Quote:
Originally Posted by David in JAX
Not true. You are looking at maps of Florida and seeing differences in the area's terrain that appear to be major because there is nothing to compare them to. Think about this from a national developer's point of view, and then compare NE Florida to say Tennessee (I’m picking Tennessee because the last out of state area I helped develop was in Tennessee). Florida is essentially one long flat sandy peninsula with areas of swamp & marshland. It is probably one of the easiest areas to develop in the Southeast because of its miles and miles of open, flat, sandy terrain. If you need to add some fill, simple, add the fill. If you need to add retention ponds, no problem, dig them out for your fill in other areas. Now compare that to Tennessee. Need some flat land, where is it? There isn’t any so bring in a blasting crew and some bulldozers to move all of the rock. If you need a road, how do you get it up the hillside? What do you do about rainwater through the hill valleys? It Is much more complicated. With this said, all of NE Florida is essentially the same and where to build has never been based on prime building land but on economic opportunity. These differences on excavation drawings are nothing compared to many other areas of the country.
Now the Northside is growing at a good rate. This has nothing to do with the terrain or being the last buildable area, but on economic potential due to its proximity to the port and the airport. Does the natural state of the land really affect the development? The answer is no. Does taking a risk that future businesses will be attracted to the Northside affect the development? Yes.
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I think we're talking about 2 slightly different things.......
I'm speaking of the differences in terrain inside of Jax and how those subtleties have affected development of Jax over the long term - going way back to the early development, before the Great Fire even.
The river was key in development because the river was a major economic force, so early development occurred along the river.
Going back even further, Fort Caroline was key because the high bluffs could be used as a form of protection and a lookout station ("high bluffs" in relation to the immediate area, not in relation to other parts of the US).
Coming into the more recent years, the land that has been left to develop on is most often less desireable land - if it was highly desirable, it would have been populated long ago.
The Northside is a good example. It has the airport, the ocean, the river and downtown to its' south end, I95, the port, easy access to GA - why
hasn't major development hit it before now? A multitude of reasons, I'm sure, but some of those reasons are terrain.
It's not to say that the vast majority of Duval/St. Johns/Clay isn't flat & wet, it is of course, but I think that's what made the areas that are
less flat and
less wet desireable from the early days until they were built out.
Here's just one map, there are many out there, but this shows what areas should evacuate - look how a big portion of the Northside should be getting out even in just a Cat 1:
http://www.coj.net/Departments/Fire+and+Rescue/Emergency+Preparedness/Preparedness/Evacuation+Zones+Map.htm (broken link)
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10-09-2007, 06:22 AM
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