A plan to set aside money from a recently approved development agreement for a specific part of town didn’t sit well Wednesday with some City Council members.
Ordinance 2017-280 was introduced by District 9 council member Garrett Dennis last month after another piece of legislation was approved for a housing project in his district.
In April, council approved a development agreement with the Invest in America’s Veterans Foundation to convert the Mission Springs Apartments at 5230 Timuquana Road on Jacksonville’s Westside into low-income veterans’ housing.
Because the sale removed the property from the city tax roll, the foundation agreed to make payments in lieu of taxes for the life of the 35-year bond.
Those payments are about $142,000 a year, or $5 million in total.
The legislation introduced by Dennis would place that money into a special fund that can be used only for public improvements within a 4-mile radius of the Mission Springs Apartments.
“I can’t support this,” said District 6 council member Matt Schellenberg, vice chair of the Finance Committee.
“I appreciate the need, but this sets a bad precedent,” he added, saying it could inspire other council members to propose the same for their districts.
Mike Weinstein, city director of finance, agreed, telling the Finance Committee the bill would present a slippery slope when it comes to future deals between developers and the city.
He said it could lead to a snowball effect, or worse.
“What we don’t want is 14 separate budgets for 14 districts,” said Weinstein, who was referencing another suggestion that council members be allowed a certain amount of discretionary money each budget year for their districts.
Weinstein said the administration was initially opposed to the original development agreement for the apartments because it took a property off the tax rolls.
“The only reason we supported it was because of the veteran component,” he told the committee.
Dennis argued that the money is small compared to the $1 billion city budget and would be used to build up a part of town that desperately needs attention.
“The 103rd area has the most violent crime in the city,” he said. “This is an opportunity to help.”
Dennis said any use of that money would need to be approved by the full council, and would focus on improving public infrastructure.
He also maintained that the project was a unique situation, and wasn’t likely to come up in other projects.
“Everything we do here is unique,” said council member Schellenberg. “I think this is dividing us instead of unifying.”
After a lengthy discussion, Dennis’ ordinance was approved by the Finance Committee 5-1 with Anna Lopez Brosche, Greg Anderson, Aaron Bowman, Katrina Brown and Sam Newby voting yes.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Schellenberg, the sole nay vote.
Committee member Bill Gulliford was not in attendance.
At Monday’s Neighborhood Committee meeting, where the bill also was moved, Gulliford suggested deferring the legislation until a more formal solution for future proposals could be discussed with the administration.
Although he supported the bill in committee, District 3 council member Bowman said he also was on the fence about it for the same reasons as Schellenberg.
Council President Lori Boyer, who attended the meeting, said she was more concerned about allowing nonprofits to buy up existing properties, like the deal with Invest in America’s Veterans, which takes property taxes away from the city.
“It really threatens our primary funding source,” Boyer said.
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