Nonprofit wants more say in Delray redevelopment decisions

The Delray Beach West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition wants more say on the decisions the Delray BeachCommunity Redevelopment Agency makes.At a joint workshop meeting Thursday the coalition told the CRA board it wanted to hold a workshop with the community that would help the nonprofit organization revise its goals, become more relevant, and figure out how much money it needs to fund its mission.”We feel the workshop will give us an opportunity to share the vision with all of the stakeholders,” said Coalition chairman Reggie Cox.

CRA board member Bill Branning said the workshop was a great idea. He also said he would be open to funding consultants that could facilitate the meeting.

Other CRA board members, however, said the CRA should not fund the operations of a nonprofit organization.

“[The coalition] is a nonprofit organization and it should have its own staff and its own funding,” said Annette Gray, another board member.

But coalition members have argued that the CRA funds many other nonprofits such as the Delray Beach Public Library, the Creative City Collaborative and the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative.

“We’ve been scrambling since we lost our funding,” said Peter Perri, a coalition board member. “I thought we were here to help the voice of the West Atlantic businesses and residents be heard by the city.”

Perri said the organization is so pressed for funding that he had to pay for the annual report out of his own pocket. He also said that a lack of participation in redevelopment decisions has created a disconnect between the two organizations.

“I get a feeling by your actions that you would like us to go away,” he said.

Although the meeting was contentious, resident and activist Chuck Ridley said it was the first time the two organizations talked about establishing new lines of communication.

“It has been one of the healthiest dialogues about redevelopment on West Atlantic in the past 10 years,” he said.

Ann Stacey-Wright, however, chairwoman of the Southwest Neighborhood Alliance, a group of homeowner associations in the area, disagreed.

“There seems to be a continuous lack of respect for [the coalition] when it comes to certain CRA board members,” Stacey-Wright told the board. “This translates into a lack of respect for the West Atlantic Community.