The topic of CRAs has been in the news lately. Both Stuart and Martin County are and will be going through discussions on what are the next steps for these areas. It seems that the city and county are going in different directions. Stuart wants to enlarge its CRA and the county wants to do away with theirs. The philosophies of both entities are different regarding what is to be accomplished within those areas. It is rooted in the differences between municipalities and counties.

According to the enabling legislation (which is Chapter 163 of the Florida Statutes), both counties and cities can have CRAs. The definitions of what neighborhoods would qualify for designation as a CRA are usually found in urban settings. The acronym stands for Community Redevelopment Area. When one thinks of that term, one does think of areas in cities … not unincorporated county areas.

Counties were originally established as arms of the state to provide state services. That is why there are mandated constitutional offices such as Tax Collector and Property Appraiser in every county in Florida. With Florida’s rapid growth and urbanization, counties took on the role of municipalities in the services they provide. This resulted in Urban Services Boundaries. What should have happened as populations and densities increased? There should have been the formation of municipalities to provide urban services. Counties should have remained in their original roles instead of doing a bad imitation of cities.

Hobe Sound, Rio and Jensen Beach are not independent municipalities with an elected government representing their communities. Instead Martin County created CRAs there and in other urbanized parts of the county to substitute for local elected government. This does not work. The County Board of Commissioners valiantly tries to provide services for the entire county, but the services provided in an urban environment are different than those in a suburban or rural one. Their needs are different and, in some cases, irreconcilable. This results in higher taxes being levied on all county residents regardless of if they use or want the services being offered.

You cannot substitute the CRA mechanism for the legitimate desire of the urban residents of unincorporated Martin County to have their own representative bodies determing their needs. The agricultural areas of western Martin County should not be paying for the services demanded by those in the urban sections. The county should have encouraged the development of more municipalities and the annexation of the more urban unincorporated areas into municipalities.

This would have resulted in dramatically reduced taxes for all county residents being levied, since only those functions mandated by the state to be provided by counties would be needed. Wherever urban services were demanded, only those affected would be taxed by their local municipalities to provide those services and only those services the local residents wanted. The one size fits all system Martin County currently has is undemocratic and fiscally irresponsible. CRAs are not meant to be municipalities and that is why there is a political disconnect.

I supported the county when the elected county commissioners became the Community Redevelopment Agency Board because they are elected. Appointed people should not have control of tax dollars. However, the better course would have been an elected government closer to the residents of those areas deciding urban issues. Being a resident of a municipality does not mean you are not a resident, voter and taxpayer of the county. Let’s return to the original intent of what a county and what a city is. Each should do what it does best.