Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Vol. 103, No. 024 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Dominos fall in HRO fight
Delaney says elected officials should decide, not voters
By David Chapman Staff Writer
City Council member Bill Gulliford wants voters to determine the fate of expanding the human rights ordinance. His colleague, Tommy Hazouri, disagrees, saying he, Gulliford and others were elected to make tough decisions. Mayor Lenny Curry said he isn’t going to let any decision by council determine what’s next on the subject. Less than 12 hours after Curry’s
final community conversation on the topic, a series of political steps look to make the issue start the New Year off with a bang. Gulliford filed the first piece of legislation for 2016 on Wednesday. The bill calls for a referendum on the issue he said has little to no middle ground between two deeply passionate sides. He called it “irreconcilable differences … which now appear more intractable than before,” in a statement released announcing the legislation. “I just think it’s the right thing
to do,” he said. Gulliford said with such a strong response, it begged the fundamental question of whether 10 people — what’s needed to pass a bill on the 19-member council — should decide such an outcome. Hazouri absolutely thinks it should. He’s all for public referendums on issues like a tax increase, he said, but not when it comes to human rights. He’s been working on his own bill that would keep the decision with council. Hazouri said
he planned to defer to Curry to let him lead on the issue as the mayor has said he’s wanted to do. But, when Gulliford filed his bill, Hazouri couldn’t wait. “I’m not going to let a de facto president of the council introduce a referendum that I don’t support that precludes the ability of the council to vote,” said Hazouri. “It’s a cop-out.” Now two bills on the same topic should be filed by the end of the week. Both will have language fully HRO continued on Page A-3
A wave of 10,000 homes
Delaney
Goldstein defends Landing process Outgoing member says DIA has few options
Photo by Carole Hawkins
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Shearwater’s Kayak Club community center, fitness facility, pools and tennis courts is intended to be a center for neighborhood living. The facility will open with the first phase of construction.
Projects replacing those in final stages By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer The promised wave of new homes in St. Johns County is here. Realtors were barraged this fall by marketing from large-scale communities all launching at roughly the same time. • RiverTown, a 4,950-home community on the St. Johns River south of Fruit Cove, held a sales event last month for its new neighborhood, The Landings at RiverTown. The larger community relaunch has been moved to early 2017. • Shearwater, a 2,600-home community along County Road 210, held a dusty-shoe opening for Realtors in early November. An amenity center is nearing completion as are models from the community’s four builders. • TrailMark, a 2,278-home community west of World Golf Village, just two weeks earlier held a Realtor grand opening of D.R. Horton’s new model. Home sales have
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begun and an amenity center is scheduled for completion in the summer. Slight interest rate • Markland, a 345hike should have little home community on impact on housing International Golf ParkPage A-2 way, just east of the Interstate 95 interchange, held its Realtor introductory event. Models by the community’s six builders are under construction. Following years of lean times, a building rebound is welcome. But do the new communities signal a return to the over-exuberant boom years? Markland’s Walt O’Shea said no. The developments are replacing other projects that are now finishing — Durbin Crossing, Murabella and St. Johns Forest. Even World Golf Village and Palencia are entering their final stages. “We need them. We need someone to step up,” O’Shea said.
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4,950
RiverTown Florida 13
2,600
Shearwater
County Road 210
2,278
TrailMark
West of WGV
345
Markland
International Golf Parkway
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Doris Goldstein’s tenure on the Downtown Investment Authority board of directors ended Wednesday with more of a bang than a whimper. Minutes after the board unanimously approved a resolution commending Goldstein for her service, she wanted to address what she called “a very large matter.” She then responded to an editorial published Dec. 10 in The Florida Times-Union asserting the Jacksonville Landing needs a “bold renovation.” The editorial also said Toney Sleiman’s connection to the Landing — one of his companies owns the building and leases the riverfront site from the city — should be severed. It called the result of the process that was intended to devise a vision for the site “a new plan that looked for all the world like Sleiman’s old plan.” Goldstein served as the authority’s liaison to the project. She pointed out the lease is in effect until 2056, so for the next 40 years, the city has two options when it comes to redeveloping the six-acre parcel along the St. Johns River. The first option would be for the city or another entity to purchase the Landing, assuming Sleiman would sell. He’s not indicated any inclination toward that happening. That leaves the second option of working with Sleiman’s team, she said, which likely would involve coming up with a compromise. Sleiman’s plan is to demolish the existing structure and replace it with residences, retail and office space designed around a relatively small amount of park space. The vision that came out of the public planning process was for a riverfront park with apartments set between the office towers on the north side of the site and the river on the south. DIA
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