Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/143399
AN EARFUL Downtown Sarasota no longer has areas of blight, partly as a result of projects funded by the CRA. Photo by Norman Schimmel REPRESENTATIVES OF OTHER CRAS OFFER A LOCAL STUDY GROUP PLENTY OF FODDER AS IT CONTEMPLATES THE FUTURE OF THE SARASOTA CRA By Stan Zimmerman City Editor The group studying the fate of Sarasota's Community Redevelopment Agency took testimony Tuesday, July 9, from a serious professional, a gifted amateur and a man who was there at the beginning. All three suggested Sarasota's CRA had lost its way. The man who was there from the beginning is former Mayor Kerry Kirschner, who was on the City Commission in 1986 when the 30-year deal was hammered out with Sarasota County to inject county tax money into downtown redevelopment projects. The agreement expires in 2016. In the mid-1980s, downtown was not a place for an evening out unless you were looking for bar fights and drunks. It was then the city and county agreed to The plan is the key to the freeze property taxes whole thing. at the 1986 base level and devote all city and Sherod Halliburton President county property taxes Manatee Community Federal Credit Union above the base to a