Advocating for a Sustainable Jacksonville

The downtown event was a success and proved that brick and mortar businesses could benefit as well.

Since the launch of Jax Truckies in 2011, the food truck scene has exploded throughout Northeast Florida, leading to the creation of jobs, designated truck spots in downtown and new food truck legislation for consideration in Jacksonville Beach.

Now several of the food trucks have grown to become successful enough to open brick and mortar restaurants helping make Jacksonville a place instead of a space.






Investing in alternative forms of mobility to facilitate connectivity and human scaled economic growth are essential to any community desiring sustainability.

In 2006, Metro Jacksonville exposed JTA's proposed +$1 billion Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan as the largest public boondoggle in local history. While highlighting the flaws; commuter rail, streetcars and better utilizing the Skyway were suggested as viable alternatives.

Once Metro Jacksonville advocacy generated community support, JTA's BRT proposal has been significantly modified and complemented with future commuter rail, streetcar and skyway use.





In 2011, the City of Jacksonville adopted the 2030 Mobility Plan and Fee, as an innovative funding mechanism for multimodal transportation projects and land use policies to combat unsustainable sprawl.  

Earlier this year, a bill to enact a three year moratorium on the plan was considered by council at the request of the local development community.

In response, Metro Jacksonville used its influence to present a counter argument to rally the community.  Responding to heavy grassroots-based community opposition, the City Council enacted a compromise and today revenue is being generated for Jacksonville's future mobility needs.





In 2011, five local urban planners who met through Metro Jacksonville decided to establish Transform Jax. Transform Jax advocates and educates the community and decision makers regarding policies and projects that benefit downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

Over the last two years, Transform Jax's successes include introducing the idea of establishing a local bike share program, working with public officials to not approve constructing a road in front of the new courthouse and performing the traffic analysis needed for the creation of San Marco's recently completed Balis Park expansion.






In conclusion, Jacksonville can become whatever we decide to make it by 2040. However, my experience with Metro Jacksonville and affiliated advocacy groups suggest that the seeds for significant change can be incrementally planted and bloom into something great without the need of a well-financed bank account or city hall playing the leading role.

I'd encourage everyone in the room who'd like to see our community become more sustainable to embrace the ideas of Tactical Urbanism, be like Nike and "Just Do It."


USGBC North Florida 20 40 Talk Presentation by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com