Purpose and History
As with many downtowns in the past several decades, the downtown area of Tallahassee has witnessed a change away from retail and residential to an area dominated by office space, with little activity after 5:00pm. In an attempt to revitalize the downtown into an 18-hour destination with a wide variety of uses the City authorized a study in March, 2002 to evaluate existing conditions to determine if conditions were present to create a downtown redevelopment area. The resulting study, the Finding of Necessity for Redevelopment, found that 79 of the 93 downtown blocks surveyed had conditions that supported a slum or blight designation, as defined by Chapter 163, Part III, Florida Statutes. In September 2002, the City Commission adopted the results of the Finding of Necessity and established the boundaries for the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area, comprising 441 acres.

On June 2004, the City Commission completed the process for establishing the Downtown District Community Redevelopment Area by adopting the Downtown Community Redevelopment Plan and establishing a trust fund. The Community Redevelopment Agency Board governs the activities of the Downtown CRA, as well as the activities of the Frenchtown/Southside CRA. In February 2006 the CRA Board approved the establishment of the Downtown Redevelopment Commission to make recommendations to the Board on the expenditure of Downtown CRA funds. View the map of the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area (PDF).

Downtown Redevelopment Commission

Purpose
The purpose of the Downtown Community Redevelopment Area’s Downtown Redevelopment Commission (DRC) is to advise the Community Redevelopment Agency on redevelopment strategies to be addressed and implemented in support of the redevelopment area. Specifically, the DRC is to make recommendations on expenditures or investments within the redevelopment area, and may recommend changes to the redevelopment plan, develop an annual work program, set priorities and develop incentives to further the redevelopment efforts.

Membership
The DRC consists of nine (9) individuals who have extensive experience in the development and/or redevelopment of urban properties. The current membership of the DRC is listed below:

• Kyle Phelps (Chair)
• Jeffrey Billingsley (Vice Chair)
• Kelley Bolden Bailey
• Christian Caban
• Robert Gelhardt
• Katie Harwood
• Lateefah Muhammad
• Slaton Murray
• Camden Whitlock