Downtown CRA's future undecided

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 property 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 Tuesday. The most significant recommendation, which the committee unanimously backed, was a 30-year extension of the CRA.

Members of both boards were hesitant to embrace that recommendation. Mayor Shannon Snyder, an outspoken critic of extending the CRA, said the program was a drain on the city’s general fund. Snyder said tying that money up in the CRA was premature, considering there are no plans for how to spend that money if it were extended.

“We don't really have a plan to say where the money's going to go,” Snyder said. “I'm sitting here, and I don't see the plan.”

County Commissioner Nora Patterson agreed with Snyder and said downtown was no longer in need of a CRA, which is intended to redevelop slums and blighted areas. By extending the CRA and drawing tax revenues from downtown buildings, Patterson said they would be exploiting 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.”

Dorr said the committee was sensitive to the fiscal needs of the city and county, and the group recommended some of the revenue that currently goes to the CRA be reserved for the municipalities’ general funds. Dorr also said that, although sections of downtown have been revitalized, there is still room for significant improvement.

“There is space in the Rosemary area, in the eastern end of downtown, that is still significantly depressed,” Dorr said.

City Commissioner Suzanne Atwell and County Commissioner Joe Barbetta expressed support for an extended CRA. Barbetta said he didn’t necessarily agree with all of the extension committee’s recommendations, 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.

Contact David Conway at [email protected]