JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A massive investment is headed to Jacksonville’s Eastside as part of the city’s new $1.4 billion “Stadium of the Future” deal — but some residents worry about how the promised money will be spent.
The stadium agreement includes $115 million through a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) to help revitalize the historic neighborhood, which sits in the shadow of EverBank Stadium.
But as the first wave of $40 million in city funds is set to begin rolling out this fall, Eastside residents said they want more transparency — and a bigger voice in shaping how the money will be used.
“Let us see your CBA model,” Latavia Harris, an Eastside resident said. “Let us see what you’re going to do in the next couple of years with this money coming to the Eastside — we have yet to see that.”
Harris and other community members said they want safeguards in place to protect longtime homeowners from rising taxes and to preserve the neighborhood’s culture.
“This would put a lot of safeguards in place to ensure that people are not taxed out of their homes,” Harris said. “We’re not saying that change can’t happen — it can happen. But we want our community to be our community. I don’t want the culture to change.”
Councilman Jimmy Peluso, who represents the area, said the CBA process is still taking shape. He helped negotiate the current structure and said it will ensure at least $4 million per year is dedicated to the Eastside over the next seven years.
“We’ve been working for the past several weeks and months with the community, with my colleagues, to figure out what that structure looks like,” Peluso said. “I was able to fight to make sure that we have a minimum of $4 million a year for the first seven years, until we get to $40 million.”
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The funds will be overseen by an independent nine-member board, including Eastside residents, city officials, and representatives from the Jacksonville Jaguars, which will decide how to allocate the money.
“They would disperse the money as they see fit,” Peluso said. “And then every year, they get audited by our city.”
Peluso also clarified that an earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) helped bring community leaders to the negotiating table, but will not dictate how the final dollars are spent.
City Councilman Raul Arias, who chairs the City Council’s special committee on the CBA, told News4JAX that the process is intended to benefit the entire county, not just the Eastside.
“The CBA process is designed to serve the entire county,” Arias said.
Arias added that CBA meetings are currently on pause until after the city’s budget is finalized later this summer. He stressed that transparency and annual audits will be key parts of the process once funding begins.
In the meantime, Eastside residents said they will continue pushing for a seat at the table — and for a process that protects their community’s future.
“I just want to see my community treated fair again,” Harris said.