The fight over the fate of the Omni CRA is prompting West Grove leaders to remind Miami commissioners of the commitment they made in 2021.
The political brawl at Miami City Hall over the future of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) is reviving a long-stalled effort to establish a similar economic engine in the West Grove.
The Miami City Commission has been tied in knots for months over the fate of the Omni CRA, a city agency that invests in affordable housing and other revitalization projects.
Should the life of the Omni CRA be extended with its current boundaries intact, or should those boundaries be expanded to include the neighborhood of Allapattah?
The question has devolved into a showdown between District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo and his District 1 counterpart, Miguel Gabela.
Both men were elected last year, and the two previously united in pushing a reform agenda at City Hall. That alliance may be shifting, however, under the strain of the stalemate.
The City Commission failed to resolve the issue again last week, but not before Grove advocates reminded the commission of the commitment it made in 2021.
“The city commission voted unanimously to approve the creation of a new CRA in the West Grove…. That was never finalized,” Ellis Statom, president of Grovites 4 Life, told the city’s five commissioners last week. “Now that expansion discussions are in play again… I respectfully request that West Grove be placed back into the discussion.”
CRAs are government agencies that capture and reinvest rising property taxes within a specific area (the Omni area, for instance) to support economic revitalization in that district. Cities can propose CRAs but the county must then approve them.
The county never approved the proposed West Grove CRA. County commissioner Raquel Regalado, whose district includes Coconut Grove, opposed the creation of a West Grove CRA at the time, saying the agency wouldn’t accumulate tax dollars fast enough to be effective, given the rapid pace of gentrification in the West Grove.
Reynold Martin and Carolyn Donaldson of GRACE (Grove Rights and Community Equity) joined Statom in speaking up for the West Grove at last week’s meeting.
“The motive is not to deny Allapattah of any opportunity for much needed improvement, but for the city to address these old communities that need this help,” Martin said.
“All of us have housing issues. All of us have homelessness issues,” added Donaldson. There are 16 CRAs in Miami-Dade County, according to the county’s website, including three in the City of Miami – the Omni CRA, the Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA, and the Midtown CRA.
