TAMPA — Residents will have the chance Thursday to voice opinions on City Hall's preliminary plan for creating a community redevelopment area in West Tampa.
The second of two community meetings will take place 6 p.m. Thursday at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at 2200 N Oregon Ave.
"A CRA for West Tampa will allow us to invest in needed infrastructure, improve our public spaces and combat blight that will drive economic opportunity for the area," Mayor Bob Buckhorn said in a statement Monday.
In addition to the new West Tampa CRA, the city has existing CRAs in seven parts of the city, including downtown, the Channel District, Ybor City and East Tampa.
CRA funds must be spent in the area where they are generated. They also are restricted to certain uses, such as building or realigning roads, improving drainage, water and sewer service, providing parking or landscaping, or doing other infrastructure projects to facilitate private development.
Tampa officials want to hear residents' thoughts on the preliminary draft of the plan, which is available on the city's website ( tbtim.es/haa).
The city will use input gathered at both community meetings, along with data and recommendations from plans developed over past years, to shape the plan.
The Tampa City Council would then vote to establish the West Tampa CRA and a special trust fund to pay for CRA projects. That could happen by late June.
The boundaries of the proposed West Tampa CRA are the Hillsborough River on the east, Armenia Avenue on the west, Columbus Drive on the north and Kennedy Boulevard to the south.