More than two dozen opponents of plans to transform the 30-acre Allstate Campus office park into residential, office and retail space turned out Nov. 21 as the project developer sought a recommendation by the Jacksonville Planning Commission to rezone the property.
Homeowners living near the property, which has been rebranded as The Pondry, spoke against the rezoning, saying it would create traffic congestion and would be incompatible with the low-density neighborhoods surrounding it.
They also opposed the layout of the residential properties in the plan, which are placed on a parking lot that buffer homes to the south and west.
With some commissioners noting the opposition but citing the property owner’s right to redevelop the site within city land use and zoning criteria, the Planning Commission voted 5-0 to endorse the rezoning. The vote advanced the matter to the City Council Land Use and Zoning Committee.
The site is south of Butler Boulevard and west of San Pablo Road South, near Mayo Clinic in Florida and neighborhoods such as the gated Pablo Creek Reserve community.
Pablo Creek Reserve contains homes in the $4 million and $5 million range.
“Hard math here: 268 units over 400 acres,” said Larry Kurz, a Pablo Creek Reserve resident, describing the Pablo Creek Reserve before turning to the density in the proposed development. “A hundred and fifty feet away, 250 units that are multistory, multifamily. That just doesn’t compute.”
Commissioner Charles Garrison said he had received more emails on the project than on any other he’d seen in his 1½ years on the panel.
Kurz said that if the meeting had been held in the evening instead of early afternoon, “the room would be full.”
Speakers in opposition included the presidents of the Pablo Creek Reserve and Marina San Pablo condominiums, which are across San Pablo Road from the property.
Steve Diebenow, Trevato Development Group’s land-use and governmental affairs attorney, said the developer had made significant changes to the original site plan after meeting with neighbors and their leadership. Trevato is the landowner and developer.
Under Trevato’s request, the property would be rezoned from Commercial Office to Planned Unit Development.
Diebenow said the submitted site plan removed a hotel, a drive-thru restaurant and 10,000 square feet of retail space. It also removed multifamily housing in favor of 250 condominiums, town homes and row-type houses.
The original plan would have generated 7,147 daily auto trips, he said, which were reduced to 3,274 in the final plan.
The city Planning and Development Department staff recommended approval of the rezoning on condition that ground-mounted signs on the property be limited to 30 feet on one portion and 10 feet on two others.
Attorney Paul Harden, who also is a land-use and governmental affairs lawyer, spoke as a representative of the project’s opponents. He said the project would create an “immense imposition” on nearby property owners.
Harden said San Pablo Creek has roughly the same number of homes as the proposed residential properties at The Pondry.
“They’re putting on 9 acres what we’re putting on 400 acres in the adjoining subdivision,” he said.
“That’s more of a Manhattan-type density than a typical density in this area.”
As of August, more plans were unfolding for Trevato’s vision for The Pondry with retail and residential space. The current eight-story and five-story connected office buildings, totaling 192,836 square feet, will remain while the two-story building across the parking lot is being removed.
An exhibit filed with the legislation shows a total office area of 192,836 square feet; 250 residential units among 24 row houses, 36 town homes and 190 condos; 20,019 square feet of retail space; and surface parking along with parking on the ground floors of the residential and retail space.
Garrison, addressing concerns over density and the compatibility of multifamily housing, said the Marina San Pablo condominiums are multifamily, multistory structures.
He said other nearby property uses included retail, office and entertainment.
Commission Chair Michael McGowan said he felt the proposed use of the property, as adjusted by Trevato, was an appropriate reuse of a property that like other commercial offices had been affected by work-from-home policies held over from the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said he believed that with the changes in the site plans, “I think there’s a lot of wins for everybody here.”
“Maybe we’re making an ocean out of a Pondry,” he said.
The ordinance containing the rezoning, Ordinance 2024-0828, could be taken up by the LUZ Committee as soon as Dec. 3, its next meeting date.