Plans to convert a vacant Jacksonville Beach bank into a data distribution facility were denied Monday by the city's Planning Commission.
The board voted 3-2 to deny a conditional use request from Dominion Engineering Group to redevelop the former VyStar Credit Union location at 100 N. Third St. Commissioners David Dahl and John Leynes cast the dissenting votes, favoring the project.
“Although essential public services are permitted, the location and intensity is a real concern of the planning staff. Since this is such a prominent commercial corridor and this corner in particular is the main commercial gateway to the city, this is kind of a dead space in the block,” Senior Planner Christian Popoli said.
“It is not going to have any interaction with the public. It is not going to have any interaction with the pedestrian or bicycle infrastructure. Although it will aesthetically look like a commercial building, it is basically going to be unoccupied for all intents and purposes.”
The conditional use application sought approval for a privately owned, two-story data distribution facility that would connect to a large data cable running from an undersea cable landing site.
The cable would come ashore through an underground structure beneath the beach or an adjacent property before being routed under existing roadways and easements from the landing site to the former VyStar location.
“Part of the reason that they are looking at this site has to do with the fact that the cable is going to be coming out of the ocean,” Popoli said. “Obviously, the closer proximity to the beach, the better.”
William Schaefer, the project's applicant, said the property, which has been vacant for several years, receives significant traffic, but “no one has found anything they want to do on it.”
Converting the site to a data distribution facility is a suitable use because it is allowed under the current zoning, Schaefer said.
“It is a fiber optic landing station. It receives cable from offshore, takes it inside the building and takes the information that it gets and distributes it out into the network,” Schaefer said. “It doesn't fall under the category of a water plant or a wastewater treatment plant. It doesn't do anything with processing data. It just transmits data.”
While a traditional data center typically consists of a large-scale cluster of computer servers used for cloud storage and computing, the proposed Dominion facility would house a large data cable and distribute its signal through smaller cables and substations to end users, including wireless carriers and commercial and residential internet customers.
City code defines an essential public service as a permitted use subject to specific conditions that allow such services to be granted by conditional use in any zoning district where they are not otherwise permissible.
Essential public services include duly organized fire and rescue units and certain installations involving water, sewer, gas, telephone or electrical systems.
According to the application, the proposed use qualifies as an essential public service because “the erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance of underground, surface or overhead utility installations of water, sewer, gas, telephone and electrical systems and the equipment and appurtenances such as substations and lift stations [are] necessary for such systems to furnish an adequate level of service.”
“Just to clarify, this is not an AI data center. This is a distribution facility,” Popoli said. “Although this is technically internet, it falls into the telephone franchise agreements.”
The city has two existing facilities at 402 S. Second Ave. in an industrial zoning district and 325 N. 17th Ave., which is zoned for commercial use.
The Dominion Engineering Group project is located in the Community Commercial, or C-2, zoning district, one block north of Beach Boulevard and Third Street.
“My concern is this is a very nice looking building that will actually have nobody visiting it. There is no engagement with the community at all and this is in the heart of Jacksonville Beach,” said Planning Commission Chairman Nicholas Andrews.
“The AT&T building on 18th Avenue North is, for lack of a better term, dead space. I'm sure it would look very nice, but no one will interact with the space.”
Popoli said the project is an allowed use in the C-2 zoning district, but the designation restricts construction of structures for commercial activity or retail sales and requires new construction to be compatible with the surrounding area.
The city's Comprehensive Plan also encourages the adaptive reuse of existing structures that meet flooding and energy-efficiency standards, he said.
“We are generally concerned that this would be a permanent piece of infrastructure and we would lose this commercial space in such a prominent area,” Popoli said in explaining the staff's recommendation to deny the application.
“C-2 is designed to provide community-level commercial. It is our most intense commercial category, so that is where you see our shopping centers, restaurants and the bowling alley,” Popoli said. “Typically, these kinds of structures are either in industrial zoning districts or they are lift stations, which are significantly smaller.”
“Being that this is a little over three-fourths of an acre, this is a pretty big impact on the community, especially at that peak intersection. This is a really prominent corner, and it would be detrimental to the city to lose this.”
