The history and walkability of Five Points drew Dori Thomsen and her husband to the cluster of shops, restaurants and offices when they bought a building that had its own parking lot for use by their clients at Soluna Yoga Spa.
The Thomsens had no idea that their parking lot — like other lots in Five Points — would turn into weekend party spots. Cars doing dougnuts have left behind skid marks. One night a vehicle ran into a railing put in place for people with disabilities.
“The amount of bottles that we clean up in that parking lot is insane,” Dori Thomsen said.
For Five Points business owners who battled through the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact since then of crime, crowds gathering on private property and homeless people has brought a second wave of instability.
Thomsen, who is president of the nonprofit Five Points Association, thought of how New Orleans, where her husband is from, regularly deals with even bigger crowds in the French Quarter.
“If Bourbon Street can do this, why can’t we?” she said.
The solution Thomsen and other property owners came up with is headed to Jacksonville City Council for a final vote on creating the city’s second business improvement district, joining downtown as a place where property owners would pay annual assessments generating revenue dedicated to carrying out services aimed at enhancing their businesses.
For the Five Points area, the special district would focus on providing security above and beyond what the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office can do. It also will work on beautification by enhancing landscaping and it will promote businesses so they can attract more customers.
The security component of the improvements ranks the highest for those who work in Five Points. Merchants say the Five Points Association cannot cover the cost of hiring regular security.
“We are having some of the worst problems I’ve ever seen in the 28 years I’ve been there,” Maria Cox, owner of the Midnight Sun boutique, told a City Council committee.
“This is not the funky Five Points we were promised,” Five Points Dental manager Natalie Worth said after reeling off all the times she’s called police in recent years.
Even as legislation moved through City Council committees for establishing the district, Five Points merchants were dealing with glass-shattering burglaries at Brew 5 Points, Pattaya Thai and Saki House.
Five Points district would have opt-out provision
If City Council approves creating the special district, property-owners in it would pay annual assessments based on the amount of heated space in their buildings and size of parking lots. A board put in place by the city would decide on the assessment rate. The cost of the assessment would show up for the first time on property tax bills sent out in November 2026.
The legislation sponsored by City Council member Jimmy Peluso, who represents Five Points, went through hours of debate last week when council committees considered it. The biggest issue was whether the district had gained enough buy-in from property-owners so they wouldn’t be blindsided by seeing an assessment on their tax bills in 2026.
Peluso said of the 94 parcels of property in the proposed district’s boundaries, owners of 63 parcels had provided written confirmation in support of the district and 11 had objected in writing. Owners of the other parcels did not give their views in writing.
City Council member Ron Salem said he supports creating the district for property-owners who want to be in it, but he said the 11 property-owners who objected should be carved out of it from the get-go so they won’t face any assessments to support it.
That lead to discussion about whether it’s fair for a property-owner who opts out of the district to get the benefits of improvements paid by others.
“We’re looking at the classic ‘free rider’ versus government coercion problem,” City Council member Rory Diamond said. “So one side is worried about free riders, and I’m on the side that’s worried about government coercion where people don’t want this.”
Diamond and Salem came up with an amendment that says property owners in the special district would be able to opt out of being required to pay the assessments. They could make that choice on an annual basis and likewise opt back in.
Making Five Points safe so it’s ‘funky’ again
That opt-out provision isn’t in place in the downtown business improvement district. That district, which nonprofit Downtown Vision manages for the city, bases the annual assessments on $1.10 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
The Five Points district would calculate assessments based on the amount of heated space in a building and size of a parking lot, rather than property value. The first-year assessment could not higher than 55 cents per square feet of heated space for a building or 50 cents per square feet for a parking lot.
After the district’s board sets the assessment for the first year, any future annual increases could not go up by more than $1 per square foot of heated building space or 50 cents of per square foot of parking lot.
Peluso said that since the district’s board will be made up of property-owners themselves, he doesn’t expect the amount of assessment will be at the maximum level. During a meeting of the Finance Committee, he used an example of a building in the range of 4,000 square feet getting an assessment of $800 or less, though he emphasized the board will make the decision on the assessment rate.
He said the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has been “right there with us” in working to improve security in Five Points, but there’s a limit to what police can do while also responding to calls from other areas of the city.
He said in addition to New Orleans, cities with such districts include Tampa, Orlando and Kissimmee In Florida so it’s not a new approach “but it could be huge” for Five Points.
“When I moved back home, I lived in Five Points,” Peluso said. “I would stumble home sometimes, but it was a great place to be. It was young, it was exciting. It was the funky place to be.”
He said some of the places that made Five Points a “great date night” have closed or are closing, and it’s “sad for those of us who love it.”
“And then you’ve got young people who work in these establishments — and they’ve got young people who could work anywhere — and they’re coming to this area,” he said. “We need to make sure they feel safe when they’re walking back to their cars.”
He said to get the district up and running even before the first assessments go out in November 2026, he will put $150,000 from funds he controls toward the district so it can start showing property-owners the benefits of the district more quickly.
Thomsen said she hopes those improvements will be an “eye-opener” that convinces business-owners to stay in Five Points and attracts new businesses because they see it has stability for their investments.
“We were looking out 10 years from now,” she said of what the district can do for Five Points. “We were looking into long-term solutions, not just one-off weekend solutions.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Five Points heads toward becoming special district with rare opt-out provision
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
