GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Northeast Florida Regional Council recently awarded the City of Green Cove Springs with a Regional Award for Excellence in Planning and Growth Management with the formation of the Green Cove Springs downtown Community Redevelopment Agency.

The city’s Development Services Department celebrated a significant accomplishment after it earned a Northeast Florida Regional Leadership Award. The city will officially be recognized at a ceremony for elected officials on Jan. 4.

The redevelopment plan hasn’t been completed, but NFRL was impressed with how the city worked with the county to identify areas of concern.

City Manager Steve Kennedy serves on the Board of the NFRL along with commissioners Jim Renninger and Betsy Condon.

“This is the first step in being able to accomplish a lot of big things. The rest of it will be able to fall into place over the next three to seven or 10 years,” Kennedy said.

The plan is a local initiative undertaken in collaboration with the county for future projects.

Service Department Director Mike Daniels helped craft the CRA Plan.

“To be honored by the Northeast Florida Regional Council is very special because we work with these people daily. For those people to acknowledge what we’re doing is a great feeling,” he said.

According to Florida statutes, a municipality must define “finding of necessity” to prove there is “slum and blight in the area.”

“We looked at a number of factors, such as deteriorating infrastructure in the sidewalks and the roadways, property values and unsafe private structures. We found that the property values are increasing downtown, but not at the same rate as they are outside of downtown,” Daniels said.

Daniels shared information about the slum and blight areas to the city council, which suggested the creation of the CRA.

The CRA plan lists 10 objectives and properties within CRA boundaries. Some of these objectives include modal improvements like adding sidewalks and bikeways and potential future transit options downtown. Once the CRA Plan is approved and submitted to the County Tax Collector, monies will specifically be allocated to the plan.

“This gives us an opportunity to focus on the area and make improvements. All of those factors go into trying to revitalize and improve that CRA,” Daniels said.

Money charged early in the plan will be collected at a lower rate. But those rates are expected to increase in the later years, Kennedy said.

“Just making sure citizens have a voice in the process, whether that be the Citizen’s Advisory Committee, where (residents) can provide feedback on their concerns, or what they want the city to focus on, as well as us working closely with our elected and appointed officials, the development community, and (of course), our citizens,” Kennedy said. “The more feedback we get, the better we can ensure we are responding to the needs of the community. That is the most important part of projects such as the CRA and the Downtown Master Plan.”