Bahama Village redevelopment plan changes gears

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Efforts to redevelop depressed areas in Bahama Village 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.

 

“We’ve gained so much ground. But we’ve had a couple of steps backward, as well,” said City Commissioner Clayton Lopez, who represents the Bahama Village neighborhood. “Have we hit a home run yet? No.”

 

“The intent [of the TIF program] is to alleviate blight and we don’t have any proof our projects have alleviated blight,” said Nicole Malo, the Key West city planner working with the Bahama Village redevelopment program.

 

While individual properties have been improved through the TIF program, the impact on the Bahama Village community as a whole is being questioned. While the most recent 1998 update to the Bahama Village Redevelopment Plan encourages stabilization of existing residential and traditional commercial structures, it also “recognizes the need to provide economic development and job creation activities for the residents of Bahama Village to enable long-term residents to remain in Bahama Village.”

 

As a result, Malo is encouraging a shifting of emphasis from 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 improvements need to generate more money into TIF,” she said. “We’ve spent all the money each year instead of investing in loan programs and business improvement programs where we get some of the funding back.”

 

Lopez concurs.

 

“We used to get around $800,000 to $900,000 a year [from TIF funds]. Now we’re looking at half of that because there are fewer properties on the tax rolls and property values have declined. There is more need than we have money,” he said.

 

Towards that end the Bahama Village Redevelopment Advisory Committee (BVRAC) has allocated $60,000 to hire a consultant to develop a long-range work plan that will lay out steps to achieve a more permanent elimination of blight in the neighborhood. The plan should be finished sometime early next year.

 

City officials are also hoping to change gears next month, working with BVRAC and the state redevelopment officials to jumpstart the local program. A public workshop will be held June 14 to discuss the most recent state laws regulating community redevelopment agencies and the responsibilities of local regulatory agencies like BVRAC. Lopez encouraged city commissioners and members of any city agency dealing with land and community redevelopment to attend.

 

“The idea is to try to broaden [BVRAC’s] understanding of what they do and what they can do with TIF dollars. This is the next step in finally doing it right,” he said.

 

In the most recent round of TIF-approved projects totaling $416,000, a deteriorating home owned by the Edwards family, located at 213 Petronia St., received $70,000 towards an estimated $170,000 demolition and renovation of the house. The Bethel AME Church on Thomas Street received $10,000 towards installing central air conditioning in its Fellowship Hall. Habitat for Humanity of Key West and Lower Keys was set to receive $74,000 to repair and improve multiple homes in the neighborhood.

 

But those types of projects aimed at individual properties may need to change, both Lopez and Malo agree. Removing blight from Bahama Village may not be possible by emphasizing relatively small-scale improvements. While that worked for the first two years of the project, it doesn’t anymore, Lopez said.

 

“Recipients have looked at TIF money as end source funding. TIF funds alone are not supposed to pay for a project. They are supposed to help you go out and look for other funding sources,” Lopez said, adding about the new funding concept, “Once people see what can be accomplished with it, then I think it will grow and the vision plan will really come together.”

 

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]