City to ‘re-set’ CRA to spur growth
By Angela Daughtry, News-Leader
City commissioners, after listening to recommendations from the city’s CRA Advisory Board, conceded Tuesday that the base year of the special taxing district should be reset. They also agreed repairs should be made to the railroad crossings at Centre and Ash streets to improve safety for residents and visitors crossing them.
CRA Advisory Board Chair Andrew Curtin told commissioners the board had come up with several items for recommendation, including the improvement of the Centre and Ash railroad crossings; completing the Alachua Street railroad crossing; extending the term of the CRA to 40 years; and resetting the base year to 2013.
The CRA was created in 2006 as a special downtown district with the goal of eliminating blight and enhancing the tax base to bring more revenues for improvement to the area. The city’s CRA comprises 39.5 acres along the city’s riverfront and a few blocks upland, with public/private ownership about evenly divided. In Fernandina Beach, the Community Redevelopment Agency is the city commission.
After a CRA is created, property values within the area are “frozen” from the first year on, and any incremental tax revenues from increased values go into a CRA trust fund. But the city’s CRA has failed to bring in new business or tax revenues because the values of its properties have fallen, rather than increased, due to the economic recession.
Theoretically, if the base year is reset, property values may increase since they are now so low, thus bringing increased tax revenues to the area and spurring development.
City Manager Joe Gerrity said at the meeting he had asked Nassau County Commissioners if they had any objections to the city resetting the CRA’s base year, and had gotten the go-ahead from County Manager Ted Selby. He also asked for the city commission’s consensus in making improvements to the railroad crossings at Ash and Centre streets.
Vice Mayor Jeffrey Bunch and Commissioner Charles Corbett both noted the deplorable condition of the railroad tracks downtown, which pedestrians must cross to gain access to the waterfront.
According to City Attorney Tammi Bach, the railroad companies CSX and First Coast Railroad are responsible for the tracks and two feet on either side, but in the case of a lawsuit involving the tracks, both the city and the railroad would be responsible.
Mayor Arlene Filkoff noted there was already a plan in place to address the waterfront’s infrastructure as well as money borrowed for the controversial Forward Fernandina strategic waterfront plan to address those costs. “Are we not using that money?” she asked.
Gerrity noted the city would have to rely on borrowed Forward Fernandina money for those improvements, as there was not money available in the city budget. The city took out a loan for $1.8 million last year to finance the first phase of the Forward Fernandina plan, but because of the plan’s unpopularity, little has been done on the downtown waterfront.
Commissioner Charles Corbett, who has asked repeatedly for the city to give the borrowed Forward Fernandina money back to the bank, said the city could use the money to make the railroad crossing improvements.
“Lord knows we borrowed enough money,” he said. “We ought to do something with it.”
It was not clear whether the controversial Alachua Street crossing would be included in the plans to improve railroad crossings at the downtown waterfront.
Curtin said the advisory board’s goals for the next few months were to evaluate expanding the CRA area; meet with the Ocean Highway and Port Authority; meet with local developers; update the CRA Plan Matrix; create a CRA property owner database; appoint a member to represent the downtown business owners; and consider appointing a city commissioner to attend meetings as a non-voting member.
The CRA Advisory Board, the first of its kind, was formed in June. It meets the first and third Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. at City Hall, 204 Ash St.