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Published
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Sunday, November 12,
2006
Davenport Considers Forming CRA
By
Amber Smith
The
Ledger
DAVENPORT - It's taken more than a year,
but City Council members are once again
ready to consider forming a Community
Redevelopment Agency to help revitalize
the downtown area.
The city's planning consultants have
offered to do a CRA feasibility study
for $12,500 and council members will
review a presentation on the issue at
Monday night's council meeting.
"The goal of establishing a CRA is to
determine redevelopment opportunities
and redirect tax dollars to the area to
fund development," said Pat Steed with
the Central Florida Regional Planning
Council, which is the city's planning
consultant.
"One of the first actions you need to
take is to do a study to see if you
qualify for a CRA,'' Steed said.
The council first discussed starting a
CRA in 2005, but the discussion was
never followed up on.
In a CRA, property tax assessments are
frozen at the time the CRA is formed and
any increase in the city and county
taxes caused by a rise in assessed value
of property would be funneled into the
CRA and used in the targeted area for
redevelopment and revitalization
projects.
Steed said the study would include a
description of the area, an analysis of
the blight indicators in the area, a
look at the assessed and taxable value
of the area, a five-year increment
revenue projection and an inventory of
existing land uses and redevelopment
opportunities in the target area.
Steed said they would look at the
primary area of the downtown business
district and an area along U.S. 17-92
that runs through the city.
After doing the study, the plan would
have to be approved by the Board of
County Commissioners, Steed said.
The county has to agree to the area that
would be included in the CRA and when
the property taxes would be frozen.
The second part of establishing the CRA
would be to develop a five-year plan of
action for spending the CRA funds on
redevelopment projects.
Councilman John Lepley asked if
Davenport would be able to do the same
thing Haines City did by including most
of the city limits in its CRA area.
Steed said she did not think the county
would approve that.
"Haines City included most of the city
in the CRA; I don't think we'll see that
in this county again,'' Steed said,
adding the County Commission has
scrutinized new CRAs more closely than
it did 10 or 15 years ago.
Councilman Brynn Summerlin said he had
additional questions about the issue and
suggested it be put on the agenda for
Monday's meeting.
"I would like to see what the target
area is and what can we do with CRA
money,'' Summerlin said. "We can use it
for redevelopment, but what does that
really mean?''
Steed said if the council agrees to pay
the $12,500 for the study at Monday's
meeting, work could be started in
November and would be completed by
January.
The council meeting will be at 7 p.m. in
the council chambers at City Hall.
Amber Smith can be reached at
amber.smith@theledger.com or
863-422-6800.
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