Diary of a Downtown Renovation: Planning Phase 1

A diary is a way to capture events as they happen. It is not always sexy, especially when one is dealing with multiple departments at the City, bidding out a project, and working with lenders. Just hang in there with me because there will be a point where you will start to physically see progress! But first let’s retrace my story: After our Landmark Application was approved through the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission (JHPC), we had to wait patiently as the application made its way through City Council.

The first stop after JHPC was the full City Council for an initial approval. My partner in crime attended that meeting because I was out of town. These meetings are not the most fun to attend. There are lots of public speakers and it takes forever to get through the agenda. Sometimes there are people there for public comment who just want a platform to speak who are not even addressing anything on the agenda. It can feel tiresome and a bit like the Wild West. We did not speak. Our application was quickly moved to the Land Use and Zoning Committee (LUZ).

The LUZ hearing in February was on my husband’s birthday, so I took that meeting. It was a little more sparsely attended as you can see from the photo. After waiting on several other agenda items, I was asked to come up to the podium and speak to my support of the Landmark status. Then it was quickly and unanimously approved! After that meeting, there was one more City Council meeting for final approval and then we had to wait to receive the official documents from legislative services.

In March, we had a meeting with the restauranteurs who plan to occupy the first floor retail space. Our architect, Brooke Robbins, reviewed the space plans and flow for the first floor and we made some adjustments based on the restauranteurs’ input. We also had a few other friends in the restaurant business review our plans to make sure we were thinking of everything. I am very glad we did because we caught several important things, such as the installation of floor drains, which we didn’t have in our initial plans.

During this time, we also had a local developer and a Tampa-based entrepreneur review the layouts for our two residential floors. These are very small spaces, studio apartments, and we wanted to make sure were were maximizing efficiencies with the existing space. After each of these meetings, we continued to work with our architect to refine the plans. Once they were ready, we conducted walkthroughs with several contractors. You can see in the video the current condition of the building when we walked through! Soon after, our architect sent out the request for proposals. And then we waited….

In April we met with Buildup Downtown’s Executive Director, Allan DeVault, to discuss creative ideas for things like our grease trap location. I agree this is not a exciting topic but when you have a building that is surrounded on all sides by other structures, there isn’t a lot of room for basic operational needs like trash cans and grease traps. Buildup Downtown is great at navigating issues like this that may effect multiple downtown properties versus each business negotiating these things individually. One idea that came out of a meeting with a St. Augustine restauranteur is the city hosting centralized trash compactor locations that businesses can pay into use. This would be really helpful when a structure is literally located on the lot lines. That probably won’t happy for us but it is a great idea as downtown continues to grow.

A couple weeks ago we received the proposals back from contractors. Unfortunately, the project came back about a million dollars more than estimated only 6 months ago. This is a good example of how much construction costs continue to rise. We also altered the plans so I am sure that had an impact. We changed the residential floors from four one-bedroom apartments to the historic layout of eight studio apartments. We altered the front facade back to the historic appearance and added a few more windows to the north and south sides of the building. Those windows have to be constructed with fire-rated glass because of their proximity to the adjacent buildings. Oh, and we kept the original back porch on the third floor instead of closing it in (reduces square footage but creates a nice private outdoor space).

The current step we are working through is meeting with the architect to see if we can find any cost savings. Then we will work with the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) to categorize the budget and estimate how much we could possibly receive in incentives. After we know that number, we will be going back to our lenders to see about construction funding and bridge loans. Simultaneously, we have multiple architectural reviews at the city, state and national levels.

Again, I realize none of this is very appealing and fun but it is the background work that has to happen for a successful project. We are doing everything we can to make sure this project is done right the first time so that it can have a lasting impact on our community. Stay tuned as we move through this process. And if you are considering investing in downtown, contact me! I would be happy to help you navigate the process.

Researching A Historic Home

One of my favorite closing gifts for a client who just purchased a historic home in Jacksonville was a sweet booklet of their home’s history. They were so thankful of this thoughtful gift and can’t wait to start making their own memories in their lovely new home.

I love learning about history. I’ve visited over 50 National Parks and Historic Sites, and hundreds of museums all over the country. I studied history at Rutgers University and later at the University of Florida during my graduate work. I dedicated most of my career to working with museums, cultural institutions, and historic preservation. Research feels like settling in with a comfy blanket and hot cup of tea — it feels like home.

What better way to use my self-proclaimed history-nerd status in my real estate career than to deep dive into the history of a client’s home? It is not as daunting as it may seem. I have a few easy steps to set you on your way to learning more about your home, too!

Where to Start?

Is your home a contributing structure to a National Historic District? If so, the City of Jacksonville, as well as the State of Florida, will have what is called a Florida Master Site File (FMSF) on your home. The FMSF often includes a lot of the basics about your home, including the year it was constructed, the architect and builder, and the important architectural features. Jacksonville’s residential areas on the National Register of Historic Places are Durkee Gardens, Old Ortega, Riverside/Avondale, Springfield, and Downtown.

On the website for the Historic Preservation Section at the City of Jacksonville, you can find lists of contributing structures by address for Riverside/Avondale and Springfield. You can also call their office to see if they can provide access to a site file in any of Jacksonville’s National Historic Districts. Riverside Avondale Preservation has many of their site files scanned and they have a vertical file on almost every home in the district, which sometimes contains more than just the site file. The Springfield Improvement Association & Archives actually has the site files for that district scanned and available for online access, which makes research so much easier!

Next Steps!

Visit the Special Collections at Jacksonville Public Library downtown for some deep diving into research. This is where things get fun! One really great resource is the Sanborn Insurance Maps, which you can find online in several places. However, there is nothing like leafing through the huge old books and the secrets they hold in person. The image to the right is just a small section of one of the largest books you will ever behold. They have to place the book in a cradle in order for you to use it.

The Sanborn Maps were maps were designed to assist fire insurance agents in determining property hazards and they are a treasure trove of information. They show the size, shape, stories, and construction of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories as well as fire walls, locations of windows and doors, sprinkler systems, and the uniform nature of them showed changes of the buildings over time. If you shine a light through the back of a page like the one to the right, you can see alterations to the buildings directly pasted on top of the map. I felt like a history spy from National Treasure when I learned that secret!

The downtown library also holds old City Directories where you can search by address, find the name of the person living there, then search by name, and often find all the people living in the household and their occupations. Be aware! Some addresses have changed over time. So, pay attention to the cross streets when you are doing your address search in a city directory!

The library also has various newspapers on file where more prominent buildings were listed under the building construction activity sections. These newspapers have their own directories which can help you narrow down your search before you hop on the microfilm machine and start zooming away.

Additional City Rescues

On the City Property Appraiser’s website, search for your home address, then scroll down the page to the Sales History section. Find the most recent transfer of the property and click the book/page number link. You will be directed to an image of the deed located on the COJ Clerk of Courts website. Within each deed is Property Description that references a Book and Page number for the historic City of Jacksonville Plat Maps (see image top left for an example).

Now, visit the Clerk of Court website and search by Book/Page. In the example above, I would search for Book 2, Page 4. Then click on the Plat Map results and voila, winner, winner chicken dinner - you now have a copy of the plat map for your neighborhood. For this particular home, you would look for Block 80, Lot 5. That is where the historic property is located. I also had a nice print of this plat map framed for my client as another special closing gift.

Another avenue at the city that is a little more daunting than others is researching your building permit and plans, if they exist. These are located in the building department. Call their offices first to make an appointment. This takes a lot of time going through microfilm to locate and there may be nothing at all to find, so it is all about patience.

Ancestry.com

Finally, and this is not accessible for everyone, but if you do have an Ancestry.com account, that is a really great way to find out even more information about the people who lived in your home. You can do a reverse search with an address by year. Again, make sure you have the right address because they did change over time in many cases.

For this example, I found the correct address in the City Directories by looking at the cross streets. Then I searched the historic address in Ancestry.com and found the 1910 and 1920 census records, which listed every household member, their age, where they were born, where their parents were born, their occupation, relation to the head of household, and more. This is the 1920 census which shoes that eleven people lived in this home in Springfield. ELEVEN! There was a man and his wife, his three children, one son-in-law, three grandchildren, and his sister in law and her son. This is a 2032 sf house! Some couples want a house that big to themselves these days!

I hope this information was helpful to you. If you start your journey in historic research and get stuck, reach out to me! I would love to help and get nerdy about history with you.

Homestead Exemption: What is Portability?

Portability is one of the least known or understood benefits of the “Save Our Homes” Amendment in the State of Florida. It may be Florida’s best kept secret after our beautiful Florida springs. Before I dive into portability, let’s discuss the basics of Save our Homes benefits.

If you own a home in Florida that is your primary residence, you may qualify for the Florida Homestead Tax Exemption. The main requirements are that you have to 1) occupy the home by December 31st of the previous year, and 2) live in the home for 6 months of the year. You also have to file for the exemption by March 1st through your local Property Appraiser’s office. If you haven’t already, file an application before the March 1 deadline to capture this important tax benefit!

The Florida Homestead Exemption does a couple of really cool things. It puts a cap on annual property tax increases, which means that the municipality can’t increase the assessed value of your home by more than 3% per year. It also allows for up to a $50,000 exemption of the assessed value of your property. Now, when you sell your existing home and buy a new home, don’t look at the assessed value of the new home and assume that will be the same amount for you. The property appraisers office will often raise the assessed value of the new home closer to your purchase price. That is where Portability can come into play and be a huge tax benefit!

Portability allows you to transfer a portion of the 'Save Our Homes' benefit from a previous homestead to a new homestead to lower your assessed value.

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How does it work? If you qualify, you calculate the difference between the market value and the assessed value of your current homestead. If the value of your new home is more than your current home, the full amount is deducted from the new home’s market value and reduces the new home’s assessed value (the amount that is taxed). If the new home’s market value is less than the your current homestead, then you may still be able to apply a portion of that portability benefit towards your new home.

Take a look at this great graphic for some examples of how you might apply portability. Remember, the maximum amount that can be ported (transferred) is $500,000 of value (difference between Just/Market Value and Assessed Value).

Pro Tip: You have to apply for the portability benefit. It is not automatic!

As an example of portability, I will use my own situation. We sold our single family home in 2020 and purchased a condo that had a market value less than our previous home. The market value of our single-family home was about $150,000 more than the assessed value (the portability benefit). Part of the reason we had this much portability was because we had lived there for a while with a Homestead Exemption that kept the assessed value annual increases at no more than 3%, even though the market itself was increasing at a much higher rate. However, we downsized to a condo, so we were only able to “port” or move a portion of that amount to our new condo. Using the the calculations you see in the graphic above, we were able to port around $100,000 to our condo, which reduced the assessed (taxed) value. Then, we received a $50,000 Homestead Exemption which recused our taxable value even more.

Portability is a little known tax benefit that homeowners are not always prompted to apply for when filing a new homestead exemption. Make sure to take advantage of this Save Our Homes tax benefit when you file your Homestead Exemption (before March 1). For your convenience, below are some of Northeast Florida’s Property Appraiser Websites focusing on Homestead Exemptions, Portability, various other tax benefits, and the application process for each.

Reach out to your Local Property Appraiser!

 
 

For all of your real estate needs, feel free to contact me:

904-708-0825

carmengodwinrealty@gmail.com

 
 

Diary of a Downtown Renovation: The Beginning

So… my husband and I did a thing. We bought a building in downtown Jacksonville! This year, we will start the arduous journey of restoring this Marsh & Saxelbye gem in the middle of our city center.

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We think it is beautiful. We both also have the ability to see what can be, not simply what is. That is what it takes to invest in historic buildings — to have the ability to identify what makes a building special, and to be a dreamer with the vision for a beautifully activated space.

We are so thankful to Ron Chamblin for entrusting us to make this a reality. What is our plan? We will build out a restaurant space on the first floor and four studio apartments on each of the second and third floors. We are so excited to make a difference in our city by helping to revitalize our urban core in this small way. Here is an article from the Jacksonville Daily Record that outlines some of the initial project ideas.

In future posts, I will highlight some of the history in more detail but I have to share a short tale of our downtown beauty. A version of her was constructed in the early 1900s (the earliest inhabitant I can find is 1903). She was originally a two-story wood rooming house with a large front porch. This was at a time when there were still a lot of single and multi family residences downtown, before the Great Florida Land Boom (a history for another day).

The rooming house sheltered so many over the years, some wafting in and out each year, while others stayed on for much longer.

One really interesting resident was Earl Seashole of the Florida Five Jazz Band who lived there from 1915 to 1917. Seashole’s band traveled the national Keith Vaudeville Circuit and was featured in a Victor Talking Machine Company Tour in 1921. Their first performance on that tour was at the Cohen Bros Department Store, which is now Jacksonville’s City Hall! Theodore A. Blinn, a prominent physician and surgeon from Ohio lived in the home from 1906 to 1910, and George T Woodward, operator of The Woodward Photography Studio on Forsyth Street, lived in the home with his wife in 1909.

In 1923, The Jacksonville Investment Corporation hired Marsh & Saxelbye architects, Jacksonville’s most prolific architectural firm of the 1920s, to redesign the building to include space for two retail stores on the first floor. 225 N Laura Street was one of Marsh & Saxelbye’s earliest mixed-use projects and one of only a handful of early small scale commercial designs in Downtown Jacksonville. The firm would go on to design many commercial and residentail buildings in Jacksonville, over 20 of which are on the National Register of Historic Places.

September 1921 Music Trades

One of my favorite things about this project is that there was not any waste.

This was a Green Building Project before the term was coined.

The Specification Sheets (the City of Jacksonville has the original 1923 copy printed on linen) defines how the contractor will remove the porch, lift up the 2-story rooming house, and construct an entirely new first floor out of brick. Then they were to place the rooming house on top of the new first floor and construct a new second and third floor facade that would wrap the building and meet up with the rooming house. You can actually see where the 1923 construction meets up with the circa 1903 rooming house in the photo below that was taken by our architects using a drone.

I learned all of this information by doing a deep dive research project for a Landmark Application through the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission (JHPC). Our application was heard before the JHPC last last year and we were approved for the Landmark status — HORRAY! Later this month, the application goes to the full City Council for final approval. Wish us luck!

The process of doing development work downtown is a bear!

The first step was Landmark status. Since I was already doing all of the historical research for the Landmark Application, I went ahead and submitted Part 1 of the Federal Tax Credit Application. Did you know that you can get up to a 20% income tax credit for the rehabilitation of historic, income-producing buildings (if you go through the process with the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) and the National Park Service (NPS)? It is a huge effort to file the three part application and get the appropriate approvals. Yet, it will be worth it once the project is completed. I just received notice this month that Part 1 has been approved! Another step completed!

The next steps involve the DIA and the DDRB. Late last year, we had our initial application reviewed and approved through the Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB). The DDRB is a mayoral-appointed committee of nine voting members who are tasked with reviewing design elements for new projects downtown. The idea is to ensure projects meet the downtown master plan, which includes things like walkability and engagement with the street.

Currently, we are working through architectural plans and test fits (the restaurant and apartment layouts on each floor). We also have to consider the modern building codes that are being forced into this historic space. It is so tough because this building has less than 2’ between it and other buildings — it is completely surrounded by other buildings in the back and on both sides, so there is only so much that we have to work with. The building is also only about 6,000 square feet, so we have been learning a lot about maximizing small spaces! Once we have the engineers approve the plans, we can move forward with obtaining estimates for the work. So many steps. But each one moves us a little bit closer to our goal of revitalizing this beautiful building.

I hope you will join us on our journey! My goal is to take you through the process through social media channels: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Stay posted for updates on our project and let me know what you think!

Initial Concept Drawing

Build Up Downtown!

I love Jacksonville’s historic downtown. I like to call the urban core Jacksonville’s “Original Town Center” because I am a history-loving nerd. Unlike today’s Town Centers, it wasn’t developed as a shopping mall surrounded by apartment complexes and gated communities. Don’t get me wrong, I like visiting the Town Center and I am glad we have an Apple Store. However, our city’s downtown is its heart and soul. It emerged from the ashes of its previous self, rising like a phoenix that brought forth creatives from all over the country to rebuild our city. It has history in the bones of every building that has evolved into each new use over time. It is beautiful and unique and something really special that we should all treasure.

For decades, our City leaders have struggled to find a way to invigorate and activate our downtown. So many proposals. So many ideas. So many plans that sit on shelves and collect dust. NO MORE! Maybe it is because I am an eternal optimist or maybe it is because I’ve been paying attention to the most recent spur in downtown development, but I think the time is now for our downtown to get its due! One new organization working to make that happen is Build Up Downtown (BUD) where I serve as an advisory committee member and share my extensive experience in nonprofit management and community development.

Allan DeVault is the organization’s Executive Director. He served on the Riverside Avondale Preservation board for years as the Treasurer, volunteering for events, pushing through legislation to help our city, and doing whatever he could to make Jacksonville a better place to live. He is someone who cares deeply about uplifting Jacksonville’s Urban Core, the OG: Original Town Center. What is Build Up Downtown? They are a nonprofit that “facilitates and advocates for preservation, smart development and great public spaces in Downtown Jacksonville.” LOVE THAT. More of all of that, please! It sounds easy — make downtown the place to be already! There are hundreds of people who’ve tried to do that in the past fifty plus years who would explain why it isn’t as easy as it sounds. If you want to get nerdy about it, check out these video interviews from the 1960s and 1990s of two Jacksonville visionary architects Bob Broward and Taylor Hardwick who discuss their visions for Jacksonville’s future as well as their disappointments over time.

I know from experience that it can be difficult to navigate the system as an investor in downtown. Build Up Downtown can make that process easier. BUD supports and builds on the good work of the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) and Downtown Vision, Inc. (DVI). But what is really interesting and why I think they can make a big impact is that they are a privately funded nonprofit, which may give them more flexibility and agility in their work. Along with Director of Development Laura Phillips Edgecombe, DeVault collaborates with these publicly funded entities in an effort to make our downtown the “epicenter for business, history, culture, education and entertainment.” As a private nonprofit, they just have a little more leeway and ability to move things forward in creative ways. They are really good at being informed on all things related to downtown because they stay abreast of current events and are excellent at communicating with all the various stakeholders. That is an enormous job in and of itself but gives them a good vision for what everyone involved wants for our city’s future. They are also good at connecting people so that they can collaborate and create a greater impact, as well as working with current and future investors and businesses (like me).

As you watch the historic interviews above, you realize that Downtown has come a long way since the 1990s. We have some amazing historic commercial, mixed use, and institutional buildings designed by prominent architects that are being renovated, thanks to historic incentives from DIA. At the heart of our city is the lovely JWJ Park which hosts lots of wonderful events and is fronted by our City Hall, located in Henry Klutho’s 1912 “Prairie School Masterpiece,” the St. James Building. Diagonal across the park is MOCA Jax, a fantastic contemporary art museum located in the historic Western Union Telegraph Building. My husband’s grandfather delivered telegrams by bicycle out of this downtown building as a young boy.

Next door is a top notch Public Library in a contemporary building designed by the international architect Robert A.M. Stern. One of my favorite places at the library is the Florida Room on the 4th floor — it is a Jacksonville History Research Heaven! On the other side of City Hall there is one of the most whimsical candy shops I’ve ever been in, Sweet Petes, where you can get lost in the vibrant colors of sweet treats while you watch them making candy from above. Just steps down Laura is arguably the best bookstore in the country, Chamblin’s Uptown, with a great little cafe and a wide selection of new, used and collectible books (although the Roosevelt location is where you go to get lost in book heaven). This is all just right around JWJ Park. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what downtown has to offer or even mentioned the variety of great restaurants, bars, breweries and independent stores, all situated within blocks of the wide expanse of the beautiful St. Johns River.

As you can see, when I walk downtown I see lots of vibrancy already. However, I also know there is a lot of placemaking, smart development, and driving awareness to do. What is your vision for our Downtown? What elements do you think are the most important as we all plan for our city’s future?

Community Impact Statement – Build Up Downtown  

Thriving downtowns are the heartbeat of every major city and Jacksonville should be no different. For decades, the momentum to change that has had many starts and stops. Right now, Jacksonville is on the doorstep of seeing that change and Build Up Downtown was created to assist in get over that step. There is momentum that we have not seen before that’s been set up over the past 10 years by stakeholders, public and private, that will revitalize our Downtown and keep that momentum moving forward. Jacksonville’s downtown will soon be a unique epicenter for business, history, culture, education and entertainment.

The Skinny on Jax Historic Districts

 
“In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy.”
— John Sawhill
 

Edgewood Avenue

Considering moving to one of Jacksonville’s beautiful historic districts so you can live a more urban lifestyle in walking distance to parks, restaurants and museums? Or maybe you already live in a historic neighborhood where massive live oak trees draped with Spanish moss hold court next to 100-year-old homes that are built to last another 100 years if properly maintained. When I was serving as the Executive Director of Riverside Avondale Preservation, one of the biggest questions for homeowners was related to the approval process for working on these old gems. You are welcome to scroll to the bottom to find a link to the permitting process or you can take a journey with me to learn a bit about what qualifies as historic, why, and how we got here!

First, did you know that not all historic properties are governed by local law? Which properties are protected by local law has more to do with the history of historic preservation efforts in Jacksonville than the historic structures themselves. Historic designations are the result of the dedicated grassroots efforts of a lot of passionate people who understood that preservation was not just about saving buildings. Historic preservation saves and revitalizes communities, building on all that makes a neighborhood special.

Some Historic Background

Without getting too much into the weeds, a little history goes a long way. Here goes an extremely truncated history of how Jacksonville got historic districts. In 1901, a fire broke out at a mattress factory in downtown Jacksonville and in eight hours 146 blocks were destroyed, a total of about 2,000 buildings. The city went on high alert, sending out messages across the country to recruit architects and builders to come to Jacksonville, as money was being poured into rebuilding downtown. Hundreds of building professionals answered the call. Within five months after the fire, 1,000 building permits were issued!

Much of Riverside and Avondale was still fairly rural at this time (check out the rural photo of Riverside Avenue near Park and King). The architects and builders who came to Jacksonville not only rebuilt downtown, they stayed and expanded housing into Riverside and Avondale. They also challenged one another, using our City as an architectural proving ground. This is why there is such an amazing diversity of architectural styles in Riverside Avondale!

Ok, so fast forward to the 1970s (I know I skipped over decades of history but bear with me). The families that had once inhabited the beautiful mansions and quaint bungalows of our historic districts had moved out to more suburban areas. These beautiful old buildings started to fall into disrepair and in an effort to revitalize the area, the City of Jacksonville changed much of the residential zoning to commercial and office. This disjointed the residential character of much of the neighborhood and also led to historic buildings being demolished to make way for larger buildings to accommodate higher commercial and office uses. In reaction to historic buildings being demolished with speed, Springfield Preservation and Revitalization and Riverside Avondale Preservation were both formed in 1974 by concerned citizens who wanted to save what they knew was special about their neighborhoods. They did what they could to save historic buildings, one fight at a time. Both Springfield and Riverside Avondale were added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that the demolitions were stopped through local legislation. That is when the City adopted a historic preservation element into the comprehensive plan (a long term plan for the city). That element forced the City to start inventorying and protecting historic structures. Unfortunately, from 1970 to 1990 over 1,400 structures were demolished in Riverside Avondale alone. Clearly, the local legislation and protections were much needed.

 
“Politicians, old buildings, and prostitutes become respectable with age.”
— Mark Twain
 

Historic Designation Basics (Local = Legislated)

Historic properties can be locally or national designated (one is protected and the other is not). They can be designated as individual buildings (City Hall, Florida Theatre, for example) or whole districts, which are essentially a collection of buildings representing a time and place of architectural significance that are surveyed as a whole.

Florida Memory

National Register of Historic Places: In addition to a lot of individual buildings, Riverside Avondale, Springfield, Downtown, and parts of Ortega are on the National Register as Historic Districts. This is a great list of the National Register Properties in Jacksonville. The National Register designation is a honor, meaning it does not regulate changes made to individually listed properties or those within historic districts (except that the City does require what is called a “demolition delay” or a review by the JHPC (Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission).

Local Landmarks and Historic Districts:: Riverside, Avondale, Springfield and the St. Johns Quarter are all locally designated historic districts. Plus, there are about 100 or so individually listed local landmarks. Any exterior work on locally designated properties requires a special permit called a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) through the City of Jacksonville. The neighborhood organizations RAP and SPAR do not process COA applications or make decisions about your home renovations.

Undesignated Historic Neighborhoods:  So many Jacksonville neighborhoods are packed with historic architecture but are not designated either locally or nationally. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth designating. For some there is not the local support or drive for the designation process, and for others, too much historic fabric has been lost over the years to create a cohesive district. Some historic neighborhoods that are NOT designated either locally or nationally are Arlington, Durkeeville, Eastside, Lackawanna, Mandarin, Mixontown, Murray Hill, New Town, Panama Park, San Marco, and Tallulah (this list is not mean to be inclusive of all historic areas of Jacksonville).

Obtaining a COA Permit

Administrative Approval: –Did you know you can get what I call a “no fuss” COA permit for work on your historic building? There are certain defined scopes of work that the City of Jacksonville Historic Section staff can approve administratively (if the work conforms to the district guidelines). See Riverside Avondale and Springfield guidelines for reference. Currently, there is no permit fee for these types of applications and there is a quick turn around time (about a week)!

JHPC Approval: The JHPC is a seven member mayoral-appointed commission that reviews those COA applications that can’t be administratively approved (mostly those that don’t meet the regulations or are new construction/additions). There are permit fees, public notice fees and it is a longer process (1-2 months). Essentially, you meet with the City of Jacksonville Historic Section staff, they write up a report of suggestions/modifications based on your application, then there is a public meeting before the JHPC where you get three minutes to present your project. Other people like your neighbors can speak about your project also and then the commission makes a final decision.

How to Apply for a COA: : The City of Jacksonville’s Historic Section has a pretty good overview of the Steps to Obtaining a COA so check that out to learn more and to access the application portal.

I hope this was helpful! Still have questions?

Feel free to reach out to me at carmengodwinrealty@gmail.com. I love all things historic and am happy to help!