Taking a stroll through Cascades Park in Downtown Tallahassee, it’s easy to see the benefits of CRAs. Community Redevelopment Agencies work with local governments and private contractors to restore blighted neighborhoods. In the case of Cascades, what used to be a vacant superfund site is now a sprawling green space with trails and an amphitheater. Thomas Hawkins is a growth management advocate with 1000 Friends of Florida and he says CRAs are a unique way to prevent urban sprawl and protect natural land.
“CRAs matter because in order for folks to want to live in our existing communities, in order for them to accommodate new residents, they need parks, they need sidewalks,” Hawkins said. “CRAs are one way that’s not generally available to municipalities to raise tax increment financing from that geographical area, bond it across multiple years to make those investments that allow our communities to be livable places.”
After a CRA invests in a neighborhood, it’s able to collect taxes on the increased property value. But Representative Al Jacquet, a West Palm Beach Democrat, says the agencies aren’t focusing that reinvestment in the areas that need it most.
“Too often we have CRAs that are collecting funds from the community that is blighted. And yet the development is not necessarily being done there for what they’re tasked to do,” Jacquet said.
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