At a special Committee on the Future of Downtown meeting Oct. 27, Jacksonville public agencies and downtown organizations outlined who is responsible for upkeep, operations and project approvals as the city prepares to open multiple new riverfront parks and major development sites.

The presentations — from the city’s Public Works and Parks departments, the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA), Downtown Vision Inc. (DVI) and the newly formed Jacksonville Riverfront Alliance — emphasized overlapping responsibilities for cleaning, landscaping, traffic control and capital investment and called for clearer, written agreements so projects opened at full scale can be maintained.

The question of who does what matters because the city and private sector are investing heavily in downtown public space. “Starting now, we will begin looking at new projects that are coming down the conveyor belt prior to them getting packaged up,” the committee chair said at the opening of the meeting, describing the committee’s charge to map stakeholders and review CRA and incentive processes. Public Works detailed its five downtown-facing divisions — right-of-way and stormwater maintenance, mowing and landscape maintenance, public buildings, traffic engineering, and engineering and construction management — and described specific service levels such as street sweeping five days a week in the downtown/DIA boundary and a downtown solid-waste collection schedule that empties small receptacles at least every other day.

“​​We are the folks who perform most of the heavy-duty infrastructure elements of downtown,” a Public Works representative said, describing pothole repair, sidewalk work, drainage maintenance and a downtown stormwater pump station. Public Works staff also noted an updated maintenance agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation intended to clarify work on FDOT-owned corridors.

Parks staff listed 14 downtown parks they maintain and described daily trash collection, pressure washing, playground and dock repairs, irrigation and tree trimming. Parks Director Daryl (last name not specified in the transcript) told the committee the department coordinates regularly with DIA and Public Works and monitors riverfront park attendance: “Within the first year of us reopening Friendship Fountain, there was over 600,000 visitors,” he said.

Colin Tarbert, chief executive officer of the Downtown Investment Authority, said DIA’s work centers on planning, incentives and property disposition under Florida’s community redevelopment framework. “We are the economic development agency for the downtown area,” Tarbert said, listing tools the agency manages, including grants, land write-downs and completion grants funded largely by tax-increment financing (TIF).

Jake Gordon, chief executive officer of Downtown Vision Inc., described DVI as a business improvement district funded by a 1.1 mill assessment on property in the BID boundary and by voluntary city contributions. Gordon said DVI operates the ambassador program, street-level hospitality and “gap-filling” services — for example, outreach to people experiencing homelessness and enhanced cleanliness efforts — but does not perform major infrastructure maintenance such as tree trimming or street sweeping that remain city responsibilities.

Multiple council members pressed for clearer funding commitments as new riverfront parks open. Council members asked whether the city’s tree fund, Jaguars community benefits funds, or TIF trust dollars could be used more strategically for tree plantings and ongoing maintenance. Council members were told the Jaguars’ contribution identified in the stadium community benefits agreement is $1 million annually for riverfront maintenance and programming (for 30 years) with an additional $200,000 a year earmarked for Metro Park; the DIA reported TIF revenues across North and South Bank districts of about $20 million annually and said roughly $3–4 million sits in the historic preservation trust fund.

Committee members repeatedly returned to the need for documented agreements and mapped responsibilities. Parks and DVI staff noted weekly coordination meetings with DIA and Public Works and said they would provide more detail to the committee on vacant city buildings, maintenance boundaries and a proposed updated FDOT maintenance agreement. Public Works agreed to provide precise street-sweeping limits and to follow up on requests to prioritize aesthetic fixes at key gateways into downtown.

Why it matters: Hundreds of millions of dollars of new public space and private development are expected to come online, and the committee said it wants to prevent a situation in which new parks open without predictable long-term funding and maintenance arrangements. Members asked staff to return with concrete budgets, funding sources and a clear division of maintenance responsibilities ahead of next year’s budget cycle.

What’s next: Committee members will collect stakeholder responses to a questionnaire to be circulated by a facilitator and will reconvene Nov. 24 to review DIA process and policy issues and to begin a five-year review of the BID/CRA plans. A subsequent meeting to review compiled stakeholder mappings is scheduled for Jan. 12, 2026.

Ending: Presenters and council members said they welcomed the mapping exercise as a first step toward formal agreements and clearer funding plans as downtown’s development momentum continues.