Committee approves PUD rezoning for Beach Boulevard shopping-center expansion amid neighborhood opposition

Jacksonville's Land Use & Zoning Committee voted 5-2 on Feb. 3 to approve a companion land-use amendment (Ordinance 2025-487) and a PUD rezoning (Ordinance 2025-488) that will allow a multitenant shopping-center expansion along Beach Boulevard north toward Cortez Road.

Planning staff told the committee the amended land-use request reduces the site's split designation and is consistent with commercial uses along Beach Boulevard, citing centralized water and sewer, JTA bus-rapid-transit access and contiguous CGC designation. "For these reasons and those in the staff report, the planning department recommends approval," Planning Department staff said.

Applicant attorney Cindy Trimmer described the PUD as an effort to "unify this parcel under commercial land use" and said the application had been made more restrictive since earlier hearings. Trimmer read a revised written description onto the record that explicitly prohibits slaughterhouses and removes a list of intense uses, and she said the PUD includes a 25-foot buffer adjacent to residential zoning and a 35-foot height limit within the first 30…