{"id":339879,"date":"2025-10-29T04:06:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339879\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T04:06:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:06:25","slug":"jacksonville-city-council-approves-five-points-business-improvement-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/339879\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville City Council approves Five Points business improvement district"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 The Five Points neighborhood will soon have a new pot of money to address its security problem.<\/p>\n

With a 14-5 vote on Oct. 28, the Jacksonville City Council approved legislation to create a business improvement district in Five Points. <\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: <\/b>Plan to create special district to collect fees from 5 Points businesses set for City Council vote<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Under Ordinance 2025-0539, commercial property owners in the district will be assessed a fee to provide funding for landscaping, security and promotion.<\/p>\n

Council President Kevin Carrico and Council members Rory Diamond, Terrance Freeman, Mike Gay and Ron Salem voted against the measure.<\/p>\n

Five Points, a commercial district amid the historic Riverside and Avondale neighborhoods south of Downtown Jacksonville, has experienced outbreaks of crime in recent years.<\/p>\n

In 2023, business owners said \u201cmobs\u201d had taken over the streets, creating a chilling effect on business after the crowds dispersed. In recent weeks, a number of businesses in the district have been burglarized. <\/p>\n

The BID drew support from business leaders and property owners in the district. <\/p>\n

According to legislation, the BID will be funded by the fee for commercial properties, which will be assessed annually. Property owners in the district, which comprises all or parts of 21 blocks, will be charged separate fees per heated square foot and parking square footage. <\/p>\n

The assessment will take effect in 2026.<\/p>\n

Council member Jimmy Peluso, who introduced the ordinance and whose District 7 includes Five Points, said the first year of the BID would be funded with about $150,000 from the city\u2019s community benefits agreement with the Jacksonville Jaguars.<\/p>\n

Under the $300 million CBA, a complement to the city\u2019s $1.4 billion stadium deal with the team, each of the 14 Council districts was allotted $1 million.<\/p>\n

Peluso said stationing JSO officers full-time in Five Points would be implausible, as they are needed elsewhere in a city encompassing 840 square miles.<\/p>\n

During the Finance Committee\u2019s discussion, Diamond added an amendment to the bill that would allow businesses to opt out. The city\u2019s Office of General Counsel cautioned that the opt-out could open the city to litigation. <\/p>\n

An amendment offered by Peluso, and passed by Council on Oct. 28, removed the opt-out amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased upon the nature of this district, the services that are being provided, I don\u2019t see how an opt-out provision would properly meet the two-prong analysis for how a special assessment needs to run,\u201d said Dylan Reingold, chief deputy general counsel. <\/p>\n

Peluso said in August, when the legislation was introduced, that he expected fees to start at 20 to 25 cents per heated square foot during the first assessment period in 2026. The legislation allows for per-square-foot fees of up to 55 cents for structures and 50 cents for parking during the first year.<\/p>\n

According to a document filed with the ordinance, the district would assess the fees on about 100 commercial properties held by 80 owners.<\/p>\n

The district would operate on revenue generated by the fee instead of a budget based on expected revenue. The district\u2019s budget would be approved by Council each year.<\/p>\n

Several Council members voiced opposition to what they saw as a tax increase on small businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue with these dependent districts is you\u2019re essentially forcing people to pay a tax,\u201d Diamond said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is that magic number where you have enough people saying, \u2018Yes, I want to do this,\u2019 to the extent that you go from it being something that everybody wants versus something that\u2019s just being coerced. Right now, I don\u2019t think you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman voted against it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just not going to support a tax on small businesses. I\u2019m an advocate for it. I have one myself, and I feel like that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing,\u201d Freeman said.<\/p>\n

Council members in favor of the BID said they supported Peluso as the Five Points district Council representative, or felt the Five Points BID and other BIDs could benefit Jacksonville as it continues to grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my own district, I understand the value of having one of these,\u201d said District 11 Council member Raul Arias. \u201cIf we allow anybody to just opt out any year, then from 94 business owners, it could easily go to 10, which is not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a tax on small businesses,\u201d Council member Rahman Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe businesses in the area have said this is something they want to improve the district so that their businesses flourish,\u201d he said. \u201cIf and when this legislation passes, and I believe this is a good idea, the people from this district will still get an idea, or still get the opportunity to opine on how the funds should be spent.\u201d<\/p>\n

At previous committee meetings, Five Points business employees spoke in support of the proposal for the BID. While no one spoke against the BID during committee meetings, Peluso\u2019s office said 11 of 94 property owners were not in favor of the BID as of Oct. 22. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Five Points neighborhood will soon have a new pot of money to address its…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,64,5310,167545,3188,723,7310,27607,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-339879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-city-council","11":"tag-five-points","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-riverside","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115455484621720136","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}