Community Redevelopment Agency in Rockledge, Florida

The Rockledge Community Redevelopment Agency is a city redevelopment district, created on January 23, 2002, that spends tax increment money on roads, streetscapes and business grants along the commercial corridors of Rockledge.

The agency's fiscal year 2023-24 annual report, published in May 2025, states its mission: revitalize the identified sub-districts with public investment in infrastructure and appearance so private businesses want to invest, give people reasons to live, shop and work in the City of Rockledge, and pursue economic development while acting as liaison and advocate for existing businesses (Rockledge CRA annual report, fiscal year 2023-24). The report lists Resolutions 2002-481 and 2012-721 as the applicable resolutions and records that the plan was amended on December 5, 2012.

The 2012 Rockledge plan update explains the starting point: a Blight Study and Finding of Necessity adopted in January 2002, under the authority Chapter 163, Part III, of the Florida Statutes gives counties and cities to set up redevelopment agencies (Rockledge redevelopment plan update, 2012). One administration objective in that plan reserves tax increment revenues for capital improvements and approved programs, with staff and studies paid from the annual budget where possible.

Last verified: October 21, 2026, through a fresh read of the Rockledge CRA annual report and 2012 plan, two sets of board minutes, the facade grant page, the city calendar and Section 163.371 of the Florida Statutes.

The Rockledge redevelopment district covers about 2,794 acres in four connected sub-districts along Florida Avenue, Barton Boulevard, U.S. 1 and Barnes Boulevard, and none of the city's industrial area.

The descriptions above follow the Rockledge CRA annual report. The 2012 plan update notes that the original boundary had already been changed in two places, adding acreage to the Barton Boulevard sub-district and removing some from the Barnes Boulevard sub-district (2012 Rockledge plan, boundary). State law requires every redevelopment agency to post digital maps of its boundaries and total acreage on its website and to update them within 60 days of a change (Section 163.371, Florida Statutes), so the agency map is the place to confirm whether a specific Rockledge parcel lies inside the district.

Rockledge CRA money has gone mainly into corridor projects: the Barton Boulevard streetscape, the U.S. 1 widening, the Barnes Boulevard widening and, most recently, a multipurpose center at the McKnight Sports Complex.

The annual report says Barton Boulevard received decorative lighting, landscaping and sidewalks in 2008, work that won the Florida Redevelopment Association's 2009 Best Capital Project / Beautification Award. The widening of U.S. Highway 1 through Rockledge was completed in 2010 with a re-opening celebration that December. For Barnes Boulevard, which the report says drew most new development in the district, the City of Rockledge put approximately $2 million in 2014 into the Brevard County project that widened the road from two to four lanes between Fiske Boulevard and just east of Murrell Road; the work finished in 2018, and by June 2021 the county had conveyed that stretch to the city (Rockledge CRA annual report, projects).

Smaller items on the Rockledge project list include gateway and business district signs, drainage phases I through V with the Cocoa-Rockledge Land Company, purchase of Barton Boulevard land for future mixed use, conversion of the former police station into offices with a reading room and book repository, completion of the Civic Hub, and resurfacing of the Lake Betsi/Don Griffin Trail with an 8-foot sidewalk to a new entrance on Angela Avenue. The multipurpose center on the west side of Cogswell, inside the McKnight Sports Complex, opened on November 12, 2024, with courts for basketball, volleyball and pickleball; the report shows $5,352,933.70 against it in fiscal 2024.

The Rockledge CRA offers facade improvement grants to property owners inside the redevelopment district, and city sources give two different maximums: $10,000.00 on the program page and up to $25,000.00 each for exterior and interior work in 2023 board minutes.

The City of Rockledge program page says any property owner within the district can apply and describes grants up to $10,000.00 for improving the exteriors of buildings or properties, with a brochure and application linked from the page (Rockledge facade improvement grant program). At its July 26, 2023 meeting the Rockledge CRA board voted to amend the program to include interior projects and raise the grant to up to $25,000.00 each for exterior and interior improvements, citing higher project prices, and the discussion noted that an applicant could seek both in one fiscal year (Rockledge CRA board minutes, July 26, 2023). Both figures still appear on official city pages, so the program staff at Rockledge City Hall is the place to confirm the current cap.

Results are reported each year. Since the program began in 2004 it has issued 134 grants and paid out over $1.2 million, which the report says represents approximately $4.1 million invested by Rockledge business owners; in fiscal 2024 alone, 9 grants totaling $157,674.50 went to projects worth $324,778.00 (Rockledge CRA annual report, facade grants). At the February 25, 2026 meeting, staff reported $103,995.49 in grants in progress and $106,096.33 completed, and the board approved new fiscal year 2026 grants on Barton Boulevard and elsewhere, each presented with a staff recommendation to complete the project by September 30, 2026 (Rockledge CRA board minutes, February 25, 2026).

The Rockledge CRA is funded mainly by tax increment financing paid by the City of Rockledge and Brevard County, which with interest and a small amount of miscellaneous income made up its fiscal year 2023-24 revenue.

Figures in the table are from the Rockledge CRA annual report, financial reports, which also shows no personnel costs or debt service charged to the agency that year. The same report puts district assessed values at $145,259,660 for taxable year 2001 and $536,505,592 for taxable year 2023, for both the county and city rolls, and notes that affordable housing is not an eligible category for Rockledge CRA tax increment spending.

Florida law sets the reporting rules. Under Section 163.371, each agency files an annual report with the city or county that created it by March 31 and posts it online, including the latest audit of the redevelopment trust fund, projects started and completed with estimated costs, trust fund spending, and original and current assessed values (Section 163.371, Florida Statutes). The Rockledge report cites the same statute and says it was filed with the City of Rockledge on May 27, 2025.

A Rockledge CRA Board of Commissioners drawn from the community governs the agency, supported by city staff, and it meets in the Council Chamber at Rockledge City Hall, 1600 Huntington Lane.

The annual report lists the board with a chair and vice chair and names city staff roles that support it: the city manager as registered agent, an agency attorney, the finance director, the community development director, the city clerk and a recording secretary (Rockledge CRA annual report, board and staff). The February 25, 2026 minutes show a regular meeting called for 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber at Rockledge City Hall, where an agenda item to select a chair and vice chair, as a recommendation to City Council, was tabled to the next meeting (Rockledge CRA minutes, February 2026).

Meeting dates are posted on the city calendar, which keeps separate Redevelopment Agency Board Meetings and Redevelopment Agency Events calendars (City of Rockledge calendar). The report gives the agency contact as 1600 Huntington Ln, Rockledge, FL 32955, phone 321-221-7540 extension 112 and fax 321-204-6356.

In the words of the fiscal year 2023-24 annual report, published in May 2025: "Per the 2018 inter-local agreement between the City of Rockledge and Brevard County, the Community Redevelopment Agency will sunset on September 30, 2026."

The same Rockledge report says the agency has honored its debts and that there will be zero debt when it sunsets in September 2026, and its closing section describes the agency as beginning to consider priorities and projects to finish before the sunset (Rockledge CRA annual report, sunset). In the February 25, 2026 board minutes, staff recommended that the fiscal year 2026 facade grants presented that night be completed by September 30, 2026 (Rockledge CRA minutes, February 25, 2026).

Questions about a CRA grant or project go to the agency contact listed in the report, 1600 Huntington Ln, Rockledge, phone 321-221-7540 extension 112 (Rockledge CRA annual report, contact).