Titusville Community Redevelopment Agency

The Titusville Community Redevelopment Agency is the city body that runs the Titusville Community Redevelopment Area, a downtown special district of about 300 acres created on October 12, 1982 by ordinance 66-1982.

The city CRA page says the district is dedicated to revitalizing the historic downtown, aims for a vibrant mixed use district reflecting the area's ecological and space heritage and culture, and works through tax increment financing and grants on projects such as recreation and open space and streetscape improvements (City of Titusville Community Redevelopment Agency page). It names the state Community Redevelopment Act, Part III of Chapter 163, as the law that lets Florida cities designate community redevelopment areas, and it gives the Titusville CRA a fiscal year of October 1 to September 30. The Titusville CRA Redevelopment Plan posted there is the plan update adopted in October 2022, and the page lists 321-567-3860 for the Redevelopment Planner, who supplies copies.

In the Titusville code, the CRA rests on findings in Sec. 2-201 that a slum and blighted area exists in the city, and on definitions in Sec. 2-202 that describe a community redevelopment agency as a public agency created under section 163.356 or 163.357 of the Florida Statutes (Titusville Code of Ordinances, Chapter 2, Article VI).

The Titusville CRA runs from the FEC railroad on the west to the middle of the navigable Indian River on the east, and from Grace Street on the south to a northern parcel line set out in the city code.

Sec. 2-203 describes each edge (Titusville Code Sec. 2-203). The north line follows the northwest property line of Parcel 28, Section 33, from the FEC railroad to the center of the navigable portion of the Indian River. The west line runs north and south parallel to the FEC railroad down to the centerline of Grace Street. The south line runs east along Grace Street from the railroad to the river, and the east line follows the center of the navigable river between the two.

A map is the easier way to check a Titusville parcel. The CRA board page shows the boundary map and points to the city CRA webpage, which lists a District Map and a GIS map under its Maps menu (Titusville Community Redevelopment Agency Board page). Section 163.371 of the Florida Statutes set January 1, 2020 as the deadline for each agency to put boundary and acreage maps online, with revised map files due within 60 days after any change takes effect (Florida Statutes section 163.371).

A seven-member board governs the Titusville CRA: all five City Council members plus two people appointed by the council, and it meets at 5:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month in the City Hall Council Chamber.

Sec. 2-204 designates the City Council as the agency under section 163.357 and adds two appointed members for a total of seven (Titusville Code Sec. 2-204). The two appointees serve four-year terms without pay, though they may claim necessary travel and related expenses, and each must live in, or own or work for a business in, the agency's area of operation, which the code makes coterminous with the city. They may be removed as section 163.356(4) provides. Under Sec. 2-205 the agency holds the powers in sections 163.358 and 163.370 and any applicable powers in sections 163.330 through 163.450.

The board page lists the meeting place as City Hall at 555 South Washington Avenue and says members are subject to the standards of conduct for public officials in Chapter 112 of the Florida Statutes (Titusville CRA Board page). The Community Development Department is the staff liaison, at 321-567-3860, and the City Manager serves as executive director and registered agent of the agency. The same page notes that a complete CRA audit report is part of the city's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

Titusville CRA money comes mostly from tax increment: the growth in property taxes inside the district since the base year, paid by both the city and Brevard County into a redevelopment fund.

The city FAQ explains the base year as the year the CRA was established; increases in taxes within the CRA beyond that year go to the redevelopment fund, and adds that the tool is not an additional tax for owners in the district (City of Titusville FAQ, What is Tax Increment Financing). State law fixes the default share. Section 163.387 puts each taxing authority's yearly payment at 95 percent of the gap between what it levies on district property, debt service millage aside, and what the pre-district assessment roll would have produced; the funding ordinance may set a smaller share, but not under 50 percent of that gap. Payment is due by January 1, and late increment owes a 5 percent penalty plus interest of 1 percent for each month outstanding (Florida Statutes section 163.387).

The figures come from the expenditure pages of the CRA fund in the city budget (City of Titusville FY2026 Adopted Budget, CRA Fund 104). On the revenue side, the Titusville increment line shows $707,949 in FY2023 and $797,804 adopted for FY2026, and the Brevard County line $330,782 and $370,000 for the same years. The separate CRA PIRN Series 2009 fund, number 207, also lists $117,680 for FY2026 in the all funds revenue summary.

The Titusville CRA offers three matching reimbursement grants inside the downtown district: one for building exteriors, one for interiors of older commercial buildings, and one for permit and impact fees on new construction.

The Downtown Commercial Beautification Program pays matching reimbursement grants for exterior work on commercial buildings in the district, such as facades, signage, landscaping and parking facilities, with the stated aim of better visual appeal and occupancy (Titusville CRA Beautification Grant Program page). Its policies, procedures and application are posted on that page.

The Interior Building Renovation Incentive Grant Program is the most specific about money. It offers a reimbursable 50 percent matching grant to a property or business owner, up to $50,000 for commercial operating space and up to an additional $50,000 for mixed use space that combines non-residential and residential units, in older and historic buildings in the downtown CRA district (Titusville CRA Interior Building Renovation Incentive Grant page). Eligible work is limited to permanent improvements required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Florida Building Code (HVAC, interior electrical and lighting, and interior plumbing, including interior grease traps and exterior grease interceptors) and the Florida Fire Protection Code.

A third program, for permit and impact fees, reimburses on a matching basis part of the development fees that developers and owners pay on new construction inside the downtown CRA district, naming impact fees and building permit fees as examples (City of Titusville permit and impact fee grant program page). That program page lists the Redevelopment Planner at 321-567-3860. Separately, the aid to private organizations line in the CRA fund reads $255,834 in the FY2025 revised budget and $110,000 adopted for FY2026 (FY2026 Adopted Budget).

Inside the Titusville CRA, projects larger than 1.5 acres of property or 10,001 square feet of building need approval from the agency itself at a public hearing, on top of the usual Community Development review.

Per the city FAQ, the Titusville CRA design guidelines for new building and rehabilitation regulate facades, infrastructure, landscaping and site design; the Community Development Department reviews all building improvements and site plans, and projects above those size thresholds go to the agency at a public hearing (City of Titusville FAQ on the CRA). An approved building color palette is posted on the CRA page, beside an Urban Design Manual whose chapters include design review authority and process (Titusville CRA page).

For residents tracking results, the Reports and Budgets page posts a CRA annual report for each year from 2017 to 2018 onward, the latest listed covering 2025 to 2026 (Titusville CRA Reports and Budgets page). Section 163.371 requires each agency to file such a report by March 31 every year with the city that created it and to post it online, including the latest trust fund audit, projects started and completed with estimated costs, total trust fund spending, assessed values when the agency was created and as of January 1 of the reporting year, spending on affordable housing, and progress toward the plan's goals (Florida Statutes section 163.371).

The Titusville code still sets out steps for taking CRA property for transfer to a private party, while a later state statute generally bars conveying condemned property to private owners.

Sec. 2-250 of the Titusville code says that before using eminent domain in a community redevelopment area to take private property without consent and transfer it to a private party, the council must hold two public hearings with at least ten days notice each, approve by five affirmative votes, find the property essential to the plan, offer at least 125 percent of appraised value with thirty days to respond, give fifteen days written notice of the vote, and pay relocation costs for a residence (Titusville Code Sec. 2-250).

For Titusville as for every Florida city, Florida Statutes section 73.013 says that, notwithstanding any ordinance, property acquired through a condemnation petition filed on or after the section's effective date may not be conveyed to a natural person or private entity, by lease or otherwise, except for listed uses such as common carrier services, public roads, utilities and public infrastructure (Florida Statutes section 73.013).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, with the Titusville CRA, CRA board, three grant program and Reports and Budgets pages all fetched again, plus the tax increment and design answers in the city FAQ, Article VI of Chapter 2 of the city code, the CRA fund pages of the FY2026 adopted budget, and sections 163.371, 163.387 and 73.013 of the Florida Statutes.