BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners adopted a city resolution on March 5 that extends the expiration date of the Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) through 2047.
The commission action was taken in response to state legislation which would sunset the Bradenton Beach CRA in 2039, absent a city commission extension.
The intent of a CRA is to collect additional tax revenues to address and eliminate blight in a designated CRA district. When the Bradenton Beach CRA was formed in 1992, the Bridge Street area was considered blighted. In the decades that followed, numerous CRA-funded projects and initiatives helped transform the Bridge Street area into the thriving business district it is today.
The CRA board consists of the mayor and the four city commissioners. Working in unison with the city government, the Bradenton Beach CRA operates as a separate entity with its own annual budget, which is controlled by the CRA members.
The CRA receives a portion of the property tax revenues collected from the residential and commercial properties located in the CRA district that extends from the southern side of the Cortez Bridge to the southernmost property lines along Fifth Street South. The city is also obligated to make an annual contribution to the CRA, using money from the city’s general fund.
In October, the CRA members discussed coming into compliance with state statutory requirements after CRA Chair Scott Bear, Police Chief John Cosby and City Treasurer Shayne Thompson attended The Florida Redevelopment Association’s annual conference in West Palm Beach.
“One of the things that I took away was in 2019 there was legislation that said every CRA will sunset in 2039, regardless of what is in the (CRA) plan,” Bear said during the October 2025 CRA meeting. “Our current CRA plan has us going into 2046 or 47. The legislation sunsets us in 2039 unless we do a resolution requesting approval to extend the sunset beyond 2039. So, we’re going to need to get that resolution done quickly.”
Bear said the state legislation set a date of March 1, 2026, for the city to have a resolution approved and in place.
The city commission adopted the needed city resolution on March 5.
March discussion
During the March 5 city commission meeting, Resolution 26-993 was read aloud by Mayor John Chappie.
It states in part: “City of Bradenton Beach resolution of the city commission of Bradenton Beach, Florida, approving the existence of the Bradenton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) through 2047 as adopted in the Community Redevelopment Agency 2017 plan.”
Attorney Robert Eschenfelder was advising the city commission that day due to City Attorney Erica Augello’s planned absence.
“It’s fairly simple,” Eschenfelder said. “You have to do this to keep the CRA alive.”
According to the new resolution, the Bradenton Beach CRA was created on Jan. 23, 1992.
The resolution states: “On June 21, 2018, the CRA adopted Resolution No. 18-894, adopting the 2017 amendment to the CRA plan and the 2017 plan extended the CRA for an additional 30 years, bringing the CRA to a conclusion in 2047. On April 6, 2017, the CRA advised Manatee County of its intent to extend the CRA for an additional 30 years.”
The new resolution notes that effective Oct. 1, 2019, state law mandated that a community redevelopment agency in existence as of that date shall terminate as of Oct. 1, 2019 or Sept. 30, 2039, whichever is earlier – unless the governing body (the city commission) that created the CRA approves its continued existence by a majority vote of the current governing body.
The city commission unanimously approved the adoption of Resolution 26-993 and extended the expiration date of the Bradenton Beach CRA through 2047.
The other two Anna Maria Island cities never had CRA districts.
