Jacksonville panel approves San Pablo Place rezoning after years of legal disputes and new conditions

A rezoning to allow a large residential-and-commercial project at 4915 San Pablo Road South won unanimous approval from the City of Jacksonville Land Use & Zoning Committee on Feb. 4, 2025, after extended public comment and negotiations that surfaced decades-old court orders and private settlement agreements.

The committee approved a Planned Unit Development (PUD) to permit up to 259 multifamily units and about 24,000 square feet of commercial uses on roughly 12.95 acres. Committee members amended the proposal before voting to require a traffic study at civil site-plan review, preserve a 45-foot landscape buffer along the eastern property edge, and require that any residential units be restricted as “housing for older persons” to the fullest extent permitted under the Federal Fair Housing Act.

Why it matters: The site has been the subject of litigation and a private settlement involving neighboring property owners for more than two decades. Neighbors said those agreements and deed restrictions were meant to limit density, setbacks and building heights; the applicant and staff said subsequent PUD approvals and the passage of time affect what the city can legally permit. The committee’s vote advances a project that developers say will reuse an under‑utilized parcel while neighbors warned approving the new PUD would…