The Jacksonville City Council approved several ordinances to amend the Jacksonville Zoning Map at last night’s meeting.
As reported earlier, Mike Hayes, owner of Hayes Properties, LLC, is developing a new site on East Morton called The Grove at Country Club Hills. Last night, the city council approved the first reading of an ordinance to rezone property located at 1013 and 1033 East Morton.
Hayes explains what the council voted on tonight, and what it means for his project.
“It’s a total of nineteen acres. The part we discussed tonight was just re-zoning the old Oaks property in the form of a mobile home park to what’s called a “plan unit development,” which allows us to do a mixture of residential and commercial-we still have to come in a permit everything inside it-but it allows us to do both on one property. Basically, we’re going to develop six triplexes, so it’ll be eighteen units, and it’ll be very similar to Gilmore Estates or we have Gas Light Square out on Tendick. It’ll be small, two-bedroom, two-bathroom, and we’ll probably maintain those as rental units,” says Hayes.
As for the commercial aspect of those acres, Hayes says The Grove will have multiple aspects to it.
“On the old Oaks property, we’re going to do a winery, a small craft brewery, small pavilion to have some music events, weddings, class reunions, other similar gatherings. Then add a homemade ice cream shop, which is in the planning stages right now, we’re negotiating with some coffee shops to possibly bring a coffee shop in, and probably some sort of food service. Then maintain the balance of the property as a park-like setting, put in walking trails, running trails, maintain the integrity of the current terrain and existing trees-we’re going to save all the trees there-and just be a nice setting where people can come hang out,” Hayes explains.
Hayes explains that this project also plans to extend the entrance on Country Club Road to get to his new project.
“The plan is to use the entrance that currently comes in off of East Morton Avenue, and we’ll extend that and bring it out onto Country Club Road so you could get in from either direction. Then the road into the subdivision would be a separate road, that’s the road that’s currently there, it will be widened though, and that will be the actual entrance into the subdivision. There will be no road connecting the subdivision to The Grove development, but there will be a cart path and some walking paths so folks that live there can actually walk over, it’ll be that close.
Also at last night’s meeting, aldermen approved the first reading of an ordinance to amend the zoning map for property at 876 West State Street, which was recently purchased by Scott DeWolf. DeWolf says he plans on contacting the state historical commission to ensure proper historical preservation of the residence for years to come.
There was however some opposition to re-zoning the property on West State Street, as one resident of that block expressed concerns about the residence potentially becoming an apartment complex in the future.