Hopes for extending the life of the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area in Sarasota were dealt a heavy blow in September when Sarasota County Commissioners said the tax district should be allowed to sunset next year. But some city officials are dedicating themselves to bringing that conversation back to the table.

“There may need to be some changes, but we don’t just decide we’re not going to have that discussion anymore,” said City Commissioner Shelli Freeland Eddie. With the county and city set to meet this Friday regarding a different issue, homelessness, Eddie asked that her board broach rekindling the CRA discussion as well. Ultimately, city commissioners on Monday said the matter could be raised but that there should not be a detailed discussion, as staff for both the county and city would need time to prepare and the public would need better notification. 

Sarasota County Commissioner Paul Caragiulo, whose district includes the City of Sarasota, agreed with that, and said diving into the CRA debate after an expected hours-long discussion on homelessness might have poor results anyhow. “I wouldn’t want to compromise the potential that exists, however large or small that may be, because of the volatility of the homeless issue,” he said. Caragiulo, while he supported a resolution at the county level to let the current CRA expire in late 2016, stressed he would still like to explore having a new CRA or some similar mechanism continue to finance redevelopment. “I’m more curious than anybody about what that would look like,” he said.

Eddie is fine with the discussion waiting, and hopes perhaps another joint meeting can be scheduled in early 2016 to discuss the CRA. She notes the county's decision on the CRA is not final until the end of next September. She would still like to see the current CRA extended so that tax increment financing can be based on years of increased property values, but said the city should be willing to make some changes to governance. In the meantime, some important projects, such as the Bayfront 2020 discussion about redevelopment of a cultural district, could linger without a source of revenue to bring them to fruition.