Preservation Project Jacksonville Confronts Urban Sprawl

Preservation Project Jacksonville
Confronts Urban Sprawl
Castaway Island Preserve canoe launch and overlook.
Cradle Creek Preserve – The City of Jacksonville
partnered with the City of Jacksonville Beach to
purchase this property along the Intracoastal.
(Right) Sal Taylor Preserve – Amenities are
currently being designed. The city cleared the
existing trail roads and fenced and signed the
property so the public could enjoy the park even
before the additional amenities were constructed.
52 Florida League of Cities
J
acksonville has three characteristics that put it squarely on the
front lines of the battle against urban sprawl: a fast-growing population,
large amounts of undeveloped land,
and a coastal location set within a series
of inland waterways. In fact, as one of
the country’s 10 fastest-growing big
cities and the largest in land area in the
contiguous United States, Jacksonville
is in a league of its own in confronting
this scourge of city planners.
Urban sprawl in Jacksonville threatened to increase commercial and residential runoff, destroy large tracts of
forestland, limit public enjoyment of
the area’s natural resources, and create
a “doughnut effect” that would leave
the inner core of the city economically
desolate.
In 1999, recognizing the city’s susceptibility to further effects of urban
sprawl, Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney championed the concept of Preservation Project Jacksonville, a $312
million land-acquisition program with
the mission to “manage growth, protect
environmentally sensitive lands, improve water quality, and provide public
access to the city’s vast natural areas.”
PHOTOS COURTESY THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLE.
by Nathan Rezeau and Alexa Graf, P.E.
The City of Jacksonville initially
committed $21 million and voters approved another $50 million through
the Better Jacksonville Plan, a comprehensive growth-management program
partially funded by a half-cent sales
tax. The city raised the rest from state,
federal and private sources.
“To address the explosive growth
in parts of our community, we can
use taxpayer money in two ways,”
The original goal of Preservation
Project Jacksonville was to acquire 10
to 20 square miles of land. To date,
the city and its partners – including the
National Park Service, the Florida Park
Service and several nonprofit and forprofit organizations – have acquired 81
square miles. Jacksonville now boasts
the largest city park system in the nation
by two measures: gross acreage of the
park system and park acres per capita.
public support, and dedicated and
skilled staff. Perhaps most important,
however, are the aforementioned
partnerships with organizations that
support Preservation Project Jacksonville’s land-preservation objectives and
philosophies. When the books on the
project are closed, they will show that
for every dollar the city spent on land
acquisition, other agencies or partners
contributed nearly two.
Camp Milton Historic Preserve –
Civil War reenactor with bottle
weaving materials. (Inset) Civil
War reenactors' encampment.
Delaney said at the time. “We can either expand our roadways, which will
only encourage uncontrolled growth,
or we can have the vision to preserve
large tracts of land now and give our
citizens the opportunity to experience
these unspoiled natural green spaces.”
Last year, as Preservation Project
Jacksonville celebrated its 10th anniversary, Jacksonville newspaper The
Florida Times-Union called it “one of
the wisest, most forward-thinking city
programs in city history.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARK MIDDLEBROOK.
How has such an ambitious investment in public land acquisition
succeeded through two recessions,
multiple state and municipal budget
crises, and a devastating housing crash?
And what can the planning community
learn from a program that has helped
create the largest city park system in
the nation?
Several factors share the credit for
Preservation Project Jacksonville’s success, including the project’s clear and
narrowly focused goals, exceptional
Preservation Project Jacksonville’s
partners are not simply financial
backers. They are fully invested in
the process and in some cases provide
executive management functions. The
Nature Conservancy and the Trust for
Public Land, two of the nation’s most
respected land-conservation organizations, served on the Preservation
Project Oversight Commission. This
group reviewed the project’s goals
and objectives, staff analyses and land
acquisitions, and advised the mayor
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Quality Cities — March/April 2010 53
on which properties to acquire. After
it agreed to a proposed acquisition, the
oversight commission took the transaction to the Jacksonville City Council
for review and final approval.
The city has had a partner on
almost every land transaction it has
made through Preservation Project
Jacksonville. For example, the City
of Jacksonville, the National Park
Service and the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection’s Division of
Parks and Recreation jointly created
the Timucuan Trail State and National
Parks in 2000.
The Timucuan Trail State and National Parks encompasses 17 parks,
preserves and facilities owned by one
$1 million, while the National Park
Service contributed $500,000 in new
exhibits in the clubhouse visitor center.
All three partners staff the plantation-style clubhouse, which was
transformed from a shuttered eyesore
into a popular venue for weddings and
other events. With a free interpretative
museum, the clubhouse also is a destination for naturalists and history buffs.
The Florida Parks Service opened the
Ribault Club in 2003 and continues to
maintain it. Because of the functions
it hosts, the club delivers a positive
annual economic impact of more than
$1 million.
As a growth-management tool, the
city also acquired a number of parcels
expanse of nearly 600 acres of marsh,
providing a system of canoe and kayak
trails in a densely populated urban
area. The developer received a fair
return on his investment, and the city
expanded its network of parks and
preserves.
By providing access to the public,
Preservation Project Jacksonville gains
support, which has allowed the program to exceed its land-acquisition and
preservation goals. The focus has now
shifted to providing more amenities,
including boat ramps, canoe launches,
docks and piers.
The Jacksonville park system is a
work in progress, a touchstone for future generations seeking to preserve the
(Left) Ribault Clubhouse before renovation. (Above) Ribault
Clubhouse after renovation. The partnership between the
city, state and federal park system made this renovation
possible. The clubhouse is now used by the public for
weddings and events.
or more of the three original partners.
The Timucuan partnership cooperatively markets, manages and supports a
park area that covers nearly 12 percent
of the city. As part of the agreement,
the partners participate in developing
access and management plans for each
property, regardless of which of the
three entities owns it.
One of the projects within the
Timucuan umbrella is the Ribault
Clubhouse. The state, the city and the
National Park Service collaborated to
restore the 1928 facility on Fort George
Island. The state, which owns the
clubhouse and coordinated the renovation, contributed $2.3 million to the
four-year project. The city contributed
54 Florida League of Cities
when a proposed land use was deemed
incompatible with its surroundings.
A notable example is Dutton Island
Park and Preserve, just east of the
Intracoastal Waterway in the city’s
Atlantic Beach section, where a national homebuilder was preparing to
put nearly 200 homes on 98 acres of
vacant waterfront. Concerned about
the potential loss of more of the urban area’s limited waterfront access,
the city, through Preservation Project
Jacksonville, struck a deal with the developer as the bulldozers were coming
off the trailers.
Today, the Dutton Island complex
consists of a 35-acre island, the 98acre expansion with trails, and a vast
beauty of the land that attracts many
residents and visitors. Jacksonville’s
growing reputation as a model for
other cities fighting the effects of urban
sprawl is a tribute to the city’s longtime
commitment to the preservation project’s ideals and its success at forming
mutually beneficial partnerships with
like-minded organizations.
Nathan Rezeau is chief of waterfront
management and programming for
the City of Jacksonville’s Recreation
and Community Services Department.
Alexa Graf, P.E., is a project manager
with England-Thims & Miller Inc., the
city’s program manager for Preservation Project Jacksonville since 2001.
PHOTOS COURTESY THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLE.