August 11, 2025 — Last week, after weeks of review, a significant last minute change was proposed to Bill 2025-448. The Land Use Zoning (LUZ) amendment passed and would make sweeping, dramatic changes to landscape standards throughout Jacksonville – without public awareness or input. Currently, the bill is set for a final City Council vote on TOMORROW, Tuesday, August 12th.

Scenic Jacksonville has communicated to City Council that there is a need to re-advertise and re-refer 2025-448 due to the inclusion of this impactful amendment, which would then allow proper public awareness and public input.

We encourage you to write or call your City Council members TODAY on this important issue that involves procedural due process and the requirement that there be an opportunity for the public to be heard.

Our communication to council is below, followed by a more detailed explanation.

City Council President Carrico and members of the City Council:

Bill 2025-448 is before the Council for a vote on Tuesday, August 12th. As you may be aware, there are competing recommendations by the Planning Commission and proposed amendments by the Transportation, Energy and Utilities (TEU) Committee and the Land Use and Zoning (LUZ) Committee.

This bill was written to apply to industrial properties only, and was noticed in the paper that way. Written to apply only to industrial properties, it received recommendations from the Planning Department, the Planning Commission, and the Neighborhoods and TEU Committees.

Last Tuesday, the LUZ Committee expanded the bill to include applicability to all commercial properties. This is a major departure that substantially changes the bill’s scope and impact. According to testimony at the meeting by Public Works Director Sickler, the City receives less than two dozen applications per year pertaining to improvements for industrial properties, but about 3,000 per year for commercial properties.

Scenic Jacksonville does not object to the TEU amendment, which only applies to industrial properties, raises the threshold to 60% (which the applicant agreed to), and removes the 2-year timeframe for providing the landscaping as that would be difficult for the City to enforce.

However, should the Council move forward with the LUZ Amendment, we respectfully request that the bill be re-referred and re-advertised per Chapter 166, Florida Statutes. Re-referral was advised by the Office of General Counsel at the LUZ Committee hearing.

When, as here, a bill is substantially changed so that its title as advertised no longer provides adequate notice of the subject of the bill, the legislation must be re-referred to committees and re-advertised to assure citizens are provided procedural due process and an opportunity to be heard.

We depend on our City Council to adhere to the rules on proper notice, transparency and fairness.

KEY CONTACTS FOR BILL 2025-448:
Council President Carrico:  KCarrico@coj.net
Councilman Joe Carlucci, LUZ Chair, JoeCarlucci@coj.net
Full City Council Roster
Dylan Reingold, Office of General Counsel, DReingold@coj.net
Helena Parola, Director, Planning Department, HParola@coj.net

* * *

What is in the current version of 2025-448 and why does it matter?

2025-448 proposes to decrease the requirement for existing industrial and commercial developments to bring their properties under renovation up to par with the Landscape Code. Most of these properties were developed prior to establishment of the Landscape Code in Jacksonville, so many have pavement from the street all the way up to the buildings. The landscape code requirements benefit and improve our city’s built environment – and importantly serve to cool heat islands through buffers, trees and landscaping.

Bill 2025-448 has two parts:
1. It reduces the required parking for industrial uses (a good idea); and
2. It weakens the Landscape Code by:

  • raising the percentage (of renovation cost relative to the building’s assessed value) that trips the need to bring the parking lot up to Code from 50% to 60%;
  • reducing the number of years to aggregate these renovation costs from 3 years to 1 year;
  • allowing use of a private appraiser, hired by the developer, to determine the value of the building against which the renovation cost would be compared; and
  • allowing the minimum amount of money to be spent on landscaping for renovation.

Proposed Amendments which will be taken up at the full Council Meeting:

  • The Planning Commission kept the applicability to industrial properties only and reversed the percentage to 50% value of renovation improvements (current law).
  • The TEU committee increased to only 60% threshhold.
  • The LUZ added commercial and kept the 70% threshold.