BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The Keystone Heights City Council set a 6 p.m. March 27 workshop to update its community redevelopment plan.
Florida law allows cities to establish community redevelopment agencies to improve infrastructure, combat blight, and foster economic development within a community redevelopment district. Keystone’s district runs along South Lawrence Boulevard.
The projects are funded by increases in property taxes on parcels within the district that would otherwise go to the county.
In the past, Keystone’s CRA has funded a façade program that allowed businesses within the district to improve the exterior of their buildings and a sign program that funded business sign replacements along South Lawrence Boulevard.
Most recently, the city used CRA funds to acquire and demolish the China Chef Restaurant at the corner of South Lawrence Boulevard and Walker Drive.
During the council’s March 3 meeting, members reviewed their current list of community improvement projects. Those include $15,000 to resurface the city’s basketball courts, $8,000 to repair Geneva Jungle, the city’s playground within Keystone Beach Park, $9,000 for pickleball courts, $7,000 for picnic tables, and $8,000 for roadway signs.
During the March 3 meeting, Council member Dan Lewandowski pointed out that none of the city’s current projects are listed on the CRA’s most current plan, which was drafted in 2015.
Janis Fleet, a consultant the city hired to help it with its comprehensive plan, added that all taxing authorities that collect revenue within the city must be notified before the city makes changes to its plan.
There are now two bills pending in the Florida Legislature, Senate Bill 1242 and House Bill 991, that would abolish all of Florida’s Community Redevelopment Agencies on or before September 30, 2045.
