CRA consultants say its money can't pay for festivals or art. Their 2021 plan calls for both

At its October open house, the North Beach Community Redevelopment Agency showed residents a chart of what its tax money can and can’t pay for. On the cannot side: special events and festivals, marketing and promotion, and public art, which the slide says has no authority in state law.

The agency has spent money on all three, and its founding plan calls for them.

Red Sidewalks sent the agency questions about its spending, its projects and the strategic plan on Nov. 2 and asked for answers by Nov. 5. Its response will be added when received.

Who wrote what

The agency’s redevelopment plan, adopted in 2021, was prepared by Daedalus Advisory Services with Dover Kohl & Partners and Redevelopment Management Associates, the plan says. Goal 3 of that plan is to strengthen cultural arts, branding, marketing and communication, with sample activities including heritage tourism, branding, marketing and signature promotional events. Under cultural tourism, it recommends working with the city’s Art in Public Places program to bring public art to gateways and corridors.

The October presentation, which lays out the agency’s new five-year plan, carries the logos of Daedalus, Redevelopment Management Associates and a third firm, able.city.

What the agency has paid for

Under that 2021 goal, the agency:

• Gave $6,400 for a temporary public art installation at Normandy Fountain for the LOVEisLOVE festival on Nov. 2, 2024, organized with the Normandy Fountain Business Association, according to its FY 2025 annual report. The report says its advisory committee later approved more money for the fall 2025 festival.
• Approved up to $10,000 for a North Beach artistic recycling program, which the annual report describes as an artistic and marketing opportunity for the agency’s brand.
• Budgeted $175,000 in fiscal 2025 for arts and culture tourism, a line the budget describes as marketing, promotional events and positioning, spent $65,000 of it, and budgeted $242,000 this year for arts and culture tourism, branding and marketing, according to a May 2026 county memo.

The October presentation itself lists public art, art at the fountain and arts tourism marketing among the agency’s achievements, a few slides before the chart that rules them out.

What state law says

Florida’s community redevelopment law lists what an agency’s budget may pay for, including administration and planning, buying and clearing land, debt, affordable housing, community policing innovations, and expenses necessary to carry out the powers the law grants agencies. The list doesn’t mention festivals, marketing or public art. Neither does the section listing projects that increment money may not pay for, which covers certain government buildings, previously scheduled public projects and general government operating costs.

The presentation doesn’t cite a law, ruling or audit for its chart, and doesn’t say whether the agency will stop funding arts and marketing or change its plan.

Why it matters

The five-year plan will decide what the agency spends roughly $3.4 million a year on. If events, marketing and public art are off the table, programs the agency has funded and its own plan calls for would end. If they aren’t, the agency hasn’t explained why the presentation listed them as ineligible. Residents can ask which it is at the advisory committee’s meeting Tuesday, Nov. 10, 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Normandy Shores Golf Club, 2401 Biarritz Drive.

Going to the meeting? Here are 12 questions the agency’s own records raise, with links to each record, and a printable one-page version.