The Lake Placid Town Council, in a 2-1 vote, agreed to adopt findings from a study that confirms the town has blight in its downtown area.
The study, a “finding of necessity,” is one of the steps toward establishing a Community Redevelopment Agency. Councilwoman Debra Worley was absent from the meeting, despite being a proponent for a CRA. Councilwoman Arlene Tuck voted against the matter. In the past, she has expressed her view that she does not want to mark the downtown area as “blighted.”
Jennifer Codo-Salisbury, deputy director for the Central Florida Regional Planning Council, said in her presentation that the next step would be to have another community workshop at 6 p.m. Oct. 23, for people who live in the designated blighted area, at Lake Placid Town Hall, 51 Park Ave.
After that, a draft plan would be developed, and that actual plan would then go to the Council for first reading on Nov. 13, with a final decision Dec. 11. If the town decides then to create a CRA, it would use 2017 as the base year for the taxes, and any increase from that year within the CRA boundary would go to the CRA, Codo-Salisbury said.