The Volusia County Council seems likely to cast a weary and skeptical eye on any further requests for Community Redevelopment Areas, or CRAs.
A CRA takes new property-tax revenue from a blighted area and pours it into improvements. That diverts new property-tax revenue from Volusia County government and some other taxing districts, causing controversy through the years.
The council’s skepticism needs to be measured. Many of the improvements in property-tax revenue likely would have never occurred had the innovative CRA method not been applied. At least some of the CRAs, such as South Daytona’s successful CRA along U.S. 1, would still be mired in blight including seedy motels, prostitution and unsightly utility poles.