Residents press developers over 90‑home rezoning at Scarwin Road meeting

City Councilman Mike Gayer opened a community meeting where developers and their consultants presented a rezoning application to allow a planned unit development that would accommodate about 90 single‑family homes on roughly 22 acres off Scarwin Road in Jacksonville.

The developers told residents they originally applied for RLD 50 (a conventional zoning district for 50‑foot lots) but converted the application to a PUD to lock in concessions to neighbors, including 60‑foot lots in parts of the site and a 10‑foot landscape buffer around the property. Applicant representatives said the project would use city sewer (a proposed lift station) and would include stormwater ponds designed to capture upstream runoff and discharge to the Scarwin ditch/Katy Branch watershed after treatment.

Why it matters: neighbors said the proposal would change the Northside neighborhood's low‑density character, worsen existing drainage and traffic problems, saddle overcrowded nearby schools and reduce adjacent property values. Developers said engineering work and city permitting will address drainage and traffic, and they urged residents to raise concerns formally when the application reaches the Land Use and Zoning (LUZ) committee.

Developers' presentation and commitments

Michael Sitner, an applicant representative, told the meeting the team originally filed for RLD 50 and then filed a PUD so they could make commitments in writing. "The only way for us…