The Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan REQUIRES substantial growth in the Riverside area for this leg of the Skyway to be considered and a few apartments built in the area and only a small resurgence does not qualify as substantial. The Feds know that and so does the State YET JTA wants it anyway.
FYI, this is one of the most backwards things I've ever seen. Transportation infrastructure builds the types of communities you want. It doesn't happen the other way around. In fact, it never does. Adding something like that in your comp plan is virtually another way of saying we don't want to really do anything.
Riverside would not look anything like it is today if streetcars were not installed in the area when it was actually rural. SJTC, UNF, Mayo and everything else on the Southside would still be dairy farms and abandoned sand mines if we didn't slice highways through it to open previously unaccessible land up to development. San Marco and Arlington would have never taken off if decisions weren't made to connect their areas to downtown with bridges. Downtown Jax would have never become what it once did if earlier decisions to extend railroads to the area never came to fruition.
When it comes to mass transit, Portland and San Diego would still look like Jax does now if they didn't make decisions 30 years ago to invest in it to build the type of urban environments their community's desired. In the last 20 years, Charlotte has caught and pulled away from us economically because of their willingness to invest in themselves and alternative mobility choices.
With all of that said, when the mobility plan, fee and associated projects were created, the comp plan was modified to include them. Specifically speaking, the streetcar was included as a priority project to help spur walkable development and infill in under utilized areas of the urban core like Brooklyn and LaVilla, while also enhancing mobility between Riverside and Downtown. With the DIA now doing a CRA, I'm pretty sure transportation connectivity will be a major part of it as well.