Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. Um we apologize for bringing the meeting um together a little bit late. Um our our chair is not in attendance and but we do have a quorum and so we're going to um get going. Um I'd like to I'm Margot Moing. I'm a member of the planning commission. Um and I'd like to call the meeting to order. May we have roll call, please? David Dah here. Marggo Moring here. Nicholas Andrews, Debbie Cole, Justin Henderson, Dean Havoc here, Matthew Fer, and as stated, we do have a quorum. Um, may we uh take up the the minutes of um April 14th and April 28th together, unless unless there's discussion. Um and if there is discussion by all means we can take them up separately if folks would suggest unless uh you know let me know if I'm if you prefer that I do them separately. Okay. Motion to approve the minutes. Second. Um all in favor please indicate by saying I. I. Any opposed? So they are both minutes are approved for the April 14th meeting and the April 28th meeting. Do we have any correspondence? Staff has none. Um, do we have any exparte communications, members of the commission? No, I see none. Do we have old business? If I can turn on my mic. Uh, Madam Chair, uh, yes, but we might want to wait till we have more people here. Um, we got the results of the survey that you all took for considering consideration of changing the date and time of the meeting. Uh the consensus of the majority was Tuesdays at 6 PM. Uh but I would like that to be a vote of everyone or as many

as we can get. So if it's okay with you uh to delay this until we have more more members in attendance. I think that would be we have your answers but you know we want to make sure everyone's on board with that. Okay. I think everyone and save it for a future meeting. Got it. Okay. Um before we get into new minutes, I'll just talk very briefly about kind of how we run the meeting. Um we base our decisions on competent substantial evidence, including testimony provided in this meeting. Um any person who's not an applicant or agent that wishes to speak will need to fill out a speaker card located on the side table by the door. Um and please to turn them into our clerk. It's our practice that regardless of the type of issue we were asked to decide upon, each member of the public is given three minutes to speak on each item. Um we we ask that you refrain from speaking out from the audience, applauding, groaning, you know, um as we try to ensure an atmosphere that that where everyone is able to listen and everyone is comfortable. And we ask that you silence your your cell phones. Um let's see. Okay. So with that, let's go get on to new business um and then we will talk about public hearings. Okay. So madam chair, I will start with PC um 8-25. The um agents and applicant representatives are here to give a presentation. So I'm going to let them go into the majority of the detail. So, I'm going to cover um just some some primary stuff and then uh summarize the staff report briefly because it is uh rather long. So, the applica the application is for a reasonzoning. The owner is 1036 Beach Boulevard, Inc. Applicant is Corner Lots Development Group and the agent is Driver McAfee Hawthor Hawthorne and Danau PLLLC. Property location is 1026th Avenue North

and the request is for redevelopment district reszoning for 1026th Avenue North for a mixeduse commercial and residential building in the downtown community redevelopment district. Uh so the applicant is looking to reszone approximately half the block uh bordered by 6th Avenue North 1st Street and Second Street. It's the northern half of the block. currently contains a strip commercial shopping center constructed in 1975. Uh they are the new owner is proposing to redevelop this property with a five-story mixeduse commercial and residential building uh with the option to do hotels instead of the residential units. Uh they do get five stories as they were party to a settlement agreement after the 35t height limit was uh enacted by referendum. So they do get 59 feet based on that on that settlement. Um that that that is their height entitlements. Uh the proposed um structure will be basically commercial spaces on Sixth and First Street, Sixth Avenue, North and First Street uh with a internal parking structure and the residential or hotel rooms on the upper floors. Uh the parking will be for both the residential units or hotels and the commercial parking. Um it will be also available for the public to park there. Uh the reason for the the commercial on first and 6th is it is those corridors are designated as pedestrian corridors in the downtown redevelopment plan and in the central business district uh zoning uh in our land development code. So you'll see when they give their presentation just some of the details on on what they're looking at. Um staff has done a review of the proposed project uh and found that it was consistent with the downtown community uh redevelopment plan as did

the community redevelopment agency found it consistent with the downtown redevelopment plan. Uh and staff also found it consistent with the RD standards for redevelopment district uh and other applicable sections of the code pertaining to resoning of property. Um staff is recommending that the planning commission also recommend approval to city council. It will be before them um next Monday as a matter of fact. So uh assuming you carry this forward, your recommendation will go to council. Um, I'm happy to answer any questions, but I'd like to turn it over to the agent to give their presentation next. Okay. Would the applicant please come forward to be sworn in and give any presentation you'd like to share with us? Thank you. I'm just going to have you go ahead and tap the little red button on the microphone ahead of you. And then I'm gonna have you raise your right hand and please state your name and address. U Billy Zites, 502 Aricola Avenue, St. Augustine, Florida 32080. Cindy Trimmer with Driver McAfee, One Independent Drive, Sweet 1200. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you God. I do. Thank you. What would you like us to know? Please take us through. All right, that'd be perfect. Thank you. Do you want to start? Yeah, sure. Um to the board, um good evening. My name is Billy Zites. I'm with Corner Lot Development Group. And I think what we'd like you to know is is we started this journey um in the fall. And we started the journey in the fall because we've done a lot of development throughout Northeast Florida. And we were unfamiliar with J Beach and the city of J Beach and the rules. And we wanted to understand how

we could redevelop this really important, call it the book end of the pedestrian and commercial corridor in the central business district to create a project that met the intentions of what staff has done and what the city has done as a whole to highlight a few of the elements which I'll start off by sharing. I think we wanted to have really clean, wide, elevated pedestrian corridors that slowed people down, that drew them to the commercial businesses. We wanted to ensure that parking would be a solution and not a problem for the project. We relocated the parking entrance onto Second Street to ensure there was limited vehicular traffic going down First and Sixth. Um, and then we wanted to make sure that, you know, we had shaded walkways so you had some respit from the sun in the summer and maybe it encouraged further patronization of the businesses that we have, but also um kind of created a really dynamic element to the central business district. Through all of that experience, um, the city was updating the comprehensive plan. So, we then adjusted some of what we had in terms of our parking and our parking solutions um and what we were doing with the design of the project to ensure we met those criteria because it's really been a pleasure to kind of put it all together. It doesn't always work that nicely. Um, and you know, J Beach has really um done a lot lately in terms of redevelopment with the outdoor dining, um, the wider pedestrian corridors, and we really wanted to bring a project that sort of kept that elevated sort of experience going on this corner. So, um, we can talk a little bit about the building design and

and answer some questions. Um, we we have the public on street parking in front and the trees and landscaping that, you know, we hope will sort of make it feel like a destination even if you're just passing by. Um, the one the one element we did incorporate over the past few months is some flexibility through the RD zoning to allow us to have a diversity of uses. Um, we started with a condo project. We looked at a possible hotel um, solution. So we we put in the RD application the ability to do either because flexibility in this development market right now is really paramount for us to be able to be successful. So we we brought that to CRA through a workshop and then we brought it back for a formal hearing and presentation. We were thankful for their their unanimous recommendation. So, um, I can let Cindy Cindy expand on anything that's related to the code and our work with staff, but that's sort of how our firm got there to become a bigger part of Jack's Beach's future. So, we are happy to be the guinea pigs coming through as one of the first things under the new code and think that we have nailed it, I hope, in getting everything into here that needed to be. But running through the slides, as Billy mentioned, we have an RD zoning district because of the size and scale of the building. So, anything of this SCA nature, even in the CCBD, does need to be under the RD district. We did have some questions about that earlier. The important things to understand with what we have brought in and the options that Billy was referencing, the footprint of the building and the overall aesthetic and the programming of the building are the same whether we go with the residential or the hotel product. either one of them would fit within this footprint would have the very robust activated ground floor and all of the activation on first and six so that we're really highlighting those pedestrian corridors and then it would just be a function of how we divvy up the internal of those floors that are

above. Running through the slides you can see the layout of the buildings and as we were speaking so this is from the corner of first and sixth. So you see again that retail restaurant wrapping that corner. The entrance to the residences or hotel would be on that first street facing side facing Casamarina. And then we have pedestrian connectivity that you can get in and out of that parking garage off first and sixth. And again after meeting with staff we changed the original floor plan so that all the vehicular traffic is coming off of second. There are two different access points that you'll see when we get to that side of the plan. But first, you start to see if you go to the next slide. Thank you. The first and sixth corner again wrapping around there. And then on the next slide, you got start to see the access points that we talked about off second for vehicular access. There are two separate access points. One that goes straight up a ramp to the private development. That first one comes in into the public and commercial parking space at the ground floor. We have overparked this project extensively. The intent being that this can serve as a global parking solution for various holdings that we have in the area and then also other development that may come online. Understanding parking is a premium. Every other developer I've worked with in here is scrging for parking solutions. So, as Billy said, we hope to be part of the solution here. We did talk to staff about the possibility of doing a small amendment to the application to address the commercial parking relief that was put into the new zoning code. That is something that we would love the opportunity to address as we're going through the hearing process. But otherwise, we've just largely copied forward the RDzoning parameters within this application. We can look at the floor plan if we sneak ahead two slides. I believe the floor plan is subject has changed slightly. We've had meetings with preapp to do with development services and had everyone in the room

and looked through it. And there were some concerns that we heard in terms of the location of trash and making sure that we have that access large enough and wide enough so that we don't commit some of the sins of the past that have been seen in the beach that have made some challenges for getting in and out to empty out those dumpsters. So, some of the pieces within here are subject to shift around just to address those. Um, we had conversations with how this will be metered and where the meters should be if they are metered individually and coordinating the location of that so that that's all appropriate for what Beaches Energy wants to see as well. You can see on here like I mentioned the pedestrian connectivity that comes off of first and sixth and again those are shaded prominents. And I think that kind of highlights all the main pieces. We can delve into the details of the RD application, but I'm sure that everyone had a great time reading that before falling asleep late at night. Uh, if if I could just offer um, you know, it was intentional that I listed my address as St. Augustine and not my business address, which is in downtown Jacksonville, because we too are the beneficiaries of a diversity of transportation solutions at the beach, right? people ride their bikes or their ebikes or they walk or they use golf carts. So, we hope to incorporate all of the multimodal parking in this project. So, we've got some diversity for the people who use different forms of transportation and hopefully that reduces some of the reliance on vehicles and what's already a pretty constrained environment because the only thing that's not going to get less popular is the beach. So, if we can create some better solutions for people to get there through our project, maybe we can help solve some of that excitement down in that pier corridor and give families a a better experience. And that's that's sort of why we had the pedestrian access where you come out of the parking garage, you sort of spill right into that commercial space, right? Or you spill right onto the beach side. That

way, if you're a business, you've got an opportunity to maybe capture a new client. And if you're getting to the beach, you've got pretty direct access to get right there to to the Sixth Avenue walkway or or the pier access if you choose. I think with that, we're happy to field any questions. Do we have any questions for the applicant? I have one or two. Um the first of all, I mean, I I like the design and I appreciate uh the thoughtful consideration and what you presented. Thanks for that. um the language around that you were sharing even in your presentation was a little soft on like um bike parking and stuff like that and I'm wondering you know outside of you know forming forming that up or firming that up in this conversation like what would trigger that not happening? So, if you've got the packet in front of you, page 11 of our written RD narrative, we do commit to absolutely all of the minimums that are in code, and it's again, we have an overabundance of parking, and we've built into here because we were drafting this prior to the code amendment, uh, allowances for being able to do bike parking, motorcycle parking, golf cart parking. So, that flexibility was built into here. And then when the updated code came out, there were further opportunities to integrate those and have some reductions if you incorporate some of these alternate parking mechanisms. So the allowance being a put in there and available is the important thing for us at this juncture, but we have absolutely committed to bare minimum coke minimums, but expecting to do much better. Cool. I mean, as y'all know, it's we're really trying to encourage like alternative modes of transportation, and I feel like your residents or your your guests would probably really enjoy that, too. And we are a little bit short of bike parking

in general down there. So, just this guy bikes to my office for meetings. There you go. Okay, I'm speaking your language. Yes, I vouch for their commitment to alternate transportation. And and and I think from a design perspective, parking, structured parking is not the most cost-effective solution to providing parking, right? It's much cheaper to lay asphalt and just let everybody park. But because of the location by the beach, right, because of the high demand you all are seeing for property in Jacksonville Beach, the more creative parking solutions we have, which the city's updated code allows for that, the better use we can make of that garage, which means more more access to the public, more access to the commercial and retail, and a better experience for our retailers long term. So, we're we're encouraged by the new code. So in general to make it easy for me to understand high likelihood of bike parking guaranteed bike park. Okay cool thanks. Um and then the second question I have um the flexibility of whether to do uh condos or hotel makes sense for the reasons that you mentioned. Um, this really is maybe a little bit out of the swim lane, but I I think it's worth asking is just, you know, it would be, I think, good for the community to have not a whole lot more empty condos rented to people who are never here and just like tons of empty tall buildings and stuff like that. And I know that in your ideal dream state, you probably have everything occupied and and your hotel full and all that kind of stuff, but that's just something that when I look out on our skyline, you know, see a bunch of places that I feel like nobody ever sets foot in. And you know, that's their prerogative. But just making homes available for people who are visiting or who want to live here and making um you know temporary lodging available for people who are visiting

and actually like making sure there are people in those places is really important to me. Interesting. Thank you. Feedback. Those are all my questions. Any other questions for the Okay. Um hearing none, I will open the public hearing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um, do we have any speakers cards? Well, we actually we do. Uh, Roger Whiting is here to talk to us tonight. Ask give us some comments. Mr. Whiting, would you like to address us? Thank you for submitting a card. Please raise your right hand and state your name and address. Le Roger Whiting. Roger Whiting, 11:03 Second Avenue North, Jack Beach. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to help you, God? Yes. Thank you. Um, real quick, the a lot of the concerns that I was here about, I heard some things that kind of solve some of that. I know I'm not allowed to ask anybody, but is the green zone is that actual green property a part of their property like a where the trees are shown? Is that Yes, if staff can answer that. Yeah, I'm happy to. So, you're talking about kind of the lower where where the where the chart goes over. I know it's hard to read on the screen, but that's actually an alleyway. So, that's off their property. Okay. So, where where the trees are shown there, that isn't part of the property. That's a city alleyway. Okay. I that that confused me because I can't see it. Sorry, miser. Um, so the the thing is my my concerns were finding out what was going on, which thank you

very much for that. Um, the uh the height I was concerned about. I understand now that that was part of the agreement, so I'm not going to go on that. But in the past before we had the whole 35 foot. When you built a a building that size, you couldn't put it right to the property line due to the fact that you are shading the people immediately adjacent. They're going to have a 59 foot wall on the property line next door straight up. So after say May, they're going to be completely in the shade until this fall when the sun moves back south. Like where Mangoes, of course, Mangoes is a barb, but there are res there are a couple residential properties there that they're going to be looking out at a 59 ft wall next to them. I know in the past there was a requirement to set back when that occurred so that you weren't just completely walling in somebody next to you. A little concerned about that. I don't know because of the court agreement that there's anything that the city can do or say about it, but that that's the only concern I have left after listening to the p the presentation. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Does staff have any any insights on the final point? Yes. Um to kind of answer the question about um Mr. Whiting's concern about residential, there are some residential buildings or one residential and one office building just to the south of this project uh that are west of Mangoes. That's part of, if you guys recall, a recent resoning to redevelopment district as well. They don't have height entitlements. Uh but that property will not have any residential on it once they redo that

that property. So it will be commercial and restaurant only. So just kind of looking towards the future. They don't have a timeline exactly for that project, but those I think it's two or three residential apartments will be going away. Thank you. Um is there anyone in the audience um who has not filled out a speaker card that wishes to speak? Um seeing none, I will now close the public hearing. and bring the item back to the board for discussion. Um, do we have any additional questions for staff? Do we have any discussion among commissioners? Um, hearing none. Um, do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. May we have a roll call, please? David D. Yes. Dean Haddock. Yes. Marggo Moring. Yes. Your item has been approved to move forward. Thank you. PC625. Yes ma'am. PC 625 is a conditional use application. Owner is 651 Sam Clemente LLC. uh same as the applicant and the agent is Michael Sitner. The property location is 510 3rd Street South and the request is for conditional use approval to allow for the conver conversion of a professional office into a multif family dwelling located in commercial limited C1 zoning district uh and it is right on Third Street um 510 South Third Street. So the property was originally constructed in 1948 has seen some changes and renovations during that time. It's on a lot of record roughly 6250 square feet in size and it's been used for a variety of purposes most recently professional offices. Sometime

in the last 10 years the structure was illegally converted into five dwelling units of which the planning department has no record of permits for this type of renovation change of use nor did they have conditional use approval. Uh once it was purchased by a new owner, they began uh an extensive renovation again without permits um which was noted by code enforcement and the work uh halted and did not continue. There is again a new owner purchased uh the property in 2024. They came to speak with staff about what could be done to the building uh and were advised of the density limitations uh for the property based on the lot size which is limited to 20 dwelling units per acre. Uh so after discussion with staff, the new owner decided that the best use of the property would be two multif family dwelling units again based on the allowable density of the property. They also already have parking uh that can support the two proposed units. Um there are five spaces on the on the uh on the ground surface parking. Um the reduction in density and intensity uh from five units down to two is more compatible with s the surrounding area and it lowers the demand on parking and traffic. Adjacent uses include commercial office to the north, parking and vacant commercial to the west, mixeduse commercial to the south and multif family to the east across Third Street. The proposed use is not inconsistent with the comprehensive plan and staff doesn't believe that the uh use will be a nuisance to adjoining properties as the use is less intense uh than the commercial that would otherwise be allowed and staff is recommending approval of PC6-25 as submitted. Thank you. Can we please swear in the applicant and share with us whatever you'd like us to know? Please raise your right hand and state your name and address. Uh, Michael Sitner, One Independent Drive, Sweet 1200, Jacksonville, Florida 322. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give in this matter is the truth, the whole truth,

and nothing but the truth. So, I help you, God. I do. Thank you. Uh, Miss Ireland did a wonderful job at summarizing the application. I think the only thing I'd really like to add is that we went before the board of adjustment last week for variance uh just to account um for all of the existing conditions. You heard this is a lot that was developed in 1948. So a lot of the conditions don't exactly conform with today's new zoning code. So last week went before them uh had unanimous approval and now this is for the conditional use to allow for the two multif family units. Uh with that I'll stand by for questions. Thank you. Have questions for the applicant. Thank you very much sir. I'll now open the public hearing. Do we have any speakers cards? No, ma'am. Thank you. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak? There's still time to fill out a card. Okay. Um, seeing none, I'll close the public hearing and bring the item back to the board for discussion. Um, do we have any discussion? Have we am I forgetting anything or it's been a while since I've chaired a meeting, so you'll have to excuse me now. Sorry, I was jumping ahead on the agenda. Um, okay. So, do we have any discussion or do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. May we have a roll call vote, please? David Doll, yes. Dean Haddock, yes. Marggo Moring, yes. Your item is approved, sir. So, thank you everyone. um planning department report. That's what I was looking I was looking for the next over excited planning condition date. Yes. And I had written down. So we do have uh two cases

for the June 9th meeting. If that changes, we will let you all know.