Good News From Florida’s CRAs

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. – Plans for a rebooted downtown Bonita Springs have reached another crucial milestone. Read full article

DAYTONA BEACH — The Beach Street riverfront, the corridor that was home to the city’s earliest businesses and homes, and for several decades was the town’s main retail hub, could be entering a new era. City commissioners unanimously decided at their meeting Wednesday night to go after $432,353 in grants that will pay for design…

We are pleased to provide you with the 2014 edition of the Florida Bicycle and Pedestrian Partnership Council’s Annual Report. The Florida Bicycle and Pedestrian Partnership Council was established in 2010 as a statewide initiative on bicycle and pedestrian mobility to make policy recommendations to partner agencies and organizations throughout Florida on walking, bicycling and…

Leesburg’s downtown Main Street Streetscape Project is near completion and Main Street will be open in time for Bikefest beginning on April p:BC BCJ Body Copy RR drop cap 24, City Manager Al Minner said Tuesday.p:BC BCJ Body Copy RR drop cap “It is probably 85 to 90 percent complete,” Minner said. “We are pretty…

MANATEE COUNTY – As it revises its land use rules to encourage urban redevelopment, the Manatee County Commission says it will make five “corridors” its priority areas: Manatee Avenue, Cortez Road, 53rd Avenue, 15th Street East and the Tamiami Trail. Next, county planners will select three actual sites available for redevelopment, such as vacant lots…

WEST PALM BEACH — The City Commission approved a measure Monday to encourage construction of office towers downtown, to address a shortage of top-flight office space and avoid companies going elsewhere. The measure, approved unanimously, is an amendment to the city’s zoning and development regulations that would create an incentive for construction of Class A…

Two historic homes on Boynton Beach‘s Ocean Avenue could soon become homes to some of the city’s newest businesses. Tuesday, board members will discuss at the city’s redevelopment agency meeting which businesses will inhabit the Magnuson House, at 211 Ocean Ave., and The Ruth Jones cottage, at 480 Ocean Ave. The Magnuson House is one…

MANATEE COUNTY – A few years ago, a committee for the Manatee Chamber of Commerce conducted an exercise to see if Manatee County’s land development code is conducive to urban redevelopment. Clifford Walters, an attorney who chaired the Infill Committee when it performed the case study, said its members determined that “all the complexities and…

DELAND — Volusia County will consider a broad policy in the future that would repeal community redevelopment areas if cities choose to discriminate against county residents by charging them for parking. The County Council Thursday was set to consider a resolution that would have repealed New Smyrna Beach’s two CRAs in response to a weeks-long…

Opportunity has bypassed much of south St. Petersburg, leaving many largely African-American neighborhoods coping with unemployment, run-down housing and crime. Now city officials have proposed an innovative tax strategy to fight stagnation with job training and public subsidies for private businesses and property owners. It has the potential to help transform the area, and City…

This Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is issued in accordance with Florida Statutes Section 163.380 by the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority (the “DDA”). The objective of this RFQ process is to ascertain the most qualified interest for the creation of an appropriate and sustainable private, mixed-use redevelopment of properties owned by the DDA. The successful respondent…

Give them a place to park and they will come. City commissioners on Tuesday will consider paying for a 609-space parking garage to serve what they hope will be a revitalized beachside. But this is not going to be any ordinary parking garage, rather it will be framed by three-story sails. It’s the next step…

Heading to a downtown restaurant in Boca Raton or planning to meet friends in West Palm Beach’s trendy Northwood neighborhood? Forget about driving. A free ride is on the horizon. Both Boca Raton and West Palm Beach are among several cities in Palm Beach County planning to expand trolley or shuttle services over the next few years after the Great Recession…

There are those who say it’s too costly to spend a few million dollars now to create a pedestrian skywalk or underpass to move visitors safely between CityPlace and the Palm Beach County Convention Center and hotel. We disagree. The potential cost of doing nothing is greater. Read full article

Bonita Springs’ community center was filled with the spirit of civic engagement Tuesday afternoon as a steady stream of residents entered to educate themselves on the proposed downtown improvements project and leave city leaders comments, suggestions and no shortage of concerns. “I think change is difficult. Period,” said Councilman Stephen McIntosh. “We didn’t have a…

NAPLES, Fla. – Naples City Council will hear several presentations on the history of Central Avenue and future plans on Wednesday, when business owners are expected to fill council chambers to complain. Follow Naples Daily News reporter Aisling Swift for live updates from the meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. The business owners are opposed to a plan by the…

Legacy Trail, the popular biking and jogging path built on a former railroad corridor in central and south Sarasota County, will be connected to downtown Sarasota under tentative plans approved by Sarasota County commissioners today. The additional segment would extend from the current cutoff in Palmer Ranch north to Payne Park, creating nearly 20 miles…

In Manatee, overweight residents made up about 36 percent of the population, but nearly two-thirds of residents in both counties exercised for more than 150 minutes per week, a marker of physical well-being. “Our research very consistently shows that people that have high well-being scores in all five elements, which Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port have, consistently outdo…

INVERNESS — It’s not just county officials giving the Inverness City Council a hard time about its plans to expand the community redevelopment area (CRA) district. About 20 residents of a neighborhood off Vine Street, near a mobile home park and an orange grove, asked the council at a meeting Tuesday evening to exclude their…

DELAND — City officials are inching closer to deciding how to use $429,000 that became available after a proposed downtown mixed-use development fell through last year. The downtown Community Redevelopment Agency board, made up of the five-member City Commission plus two downtown business owners, met recently and went over the results of a January public meeting…

SEBRING — The sale of two historic downtown Sebring hotels have been finalized. Developer Tony Collins bought both the Santa Rosa Hotel at 509 N. Ridgewood Drive and the Nan-ces-o-wee Hotel at 139 N. Ridgewood Drive, according to press releases from real estate agent Madge Stewart. Collins has said that he plans to redevelop the two…