City of Gainesville Taking Next Steps for Creation of the New Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA)
The Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will soon transition into a city department — the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area (GCRA). Much like the CRA, the new city department will be tasked with addressing some of the community’s most pressing infrastructure and development challenges over the next 10 years.
During its Aug. 15 and Sept. 5 commission meetings, the Gainesville City Commission is set to hear the first and second readings of the ordinance that transitions the CRA from a special district governed by Florida Statutes to the locally created GCRA.
The restructuring of the agency and its programs was set into motion in April of 2019 after almost two years of conversations, when the city and county commissions agreed to reposition the CRA for continued success while protecting its work from legislative changes at the state level. The city/county agreement requires that the Gainesville City Commission hold public hearings to discuss the name, activities, duration and funding structure of the new single reinvestment area.
Under the proposed ordinance, the GCRA will continue its redevelopment efforts for 10 years and will operate on a fixed budget. The internal boundaries of the four existing redevelopment areas (College Park/University Heights, Downtown, Eastside and 5th Ave/Pleasant St.) will be dissolved, resulting in a single reinvestment area with the same external boundary. Redevelopment plans for the four areas will be condensed into a single plan through a public process beginning this fall. The GCRA office and staff will relocate to the Gainesville Technology Entrepreneurship Center (GTEC) at the Cornerstone Campus on SE Hawthorne Road.
The GCRA will begin accepting applications for its new Citizen Advisory Board starting on Aug. 16. Interested parties should live or work in the community reinvestment area, and can apply online at the City of Gainesville’s website.