The Volusia County Council seems likely to cast a weary and skeptical eye on any further request for Community Redevelopment Areas, or CRAs.
A CRA takes new property-tax revenue form a blighted area and pours it into improvements. That diverts property-tax revenue for Volsia County government and 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 CRA’s, such as South Daytona’s successful CRA along the U.S. 1, would still be blight including seedy motels, prostitution and unsightly utility poles.