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Apopka CRA launches outreach to rewrite 2017 redevelopment plan; public input open through Feb. 28
Summary
City planning staff led an interactive public session as the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) begins work to rewrite its 2017 redevelopment plan; staff will collect feedback, post results online and seek a consultant via an RFQ to prepare the update.
Bobby Hall, the city’s planning manager and interim Community Redevelopment Agency director, told residents that the CRA will hire a consultant to rewrite the agency’s 2017 redevelopment plan and asked attendees to complete questionnaires or visit QR-linked materials by Feb. 28.
The rewrite effort follows a Nov. 6, 2024 CRA board direction to staff to begin a rewrite because many parts of the 2017 update are now out of date and unimplemented. Hall described the purpose of a CRA and said the district — roughly 400 acres covering downtown Apopka — has a mixed set of future land-use designations that complicate redevelopment planning.
“The CRA is responsible for developing and implementing the community redevelopment plan that addresses the unique needs of a targeted area,” Hall said. He told the meeting the plan is a “living document” that can be amended and that staff will collect tonight’s findings and pass them to a consultant hired through a request-for-qualifications process.
At five staffed stations, residents were invited to comment on themes including health and recreation, diverse retail and restaurants, cultural amenities, infrastructure, and technology investments. Hall said staff will post the session results to the city website and that public input submitted online will be accepted through Feb. 28.
Several speakers suggested next steps for public engagement. One attendee proposed using the collected results to fund a subsequent visioning workshop so residents can see visual options — for example, how wide sidewalks or mixed-use development would actually look in the downtown — before the consultant drafts the plan. Hall responded that a visioning workshop would be possible if it matched the board’s direction.
Staff thanked information-technology and planning employees for preparing the QR codes and materials and said the consultant’s work and schedule will return to the CRA board after an RFQ process.
No formal vote or final decisions about plan content were taken during the session; staff described this meeting as an information- and input-gathering step ahead of the formal consultant selection and plan-drafting process.
Background: Hall said the CRA was created in 1993 and updated its redevelopment plan in 2017. He also cited examples from the Florida Redevelopment Association of typical CRA projects — streetscapes, sidewalks, parks, street trees, façade grants and other incentives — while noting that the CRA’s pattern of multiple future land uses within the district creates inconsistencies for developers and residents.
