Alphabet Soup Dictionary - What is a CRA?

Friday, 06 May 2011 05:39 Last Updated on Friday, 06 May 2011 05:50 Written by Dana Blickley & Penny Canales

With all government budgets at a deficit, the housing market falling, the price of groceries increasing, and the jobless rate rising, how is it possible to dress the corridors from I-95 to the beaches with lavish landscaping and refurbish older areas of every city in Brevard County? The answer is this month's Alphabet Soup Dictionary Entry: CRAs!

CRA is an abbreviation for Community Redevelopment Area. It is also referred to as the Redevelopment Act of 1969 which has been adopted as Chapter 163 Part III of the Florida State Statues. The Act was spawned by Lyndon Johnson's Model Cities Program which was dissolved in 1974 because it failed to meet its goals of slum renewal and economic development.

In Chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes, “Community Redevelopment Area” is defined as a slum, blighted, or area in which there is a shortage of housing that is affordable to residents of low or moderate income, including the elderly. The area may also be a coastal and tourist area that is deteriorating and economically distressed due to outdated building density patterns, inadequate transportation and parking facilities, faulty lot layout or inadequate street layout, or a combination thereof which the governing body designates as appropriate for community redevelopment. For community redevelopment agencies created after July 1, 2006, a community redevelopment area may not consist of more than 80 percent of a municipality.