delray beach cra - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T14:00:12Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/delray+beach+craDelray Beach: CRA moves toward putting four more police officers downtownhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-cra-moves-toward-putting-four-more-police-officers-d2024-01-31T17:34:27.000Z2024-01-31T17:34:27.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Anne Geggis</strong></p>
<p>In response to Delray Beach residents’ complaints about how the downtown vibe is disrupting their lives, a proposal is advancing to add four new police officers to the area’s current team of 10.</p>
<p>The City Commission, meeting Jan. 23 as the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, appeared mostly in agreement when discussing the addition of $640,000 to the agency’s budget to put more police downtown. The actual vote will come at the next CRA meeting, scheduled for Feb. 27, said Commissioner Adam Frankel, the CRA chairman.</p>
<p>It would be the first expansion of downtown police personnel in 10 years, Frankel said. That dates back nearly to a time when he said the city was still known as “Dull-Ray.”</p>
<p>“If you look at 10 years ago versus today, there’s a big difference in the number of people who live downtown, come downtown,” Frankel said.</p>
<p>But Arlen Dominek, a downtown resident who led a parade of neighbors complaining about club and street noise at a Jan. 18 City Commission meeting, doesn’t think there’s much of a mandate from city leadership to quiet the hubbub that’s disrupting the peace and enjoyment of their homes.</p>
<p>While some residents think the added police might help with disturbances attributed to panhandlers and others on the streets, Dominek doesn’t expect the new personnel will address the traffic issues he and his neighbors find most vexing.</p>
<p>“There’s someone who zips down the avenue at 12:45” every night, said Dominek, who came to the city as an IT worker for a health care software company in 1997. “This has been an ongoing pet peeve of mine for a very long time. I don’t think the City Commission has any real conviction to see that its noise ordinance is enforced.”</p>
<p>Claudia Willis, a resident of the downtown’s Marina Historic District for 40 years, says the vaunted “vibe” of the area is giving her a headache.</p>
<p>“Particularly bothersome are the motorcycles that gun it and the cars that seem to be drag racing on Federal Highway at night,” she said.</p>
<p>She said she really doesn’t want to see taxpayers’ money going to fix the problem, though, and is unconvinced that more police will make a difference.</p>
<p>Frankel said noise is just one facet he sees improving with more police dedicated to downtown. He recalled an evening in October spent dining at an outdoor table. Within the space of 30 minutes, he said a stranger aggressively approached him demanding money, another passer-by took the drink from his restaurant table and he witnessed what he believed was a drug deal in progress. </p></div>Delray Beach: Atlantic Crossing’s new construction disrupts vehicle access to Veterans Parkhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-atlantic-crossing-s-new-construction-disrupts-vehicl2023-08-30T15:32:01.000Z2023-08-30T15:32:01.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12213900267,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12213900267,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12213900267?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a><em>Former Atlantic Plaza buildings are being torn down to make way for the second phase of Atlantic Crossing. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Larry Barszewski</strong></p>
<p>Veterans Park visitors have lost their easy Atlantic Avenue access to parking there now that Atlantic Crossing has begun its second phase of construction, which includes the demolition of the old Atlantic Plaza and an adjacent office building.</p>
<p>The demolition work forced the closure of the park’s Atlantic Avenue entrance, which was actually the entrance to the old plaza’s parking lot, which is now part of the construction zone.</p>
<p>While pedestrians on Atlantic still have easy access into the park next to the bridge, the only route for drivers is entering Northeast First Street from Federal Highway and proceeding east along Atlantic Crossing’s northern construction border to the park.</p>
<p>The city can’t create a park entrance on Atlantic Avenue because it would be too close to the bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway, Public Works Director Missie Barletto said in an email to <em>The Coastal Star</em>.</p>
<p>Some residents have complained that Northeast First Street at Federal Highway is one of the city’s most dangerous intersections, site of a fatal crash in 2016, which will discourage people from using the park. Barletto said the city will keep an eye on that concern.</p>
<p>“Once the project construction has been completed and the new area is fully occupied, the city will conduct a traffic analysis to determine whether a traffic light is required at NE First Street and northbound Federal Highway,” Barletto wrote. A state investigation after the 2016 fatality said a traffic light wasn’t warranted, but led to additional signage for the intersection.</p>
<p>Once Atlantic Crossing is completed, visitors may be able to drive through the former Northeast Seventh Avenue — which is now in the middle of Atlantic Crossing, but is expected to remain open to vehicular traffic — to connect with Northeast First Street, rather than having to use Federal Highway.</p>
<p>Parking is still available on the west and north sides of the park, and the Atlantic Crossing developer has sectioned off 20 additional parking spaces on the northeast corner of the project near the park for park visitors.</p>
<p>Some of that parking may be blocked off as construction proceeds, including for a planned underground parking garage next to the parking lot.</p>
<p>“As the company will need to establish a safe zone in order to place pilings for this part of the project, a portion of the western parking area will be required to be restricted from public use,” Barletto said. The city anticipates other parking will be provided to retain the same amount of public parking.</p>
<p>What the parking will look like ultimately still hasn’t been determined, with the city awaiting Atlantic Crossing’s proposal.</p>
<p>“They’re working on their finalized plan set for that and have not submitted it to us yet. So, we haven’t been able to make any kind of judgment call on that or bring it back to commission for discussion,” Barletto told commissioners at their Aug. 15 meeting.</p>
<p>The parking spaces to the west of the park are expected to be turned into a landscaped area that acts as an expansion of the park, with paths connecting the park and Intracoastal to the new retail and residential space.</p>
<p>“The ultimate vision is that all of that asphalt that separates Atlantic Crossing from Veterans Park … would become all park space. … There would be pedestrian connections, but the cars would sort of stay on the other side. It could be a fantastic improvement, but they need to bring the drawings in and go through the process so that you could see them and we can confirm that they meet the rules we discussed for parking,” Barletto said.</p>
<p>An earlier site plan presented to commissioners and included on Atlantic Crossing’s website would replace the parking to the west with additional parking on the park’s north side, replacing its shuffleboard and lawn bowling areas. The current situation hasn’t yet affected the Lady Atlantic tour boat that docks at the park because it has been undergoing annual inspections and maintenance since July 27, but tours are expected to resume in September. The boat’s owner, Joe Reardon, did not return phone calls seeking comment.</p>
<p><strong>In other news:</strong></p>
<p>• Commissioners approved a settlement agreement with former City Manager George Gretsas at their Aug. 8 meeting. The city is still negotiating over the release of the terms of the settlement, City Attorney Lynn Gelin said, and will not release a confidential memo detailing the terms of the settlement until that is complete.</p>
<p>• Danica Sanborn, executive director of the Sandoway Discovery Center, told commissioners about improvements at the center, which is on State Road A1A a couple of blocks south of Atlantic Avenue, that include a stingray touch tank. She also said the center would like to expand the work it does with sea turtles and get permission from the state for hatchling releases, possibly done with an assist from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.</p>
<p>• The commission gave initial approval to a new ordinance that no longer allows the bridges over the Intracoastal Waterway to be closed for special events, but some commissioners said they might not support it when it comes up for final approval. The main event affected would be the Delray Beach Festival of the Arts, which is held in January.</p>
<p>The festival’s sponsors plan to move the event farther west on Atlantic Avenue, to the west of Federal Highway.</p>
<p>“I think it’s overkill,” Vice Mayor Ryan Boylston said of the proposed ordinance. “Closing a bridge has to come before the commission anyway.”</p>
<p>• Commissioners reviewing City Manager Terrence Moore applauded him for the work he has done, especially for his presence in the community, in awarding him a 4.1% pay increase to $239,429. </p>
<p>• The Community Redevelopment Agency is accepting applications through Oct. 31 for its new Redevelopment Advisory Committee. It is being created in response to the commission’s removing non-commissioners from the CRA’s governing board. The new five-member board, which will make recommendations to the commission, will be made up of CRA property owners.</p>
<p>• The amount of money the city plans to use to renovate the north end of City Hall has grown from $2 million to $4 million and will include enough space to allow for growth for the next several years, Barletto said. Also, the city no longer plans to replace the Crest Theatre’s air conditioners, which have all been repaired, she said. </p></div>Delray Beach: Parking rates rising dramatically on Atlantic and along the beachhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-parking-rates-rising-dramatically-on-atlantic-and-al2023-05-03T16:31:20.000Z2023-05-03T16:31:20.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Larry Barszewski</strong></p>
<p>On-street parking rates are about to double along the beach and on Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach, and almost triple on Atlantic Avenue east of the Intracoastal Waterway.</p>
<p>The good news for beachgoers is that the City Commission backed off charging an even higher rate for the beach parking spots on State Road A1A.</p>
<p>Beginning May 15, Delray Beach is increasing parking charges to $4 an hour on Atlantic Avenue from Swinton Avenue to the ocean, and to $3 an hour on State Road A1A. The rates have been $1.50 an hour on A1A and on Atlantic east of the Intracoastal Waterway, and $2 an hour on Atlantic from Swinton to the Intracoastal.</p>
<p>City-owned beach parking lots will see their rates increase from $1.50 an hour to $2 an hour, a 33% jump, as will parking off Atlantic on Gleason and Venetian drives. The $2 an hour rate will not change for street parking a block north and south of Atlantic Avenue on streets between Swinton and southbound Federal Highway.</p>
<p>The city’s decision to increase the rates came at the commission’s April 18 meeting, at Deputy Vice Mayor Rob Long’s request, an action he said had previously been recommended by a city advisory board.</p>
<p>“It could yield up to $2 million in revenue for the city,” Long said. “A great portion of that would come from nonresidents.”</p>
<p>The estimated parking revenues would actually increase $3.2 million with the higher rates, City Manager Terrence Moore told commissioners at their May 2 meeting, before commissioners decided to scale back the increase on A1A.</p>
<p>The A1A rate authorized April 18 was $4 an hour, but commissioners on May 2 decided that might be too much of a shock for beach-goers, including residents. Vice Mayor Ryan</p>
<p>Boylston said he couldn’t support that higher rate if there wasn’t some discount for residents. Moore said the city’s current parking app doesn’t provide for residential discounts.</p>
<p>“For $4 to park on Atlantic, I can be comfortable with, it’s Atlantic Avenue and it’s only so many spots, but I think the beach should be $3,” Boylston said of the hourly rates. “If I can’t make it $3 just for residents, then I think it should be $3 across the board.”</p>
<p>Boylston said the goal of the increased rates isn’t for the city to make more money, but to better manage parking downtown and on the beach.</p>
<p>“I know that’s going to negatively affect revenue, but that’s not the main reason we’re doing this,” he said. “We’re doing it to manage parking, to move people to the other lots, to move people to the garages.”</p>
<p>That was Long’s original point. He said the city’s Parking Management Advisory Board previously determined that “public parking downtown is underpriced and fine-tuning turnover and improving circulation were identified as overall strategies to optimize existing parking.”</p>
<p>But Mavis Benson, a member of the Downtown Development Authority’s governing board, said her board met with the parking management board in January 2022 and the two groups jointly supported an increase to $2.50 an hour along Atlantic Avenue and A1A because of the potential harm higher rates might cause to businesses. </p>
<p>“Difficult decisions don’t happen overnight and three years of research should not be dismissed in just one night,” Benson said. “If we could push it off to the fall; let the merchants get through season and then look at doing whatever we need to do.”</p>
<p>The parking rates apply from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week on the barrier island. On Atlantic Avenue between Swinton and the Intracoastal, motorists have to pay to park from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.</p>
<p>Mayor Shelly Petrolia said she was concerned the new rates may still be too high and will negatively affect businesses. She said she preferred to charge $3 an hour on Atlantic and $2 an hour on the beach.</p>
<p>Commissioners also directed Moore to remove the parking time limits on residential parking permits, available for $12 a year. The permits can be used at a number of downtown garages and city parking lots, but aren’t valid on Atlantic Avenue or the beach.</p>
<p>Moore plans to have the city’s parking policies scheduled for a June 6 commission workshop so they can be discussed in more detail.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;">CRA board to change</span></p>
<p>The City Commission is also looking to change the makeup of the Community Redevelopment Agency’s governing board, but not in the way two newly elected commissioners had been proposing. Long and Commissioner Angela Burns campaigned on making the board an independent board again made up of seven commission appointees.</p>
<p>That’s what existed prior to April 2018, when the five-member City Commission voted to put itself in place of the independent board, then decided to add two appointed positions to the governing board a week later.</p>
<p>City Attorney Lynn Gelin told current commissioners that there’s no going back now to a completely independent board. The city would risk losing its CRA if it did such a change because of rules in place for redevelopment agencies, she said.</p>
<p>Instead, commissioners plan to create a separate citizens advisory board that would make recommendations to the commission acting as the CRA governing board. The commission would also eliminate the two appointed positions on the current governing board — positions that Gelin said may be legally questionable. </p>
<p>Long and Burns said given Gelin’s comments, they support the proposals so that the city conforms to state statutes.</p>
<p>“I think the next-best thing would be this structure,” Long said.</p>
<p>The commission would then make up the entire CRA governing board. A similar two-board system is in place in Boynton Beach.</p>
<p>City resident Joy Howell wasn’t convinced.</p>
<p>“You’re discussing taking away two seats at the table with full voting rights held by Black representatives,” Howell said. “Will this not be a step backward for the Black community, to lose two minority seats with full voting rights in exchange for perhaps non-voting advisory board positions? I just don’t understand it.”</p>
<p>But Chuck Ridley, who lives in the CRA district and served on the previous independent CRA board — and did not support the switch to the commission in 2018 — said he understood the city’s predicament.</p>
<p>“I would like to suggest that this commission moves from a five-member board with two alternates to a five-member board, and that you set up an advisory committee,” Ridley said.</p>
<p>“My rationale is that, by doing it that way, you allow yourself to have more voices that can talk about a variety of different and important issues in our community.”<br />Boylston said he doesn’t want the advisory board to just comment on agenda items that will be coming before the governing board, but “for them to be tasked with the big picture” and “really empowering them.”</p>
<p>Petrolia was the lone dissenter, not persuaded by Gelin’s contention that the city might be on shaky legal ground having the two alternates on the governing board.</p>
<p><strong>In other news:</strong></p>
<p>• Commissioners approved moving their 4 p.m. twice-a-month meetings to 5 p.m. beginning in October.</p>
<p>• Internal Auditor Julia Davidyan submitted a 30-day notice of her intent to resign on April 4, saying she was leaving for personal reasons. Her work was in a consultant role through her firm, JMD Premier Group Inc.</p>
<p>• The commission will hold its annual goal-setting workshop at 8 a.m. May 12 at the Delray Beach Golf Club, 2200 Highland Ave.</p>
<p>• Commissioners requested the city manager develop suggestions on how to handle all the extra seaweed, called sargassum, expected to wash ashore this summer. Scientists are anticipating a record year based on the amount of sargassum now floating in the Atlantic Ocean. Moore said he will present some recommendations at the commission’s May 16 meeting.</p>
<p>• Petrolia announced the city’s public beach has officially received the Blue Flag designation, an international honor that officials hope will attract more eco-tourism from Europe, where the designation is well known. Delray Beach is one of the first two beaches to receive the Blue Flag in the continental United States. </p></div>Delray Beach: New manager may have to call Old School Square something elsehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-new-manager-may-have-to-call-old-school-square-somet2022-11-02T15:55:00.000Z2022-11-02T15:55:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:12pt;">Ousted group wants to trademark historic center’s name as its own</span></p>
<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>While Delray Beach tries to finalize a new manager for Old School Square, there’s now a question about whether the city is even going to be able to keep the name of its historic downtown cultural arts and entertainment campus.<br /> After the City Commission voted 3-2 in August 2021 to end its lease with Old School Square’s longtime former managers, that organization then filed papers to trademark the Old School Square name.<br /> The trademark issue didn’t show up on the city’s radar until an Oct. 20 workshop at which the Downtown Development Authority presented its proposal to help run the Old School Square campus at the northeast corner of Atlantic and Swinton avenues.<br /> Following up on that news, City Attorney Lynn Gelin told commissioners at their regular Oct. 25 meeting that the city still had two days left to challenge the trademark request. A city letter requesting an extension was delivered the next day, giving the city until Nov. 26 to oppose the Old School Square trademark, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.<br /> Old School Square patrons are finding a confusing situation where the former tenants, who go by the name Old School Square Center for the Arts, maintain the OldSchoolSquare.org website that asks for donations and says, “One year later still sitting empty.” <br /> The private website does not say the city is the owner, but it implies the OSSCA nonprofit owns the 4.4-acre campus. <br /> The website also says the campus is dark, but that is not the case. The Pavilion stage, the Fieldhouse and the grounds have events.<br /> The city’s own website lists the updated events on the Old School Square campus.<br /> During the Oct. 20 joint workshop with the commission and the Community Redevelopment Agency, the DDA presented funding figures that startled some commissioners. <br /> Laura Simon, the DDA’s executive director, proposed a phased approach to reactivating the campus with the three entities contributing potentially $1.38 million. That is almost double the $750,000 requested by the former tenants from the CRA.<br /> "That hit me pretty hard. It’s a big number," Commissioner Ryan Boylston said. <br /> Likewise, Vice Mayor Adam Frankel asked whether the city taxpayers would foot the bill. <br /> The amount includes $175,000 for marketing and rebranding, which may be related in part to the trademark issue.<br /> “Is there a concern that someone else owns the OSS name?” Frankel asked Simon. Regardless of the various venue names on campus, “I still think of it as OSS,” he said. <br /> It costs money to create a logo, and to develop and run a website, Simon said. She wants to create a new nonprofit to run the campus.<br /> Frank Frione, a DDA board member who sold his engineering firm last year, said he wanted the new nonprofit to receive about $2 million. He offered his time to help the DDA reactivate the OSS campus. “We need to fund it accordingly to make it successful,” he said.<br /> Simon said the big focus currently is the holiday season and the 100-foot Christmas tree on the Old School Square grounds near the Cornell Art Museum. The tree will be lit on Nov. 29.<br /> She hopes to have a business plan done in January when the agreement between the city and the DDA will be ready for discussion. <br /> The city ousted the former tenants after a series of financial miscues that culminated with the Crest Theatre building renovation. Commissioners were not informed of its start and the city was not properly covered by the renovation’s bond. The city rented the campus to the former tenants for $1 per year. <br /> When commissioners voted to terminate the lease in August 2021, they gave the former tenants 180 days’ notice. Since then, the three commissioners who voted to end the lease have been criticized by the former tenants on social media platforms, email campaigns and in-person events. <br /> OSSCA sued the city in November 2021 for wrongful termination of the lease. The lawsuit remains active, with the latest filing by the city on Oct. 20. The city objected to the request for a jury trial that was explicitly waived when the lease was signed. <br /> The city also filed a counterclaim the same day to cover damages to the Crest Theatre building when the renovation was abandoned, and the premises not restored. The Old School Square buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p>
<p><em>An earlier version of this story had an incorrect quote attributed to Commissioner Ryan Boylston regarding the money being requested to run Old School Square. His quote has been corrected. </em></p></div>Delray Beach: Free downtown rides won’t expand beach coveragehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-free-downtown-rides-won-t-expand-beach-coverage2022-11-02T15:05:35.000Z2022-11-02T15:05:35.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10861025267,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10861025267,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="553" alt="10861025267?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a><em>Delray Beach commissioners voted 4-1 to make no changes to the downtown ride service. <strong>Photo</strong></em><br /><strong><em>provided</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>A free ride service will continue operating in downtown Delray Beach, but its service area won’t be expanded to include trips to and from the city’s Tri-Rail station or to additional areas on the beach.<br />The City Commission on Nov. 1 went against a staff recommendation to expand the service and voted to maintain the current service, which will cost $508,205 annually and roughly $2.5 million over the five-year contract. Staff had recommended a $4.2 million, five-year contract that would have used Tesla sedans and expanded coverage of the barrier island and Southwest neighborhoods.<br />The city’s free ride service will continue with five open-air electric vehicles.<br />In reaching their decision by a 4-1 vote, commissioners were conscious of other budget expenditures that may be on the horizon, such as possibly having to raise $1.3 million for a new nonprofit to run the city’s Old School Square campus. <br />While the city won’t expand the free ride service to Tri-Rail, the commuter rail’s operators already offer to pay for the last mile of travel for customers at select stations using Uber, a ride-sharing vehicle, said Sara Maxfield, the city’s economic development director. Delray Beach will be one of the stations, she said.<br />That solved the Tri-Rail issue for Mayor Shelly Petrolia.<br /> “It’s easier to add service, than to take it away,” Petrolia said. “We have the Tri-Rail station covered.” <br />Commissioner Shirley Johnson, who cast the dissenting vote, wanted to serve an expanded area on the barrier island, along with Southwest neighborhoods in the city. She wanted more vehicles to serve the residents and not make them wait.<br />The beach service area now goes to State Road A1A, four blocks north and south of Atlantic Avenue.<br />The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency has been paying for the service in the past, but the agency now wants to concentrate on other projects. The bid process attracted only the CRA’s current vendor, Beefree LLC of Miami. <br />Delray Beach is trying to reduce downtown traffic and vehicle emissions by offering the free car service.<br /><strong>Also Nov. 1</strong>, the City Commission decided to continue with Johnson as chair of the CRA. Angie Gray, a CRA board member, will continue as the vice chairwoman. The commission also approved adding five years to the life of the CRA, setting a new sunset day of Sept. 16, 2044.<br /><strong>Elections news:</strong> Qualifying for two commission seats is open until noon Nov. 21 for the March 14 municipal elections. <br />Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale plans to run again for her Commission 2 seat. Johnson is term-limited from running again to fill her Commission 4 seat. </p></div>Delray Beach: CRA tells feds they should investigate former Old School Square operatorshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-cra-tells-feds-they-should-investigate-former-old-sc2022-08-03T16:23:00.000Z2022-08-03T16:23:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency will let federal officials decide if the former operators of Old School Square broke any rules when accepting federal pandemic-related aid.<br />The CRA board directed staff on July 14 to send a letter to the Small Business Administration’s Inspector General Hannibal Ware, pointing out the possibility that the former operators may have double-dipped when spending the federal money. <br />The CRA has talked about suing the former operators — Old School Square Center for the Arts — to recoup $187,500 it had given the group for the 2021 fiscal year. The group has not provided requested financial records to the CRA, which terminated its contract as of February.<br /> Instead of suing or spending money to cover the costs of pursuing the group’s financial records, Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale suggested the new course of action.<br />“But what we know, today, from (the city’s) internal auditor there was an issue of double-dipping,” Casale said. “Why don’t we just report that and have that other government entity investigate and get back its money.”<br />The letter was sent via email and certified mail on July 25 by the CRA’s outside counsel, Sanaz Alempour.<br />The former operators received a $309,735 paycheck protection loan that was later turned into a grant. The money was supposed to be used for employee salaries to cover those laid off at the start of the pandemic. The CRA was concerned that it may have already paid for those salaries through funding it had given the operators. The former operators did not respond to <em>The Coastal Star</em>’s request for comment. </p></div>Letter to the Editor: CRA's interests are city's interestshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/letter-to-the-editor-cra-s-interests-are-city-s-interests2015-01-01T17:00:00.000Z2015-01-01T17:00:00.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p> In a story in December’s <em>Coastal Star</em> regarding building heights in downtown Delray Beach, Mayor Cary Glickstein is quoted as saying the Community Redevelopment Agency’s support of a fifth-floor bonus program can be attributed to the CRA looking for “ways to increase their tax increment financing within its boundary to continue funding CRA initiatives.” <br /> I respectfully disagree, and while it may not have been his intent, that statement and his follow-up comments have the effect of suggesting that when the CRA makes decisions it has something other than the city’s best interests at heart. <br /> The CRA board’s discussion of the fifth-floor bonus program centered on the possibility of the city using it as an incentive to obtain desired uses such as quality office space that would attract higher paying jobs to the downtown, or a mobility fund that the city could use for parking, sidewalks, trolley operations, etc. <br /> At no time during the discussions of the proposed changes to the land development regulations did the board talk about the potential impact on future CRA revenues. That has been the norm during my nearly 15 years as the CRA’s executive director.<br /> For example, when the board considered proposals for the redevelopment of the old library site, it selected the iPic project in response to public comments in favor of the theater — that it would provide activities for families and economic support for downtown businesses during the summertime. <br /> In considering proposals for redevelopment along West Atlantic Avenue, the board endorsed Equity’s Uptown Atlantic project in large part due to community support and Equity’s commitment to local hiring. <br /> It’s true that many of these projects will increase the tax base and the CRA will receive additional revenues. It’s also true that that CRA transfers much of its funding to the city to pay for public infrastructure improvements, police and maintenance operations in the downtown, sponsorship of city events, trolley operations, etc. <br /> The CRA is a city agency whose board members are appointed by the City Commission. The CRA’s initiatives are the city’s initiatives. <br /> <em>Diane Colonna</em> <br /> <em>Executive Director/</em><br /> <em>Delray Beach CRA</em></p></div>Delray Beach: Clarity sought in wake of CRA audithttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-clarity-sought-in-wake-of-cra-audit2013-10-02T16:21:10.000Z2013-10-02T16:21:10.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Betty Wells</strong><br /> <br />A state senator says he will find a way to get a second, clearer, attorney general’s opinion about whether it’s legal for community redevelopment agencies to fund projects for nonprofit organizations.<br /> Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, who chairs the joint legislative audit committee, made the statement in the wake of the findings of an audit of the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. Audit results were released Sept. 12.<br /> Of 19 citations, the primary one questioned the authority of the agency to fund nonprofits.<br /> When Abruzzo ordered the audit last spring, it was to review how the CRA is spending its funds — specifically, whether it’s legal for the agency to give money to the Arts Garage, a nonprofit music and theater venue. The request came in a letter from Delray resident Gerry Franciosa.<br /> An opinion issued in 2010 by former Attorney General Bill McCollum said CRA grants to “promote tourism and economic development, as well as to nonprofits providing socially beneficial programs, would appear outside the scope of the community redevelopment act.”<br /> Abruzzo said on Sept. 27 that he’s going to seek a clearer ruling. The Delray Beach CRA and other CRAs have continued to fund nonprofits since the 2010 opinion.<br /> “I believe for the good of all CRAs across the state, I need to get a very clear opinion,” Abruzzo said. He said he would discuss it with the state auditor, and use the proper channels for seeking clarification.<br /> The joint audit committee hearing on the Delray Beach CRA audit is scheduled for Oct. 7 in Tallahassee.<br /> Abruzzo said that he was “very concerned and alarmed about the audit. Nineteen findings is an unusually high number of findings.” <br /> But, he said, “Most likely, the CRA will have adequate time to fix them. The procedure is we give them 18 months and then check back.”<br /> Of the citations, the primary issue was the CRA’s giving of funds to nonprofits. The other findings included how the agency leases space from the city, purchases property and administers grants.<br /> The CRA answered each one of the findings, noting for the majority that the issue was already addressed, or would be.<br />Abruzzo said that the findings support his request for the audit in the beginning — and that Mayor Cary Glickstein’s criticism of the review at the time was unwarranted.<br />“The mayor acted extremely negative about this,” Abruzzo said. “I feel that the mayor, by facts now, was very much off base.”<br />Glickstein in response said that Abruzzo would laud “nineteen findings of improper use of paperclips,” that the audit was politically motivated and that the state should review why an audit that found nothing substantailly wrong was performed in the first place. The CRA uses funds for nonprofits based on the advice of its own lawyer, Glickstein said. “Whether we need another opinion to clarify that, I don’t know.”<br />Glickstein said Abruzzo has not been honest about the origin of the audit, but “it doesn’t benefit our CRA to get into a dog fight.”<br /> CRA Executive Director Diane Colonna and CRA Commissioner Bill Branning bristled at the notion that the agency has committed any major errors.<br /> “(Abruzzo) is continually bringing up that ‘19 is so many, 19 is so many.’ Well, Riviera Beach had 25, and Daytona Beach had 22,” she said of audits of other CRAs.<br /> “After three auditors examine every piece of paper and spent four months doing it, finding 19 things is probably to be expected.”<br /> Branning said, “If this was a test, where we could score 1 to 100, I would say our staff scored 93.”<br /> Branning said the auditors found “no misconduct, no mismanagement, no fraud, no misuse of money. Our staff is professional and the one goal is to make Delray Beach a better place.”<br /> Colonna also said that the procedure following the hearing would be that the CRA would have 18 months to correct the findings.<br /> She declined to comment on Abruzzo’s statements about seeking a new attorney general’s opinion on CRA funding of nonprofits.</p></div>