Jacksonville Beach leaders are discussing a plan for a new oceanfront hotel and parking garage near the Jacksonville Beach Pier.
Plans include construction on an oceanfront hotel in a city-owned parking lot at the pier and a parking garage in the Ritz parking lot across the street.
Action News Jax is told the plans have been in the works for nearly a decade. Depending on which city leader you talk to, it's either getting closer to reality or is at a standstill.
"It's been contentious in the community," Cory Nichols, with the Jacksonville Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, said. "Some people don't want it. Some people do."
He said he supports it in theory but there are issues, including the location of a possible parking garage and more public parking in a residential area from 11th Avenue South to 14th Avenue South.
"We should try to reduce the amount of vehicular traffic in that area," Nichols said. "Make it more pedestrian bicycle friendly area."
There are hundreds of comments on Nichols' Facebook post about the plans. One person who commented said a hotel and garage could generate tax revenue while another said there will be even less parking in the area than there is already.
"The worst thing you can do is have oceanfront property with just parking on it," City Manager George Forbes said. "But we haven't taken the steps yet to write a request for proposal. Nothing is moving forward at this time."
Nichols said he just wants people and business owners in the area to have a say in the decision.
"I'm just trying to make the residents and business owners and Jax beach committees have a voice in the decisions that are going to be made," he said.