Meeting held on New Town's future

Community leaders want more retail along Kings Road

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Drivers who frequent Kings Road are about to see a whole new vision for Jacksonville's Newtown community.

Within the next six months the city is bringing more retail stores to the area, and city officials are hoping to make the area a more walkable community and increase jobs.

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Community members met Thursday night with Local Initiatives Support Corporation, or LISC, in Jacksonville, Habijax, Edward Waters College and the city of Jacksonville to talk about the future of the roadway.

They're seeking input from residents on how to restore the Kings Road Commercial Corridor, which extends from Myrtle Avenue to Division Street.

"In order to have community transformation you have to have community as part of the conversation," said Dr. Irvin Cohen.

Dr. Irvin Cohen is the Executive Director of the Newtown Success Zone at Edward Waters College.

"The meeting will be, what does retail look like in this community because you want to have retail opportunities; one, that benefit the residents and two, that goes in line with everything that you know is healthy and whole for an entire community you don't want a retail strip full of fast food restaurants," said Dr. Cohen. "I think it's a huge need for a couple of reasons one it allows people to have walkable communities and two it creates job within the community. If you look at it communities like this now people have to go outside of their communities to work, and so by bringing in retail opportunities at the onset again it provides economic access on the back end."

"If we had something like that in here then it would make more people want to live here, and then people would build better homes in the area and stay," said Cecil Holsey, who lives in the area.

More than 50 residents attended the meeting to make sure their voices were heard about what they'd like to see on Kings Highway. Many participants shared they'd like to have a grocery store in the area, as well as more retail stores to increase the areas economy.

There has not been significant commercial investment activity in the area since the early 1900s. Residential development has been slow, with Habijax homes only significant development activity, and crime rates are high. But some longtime residents said a retail revitalization could change that.

The budget for the project is roughly $60,000 but city officials said their hope is that the new developments will leverage even more than that.

"Really what I've heard from the community is that they want to see more services," said Miya Jones, special assistant to Mayor Brown. They would love to have grocery store, more restaurants, just those amenities that many people take for granted that they don't find here."

The city plans to have more development in the Kings Road, Moncrief, Myrtle Avenue area and the Kings Road-U.S. Soutel area later this year.