County, city ponder future of CRA

Sarasota’s downtown Community Redevelopment Area is set to expire in 2016, but after hearing a series of recommendations on the future of the CRA, city and county commissioners are still undecided on its fate.

For more than nine months, the Downtown CRA Extension Committee worked at the behest of both commissions to prepare a report on whether the program should be continued. The Downtown CRA, founded in 1986, takes tax revenue from the heart of the city and reinvests it in public and public/private projects, such as the Whole Foods complex.

Downtown CRA Extension Committee Chairman Andy Dorr presented the group’s findings at a joint meeting of the City Commission and County Commission on Tuesday. The most significant recommendation, which was backed unanimously by the committee, was a 30-year extension of the CRA.

Members of both boards were hesitant to embrace that recommendation. County Commissioner Nora Patterson said downtown was no longer in need of a CRA, which is designed to redevelop slums and blighted areas. By extending the CRA and drawing property tax revenues from downtown buildings, Patterson said they would be continuing the program on a technicality.

“Would you consider the downtown to be still slum and blighted, and if you had to start from scratch today, would it still qualify?” Patterson said. “I think the implication is that it would not.”

County Commissioner Joe Barbetta expressed support for the idea of extending the CRA. Barbetta said he didn’t necessarily agree with all of the recommendations made by the extension committee, but that the CRA was an important tool for maintaining a vibrant downtown.

“If we want the private sector to invest in this community, in this day and age, we need to help facilitate it,” Barbetta said.

City and county staff will work on processing the committee’s report, and both boards will return to the topic at a future meeting.

For more information on the downtown CRA extension talks, pick a copy of this Thursday's Sarasota Observer.

Contact David Conway at [email protected].