Request that the city commission repeal Ordinance 3294-24 Expanding and Extending the Community Redevelopment Area (CRA). Contact the city commission here: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org.
Please see prior posts on this subject:
More perspective is required by the commission in considering this CRA expansion and extension.
Only 12% of Winter Park’s population lives within the proposed expanded CRA. Why are approximately 27,000 residents (88%) being denied $84,000,000 in projected property taxes between 2028 and 2037?
The commission’s latest 10 year financial projections show a continuing decline of our reserves to finance ever increasing expenses EVEN WITH the addition of the current CRA revenue in the General Fund beginning in 2028 (that will not exist if the CRA expansion and extension is finalized)! Click below to review the commission’s financial projection.
The overhead this commission has created combined with an approval of this CRA expansion and extension will necessitate a tax rate increase in the near future. This is not rational policy, especially given the ill defined CRA projects, none of which incentivize any increase in the tax base.
Our retiring Mayor, Phil Anderson, called the CRA expansion and extension “a big deal.” If Orange County approves this it will be “a big disaster” with no benefits for 88% of Winter Park residents and unnecessary tax rate increases for all Winter Park residents.
Contact the commission and request repeal of the CRA expansion and extension: mayorandcommissioners@cityofwinterpark.org.
Our current city commissioners are tax and spend
Or I should say Waste! I’m fed up with our Left wing politics.
just one more example of wasteful spending!!! STOP THE MADNESS!!!
….And, who was behind the 42 million spent on the new library? I love architecture but this was another wasteful endeavor!!!! A fiscally responsible library should be closer to 15 million for the same square footage, NOT 42+million!!!
Abel is 100% correct. New libraries can be shrunk down to 1/3 of their classical size because everything in print is going digital now so a million books can be stored in a computer the size of a small closet. So that library was created not for books, it was about City VANITY. pure and simple. This isn’t Alexandria and yet those who approved it were arrogant enough to think NOT to care what a dinosaur like that would cost us all to build or maintain, as long as it made them look good. And that’s not limited to left wingers. I happen to be a guy who does research in libraries all over the world to make a living so I should be WOWED if someone built a good library in Winter Park, right? But when I drive by that monstrosity my stomach knots up because it reminds me of one of Saddam Hussain Palaces because of it’s excess. So I wouldn’t blame it on the left wingers Maureen because both sides waste money. But the deal is that they both waste it on different kinds of vanity projects, and this one wasn’t about building a library at all. Needing a new library was just the excuse they used to build a palace in Winter Park, because someone decided it would make them look good by their palace standards.
Just to clarify (not that I disagree), the library/event center was approved by a public referendum. While the total cost was about $42 million, the total taxpayer dollars of $30 million were used as approved by the voters. The balance came from private donations, Orange County tourist tax, and additions to the plans approved by the city commission not requiring a further referendum.