The decision comes about a year after the Duval County School District permanently closed the elementary school as part of an effort to cut costs.<\/p>\n
Dream Finders\u2019 pitch to the Jacksonville Planning Commission, which recommended approval of the rezoning in July, was for 110 residential cottages or townhomes. The company said it was considering making the community for ages 55-plus. But the developer has represented the project in front of council as single-family homes.<\/p>\n
Chrissy Kinne is the government relations officer for the San Jose Neighborhood Association, a longtime resident of the area and one of the group\u2019s lead spokespersons. The association represents 1,105 homes and an estimated 2,650 residents.<\/p>\n
The association found out last year that a potential buyer wanted to redevelop the Kings Trail site and had filed the rezoning and land use change application with the city\u2019s Planning Department. The group then reached out to get a meeting with Dream Finder\u2019s lobbyist Paul Harden.<\/p>\n
San Jose residents had five requested changes to the land use and rezoning criteria.<\/p>\n
The biggest concern is traffic. Kinne and the association wanted to see an access road, from the development to Powers Avenue, to not overwhelm Old Kings Road.<\/p>\n
Instead of tearing out 1.44 acres of wetlands and Ancient Oak Trees to build a retention pond, the group asked for that to remain untouched. Kinne says in the last several years San Jose has been losing its established tree canopy to other infill development.<\/p>\n
The association also asked for a landscape buffer between the development and the existing neighborhood, assurances that it would be a 55-plus community and limits on how tall Dream Finders could build the homes.<\/p>\n
Council member Joe Carlucci had a floor amendment Tuesday that, while it did not address the traffic concerns, did incorporated some of the group\u2019s requests.<\/p>\n
Dream Finders must install a minimum 6-foot-high vinyl fence between Old Kings Road and the site as well a landscape buffer. Council also reduced the building height allowed from 35 feet to 30 feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cMyself along with the San Jose Neighborhood Association are not asking you to change Jacksonville law, neither asking\u00a0to impose new requirements or unreasonable burdens on this applicant,\u201d Kinne told the council\u2019s Land Use and Zoning Committee on Aug. 4.<\/p>\n
The association claimed Dream Finder\u2019s submission to the Planning Commission did not comply as written with the city\u2019s Comprehensive Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat burden belongs to the applicant, not to this neighborhood,\u201d she said Aug. 4.<\/p>\n
The San Jose group got involved in a similar rezoning effort in 2024 of the closed duPont YMCA Youth Development Campus<\/a> that abuts the Kings Trail Elementary property. Homes were never built there, but Kinne says the association predicts development of the school site could renew interest in the building homes on the YMCA property, too.<\/p>\n Initially, Kinne said Harden and the Planning Commission staff appeared receptive to homeowners\u2019 request.<\/p>\n \u201cI think our hope is that the land actually gets used for something of real benefit to the public. If that\u2019s development, if that\u2019s a park, if it\u2019s community greenspace, if it\u2019s another school or a public school, we\u2019re not saying that we have the answer to what it should be,\u201d Kinne told Jacksonville Today. \u201cThat\u2019s up to the property owner to decide.\u201d <\/p>\n Council member Michael Boylan was excused from Tuesday\u2019s meeting, and council member Rory Diamond was absent for the land use and rezoning votes.<\/p>\n Conditions to redevelop Kings Trail<\/p>\n Carlucci\u2019s floor amendment Tuesday kept in place the Planning Department\u2019s stipulation for a traffic study of the development\u2019s effect in the surrounding area, unless the planning director decides it\u2019s not needed.<\/p>\n City planning officials said Aug. 4 that they expect the housing project to add 1,000 daily vehicle trips to Old Kings Road and that it could handle the new load.<\/p>\n The San Jose association hired an independent traffic engineer who disagreed and said Old Kings Road was not a proper collector road as the Planning Department asserts.<\/p>\n The city declined to entertain the neighborhood\u2019s request to improve an existing connector and build more roadway for cars to leave the housing development through Powers Avenue. Harden said that request was not possible.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything they asked for we complied with except for the road. We can\u2019t build a $2 million road on somebody else\u2019s land when we have capacity on the road immediately fronting the site,\u201d Harden said at the Aug. 4 committee meeting.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, council member Matt Carlucci got Harden to make a verbal agreement to plant more trees on the newly required land buffer on Old Kings Road as a way to \u201csoften\u201d the new development\u2019s appearance from existing homes.<\/p>\n David vs. Goliath?<\/p>\n The school district still owns the property, but council\u2019s decision to approve the land use and rezoning make it more likely Dream Finders and school district officials will finalize the sale.<\/p>\n In February, the the Jacksonville-based homebuilder signed a sale agreement and agreed to put a $25,000 deposit down on the site. The deal would ultimately sell the former school property at 7401 Old Kings Road to Dream Finders for $3.75 million.<\/p>\n The building was included in a group of six elementary schools that the school board voted in 2024 to close<\/a> and is now considered surplus property by the district.<\/p>\n Kinne says the San Jose association hit a similar wall that nearly all residents trying to pull concessions from big developers find \u2014 money and time. Jacksonville-based Dream Finders is a publicly traded company with 1,911 employees and $4.32 billion in total revenue<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a big political donor both in Florida and locally in Jacksonville and to candidates in both major political parties. For example, the company has donated $150,000<\/a> to Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donald\u2019s political committee, Friends of Byron Donalds.<\/p>\n Some of its Jacksonville contributions include $25,000 to council member Kevin Carrico\u2019s JAX Good Government committee and $55,000 to Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s committee Duval for All.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Kings-Trail-Elementary-aerial-shot-.webp\")
An aerial view of the 12.41-acre former Kings Trail Elementary School site in Jacksonville\u2019s San Jose neighborhood. | City of Jacksonville<\/p>\n