By Betty Wells
The agency that oversees redevelopment efforts for nearly 2,000 acres in Delray Beach is comparing the 1985 value of all that land with the current value of the property — the first step in a process that could ultimately mean more money for operating the city and less money for the agency.
City Commissioner Angeleta Gray asked at a commission meeting in November that the city research cutting the size of the Community Redevelopment Agency district. Money that now goes to the CRA could then be redirected to the city. Gray said at the meeting that the city needs the money, and that there are a number of areas in the CRA that are not slum or blighted.
The CRA was established by the city in 1985 to improve infrastructure and get rid of blight. Its boundaries generally include the central business district, adjacent neighborhoods east of I-95 between Lake Ida Road and Southwest 10th Street, and much of the area north of downtown between Swinton Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway to Boynton Beach.
The city manager’s office directed staff to research cutting from the district the property that lies east of the Intracoastal.
The CRA’s funding formula is based on the difference in property value from 1985, when the agency was formed, and its current value.
So the CRA must determine what the value of district property was in 1985, parcel by parcel or acre-by-acre, said Diane Colonna, CRA executive director.
“We know what the numbers are for the overall district, but not by specific areas,” Colonna said. Current value of the district property is about $1.2 billion, she said, down from a high of about $1.6 billion in 2007.
Not just cutting the size, but abolishing the CRA is an ongoing debate, said CRA Marketing and Grants Manager Elizabeth Burrows, who serves as spokeswoman for the agency. “It’s an ongoing process to educate people what we do.”
Colonna said on Jan. 24 that the CRA had been asking the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office for the valuation numbers for two months, and finally was told the agency could look up the values by going through documents on microfiche.
Carol Wright, a spokeswoman for the appraiser’s office, said the office didn’t have staff to do the research for the CRA. “You’re talking about old records, and who knows how long it will take to look all that up.”
CRA Development Manager Vince Wooten was scheduled to begin the research at the appraiser’s office on Jan. 25, Colonna said.
“Hopefully there will be an answer in the next couple of weeks,” Colonna said.
Comments