Redevelopment board votes to remove Keys of Cody River property from CRA

Port Richey Citys Special Committee Redevelopment Agency voted Aug. 4 to exclude a recently revalued property identified in the record as "Keys of Cody River" (also transcribed in places as "Keys Cody River") from the CRA boundary. Interim City Manager Sal McCarrie presented valuation and rollback calculations and recommended removing the parcel from the CRA to limit the effect on the citys tax rollback and to retain revenue in the general fund.

"That property now projected for 2026 is $18,063,096," McCarrie said when presenting the appraisal and rollback figures. He told the board that the parcel had been locked at $147,992 in 2002 and that, if the rollback were calculated with the higher valuation in place, the rollback rate would rise (staff cited a potential roll-up to 6.3822). McCarrie said removing the parcel would reduce the rollback to about 6.0944 and recommended the city budget at a 6.25 millage rate for fiscal 2026–27 to provide a buffer.

McCarrie also identified budget impacts the board should weigh: he said the citys contribution to the CRA under the current numbers would be retained in the general fund (he cited a figure of $106,371) and that removing the parcel would also relieve the county of an approximately $126,015 contribution; the combined city-and-county change was described in the presentation as about $232,386. McCarrie said the change would cover roughly a third ("0.333" as stated in the presentation) of an anticipated deficit tied to a potential property tax amendment on the November ballot.

Member Robert Hubbard moved to exclude the property from CRA funds for the next tax season. The motion was seconded (the transcript records a second but does not identify who seconded). With no public comment and no further discussion, the chair called the vote; five "aye" votes were recorded and the chair declared the motion carried. The board concluded CRA business for the night after the vote.

The transcript uses two nearby spellings for the waterway/property ("Keys of Cody River" and "Kizakota River"). The city staff presentation consistently referred to the parcel as the new development off Washington; the record does not contain an authoritative parcel ID in this audio transcript. The article reports the valuation, rollback figures and cited dollar amounts as stated in the meeting record; where the transcript is imprecise about who seconded the motion or the precise property name, this article notes those points as "not specified" or provides both transcribed variants.