agencies are well ahead and others. A few years ago, Jax was on the cusp of being cutting edge in this area. Unfortunately, focus was lost. Hopefully, we can get back on track.

[Lunican]

And how hard would it be for COJ to add a narrow street design standard? Seems simple enough.

They would be cheaper to maintain as well.

[Overstreet]

Who is doing the site remediation of contaminated soils?