Bahama Village redevelopment plan slowly but surely moves ahead

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

It wasn’t supposed to take this long or cost this much but Bahama Village will now be the focus of a $156,000 long term planning project aimed at eliminating blight in the Key West neighborhood.

 

 

Key West City Commissioners voted 6-1 on March 17 to hire Zyscovich, Inc., the Miami-based urban planning and architecture firm, to produce a 25-year plan that will lead to extensive community redevelopment and a detailed capital projects work plan to help revitalize the area. The $155,750 contract will be paid by the Bahama Village Community Redevelopment Agency.

 

 

Zyscovich, Inc., will also focus on developing a “highest and best use” analysis of the undeveloped 3.2-acre parcel of land on the Truman Waterfront that has been allocated to Bahama Village. The priority will be to “consider economically viable alternatives that create the highest additional tax increment for the site.”

 

 

Generating more tax revenue within Bahama Village is a critical component of the plan. Efforts to redevelop depressed areas have progressed in fits and starts since 1991, when a redevelopment plan targeting blight in the historic neighborhood was created. Although a tax increment financing (TIF) program initially created upwards of $800,000 a year that was put towards fixing up deteriorating residential and commercial properties, public parks and churches, the results have been mixed.

 

 

As a result, city planning staff began talking in early 2014 about changing the TIF program, moving it away from its original emphasis on individual home improvements to larger programs that leverage TIF public improvement funds to increase property values in the entire community, not just individual properties. The plan at that time was to spend $60,000 on a consultant to develop a long range plan that would be completed by early 2015.

 

 

This being Key West, things took longer than anticipated – and became more expensive – to move ahead. And even at the March 17 meeting where city commissioners, meeting the Caroline Street Corridor and Bahama Village Community Redevelopment Agency, finally awarded the redevelopment contract, there was still some debate on whether or not to move forward.

 

 

“I don’t think we should spend the money on this study,” said Mayor Craig Cates. “I’d rather see that $150,000 spend on repairing a building down there or a home or put to better use than another study.”

 

 

Cates said he had confidence in the Bahama Village Redevelopment Advisory Committee (BVRAC), a committee made up of Bahama Village residents that has allocated the TIF funds in the past, to come up with a long range plan to improve the neighborhood. But other commissioners, including Clayton Lopez, who represents the Bahama Village neighborhood, disagreed. Lopez said that the 25-year visioning and capital improvement plan, as well as advice on how to maximize the use of the 3.2 acres, is something BVRAC cannot do.

 

 

“This helps put that whole plan in place. Granted, it’s a high price tag and I’ve got some problems on that,” Lopez said. “But I just don’t know how much I can argue about bringing that down to make sure we’ve got a good plan.”

 

 

“It really isn’t a study,” Commissioner Teri Johnston said about the long range blueprint to be prepared by Zyscovich, Inc. “This is a plan for the highest and best use of the funds that are in Bahama Village along with the 3.2 acres. TIF funds are being used for little things. It [redevelopment plan] actually requires Bahama Village to save up money to do major things.”

 

 

Zyscovich, Inc., was unclear about how long the project will take. The proposal did not include a project timeline.

 

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