Over concerns from nearby residents and business owners that building a proposed set of row-style houses across from the Stockton Street town center would intensify a parking problem in the area, the Jacksonville Planning Commission endorsed a zoning change for the project Aug. 22.
The commission voted 6-0, with three members absent, to recommend rezoning a 0.23-acre parcel of land along the west side of Stockton between Myra and College streets to allow for construction of the residences. With the vote, the rezoning goes to the Jacksonville City Council Land Use and Zoning Committee.
Plans that call for the residences to have no on-site parking drew concerns and criticism from operators of businesses in the center, who told commissioners there was already a shortage of parking in the vicinity.
“I can tell you parking is a nightmare,” said Jonathan Kirk, owner of 13 Gypsies restaurant at 887 Stockton St. “Every business that’s on that strip is popular. There are times I can’t even park as a business owner.”
Kirk asked commissioners to consider how an exacerbated parking shortage would affect clients of Focus Physical Therapy, which is just north of his restaurant.
“Can you imagine going there for physical therapy and you can’t park?” he said.
Greg Matovina, a representative for the property owner, said the parcel’s current zoning allows it to be used for commercial and residential purposes. The rezoning would allow it to be used strictly for single-family residential, which he said would affect parking less than a mixed-use commercial/residential structure.
The lot was part of the property where Delores Barr Weaver and J. Wayne Weaver, the former owners of the Jacksonville Jaguars, redeveloped the long-vacant John Gorrie Junior High School into a condominium building. The lot is owned by the John Gorrie Investment Group LLC, which, according to state records, is led by the Weavers. Matovina said the Weavers do not control the building’s parking other than spaces assigned to two units owned by Delores Barr Weaver.
Matovina said the streetside lot was originally designed to be a commercial portion of the project. It is separated from the condo building by a gated parking lot.
Matovina offered the commission research showing that a single-family residence generates an average of 10 car trips per day, meaning the group of homes would generate 50 total.
If the property were built-out as allowed under the current zoning, he said, it would generate 870 trips. In addition, he said, most of the residential parking would occur during evening hours as opposed to the times when the businesses are busiest.
“It’s sort of a complementary use,” he said.
Other concerns raised by business owners and residents were that the homes would diminish the area’s historic character by blocking the view of the Gorrie building, would increase flooding and create a neighborhood nuisance by pushing business patrons onto side streets in search of parking.
Matovina said a mixed-use project also would obstruct the view of the Gorrie building and would cover more of the property than the residences, adding to flooding issues.
Bryce Llorente of Foo Dog Curry Traders restaurant, at Myra and Stockton streets, said he had seen numerous accidents at the intersection, including some in which he had helped pull people from cars. He said sight lines are poor in the intersection, which would be made worse by the residences.
Oliver Barakat, who owns commercial property in the center, said the parking shortage threatened to diminish the commercial properties’ value if it worsened.
“You’ll be adding value to one side of the street and taking it away from the other,” he said.
After learning from a member of the Gorrie condo HOA that it hadn’t been approached about using a portion of the condo parking lot for the residences and seemingly “had no appetite” to discuss the possibility, Commission chair Charles Garrison encouraged the HOA to start a conversation.
“That would be the neighborly thing to do,” he said.
Noting that an online satellite image of the Gorrie building showed the lot at about 30% capacity, he said, “There should be spaces for five additional residences.”
Commission Secretary Michael McGowan suggested exploring whether the city could create additional street parking near the north edge of the property along Myra Street.
Tina Meskel, the commission’s vice chair, said she lives in the neighborhood and goes to the center often. She said the parking problem wasn’t the fault of the landowner and that building the residences would be the least problematic use of the property.
Conceptual plans included with the request show a set of five identically sized detached houses, each with 1,685 square feet of air-conditioned and heated space. The two-story homes feature a great room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, and two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room and office on the top floor. Both floors have 110-square-foot porches.
The project is subject to review and approval by the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission as well as City Council.