VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach City Council Tuesday night approved the establishment of an economic development zone that could funnel property tax dollars back into some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
The designated area will be called the Historic Downtown Vero Beach Economic Development Zone.
The measure, which got a 4-1 vote with Councilwoman Pilar Turner dissenting, would for 10 years designate additional property tax revenues from increased taxable value due to major improvements or renovations in the historic downtown area to be earmarked for revitalization projects in that zone.
Turner said she was voting against the resolution because, in her opinion, Vero is too small to have pockets of the city having designated funding sources, that property tax revenue should benefit the whole city, and that other areas will now want their own zones to be set up, which could become unwieldy.
Vice Mayor Jay Kramer has pushed the issue for the past couple of years, working with city staff and various business, nonprofit and cultural interests downtown to first come up with the concept and then to turn that into a workable governing document.
Kramer said the action is even more important now because the State of Florida has all but done away with its Enterprise Zone program that offered financial incentives to businesses to locate in that zone, which included the Vero Beach Municipal Airport.
2016 will be the initial tax year used to determine the property tax incremental increase that would be designated for a wish-list of projects downtown.
The hope is that, through private investment in downtown by businesses and developers, that housing can be integrated into the city’s historic commercial district that centers around the 14th Avenue corridor, bringing new life and new foot traffic to the shops, restaurants, taverns, offices and art galleries located in that district.
