BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Littered with trash and overgrown weeds, vacant lots along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. might be the answer to solving the city’s rising crime rates.
“As you can see, it is trashy and there is nothing there,” said Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant, gesturing to an open field near the corner of MLK Jr. Blvd. and N. Seacrest Blvd. “This once was a building where commercial activity occurred, and now there is nothing.”
Grant believes businesses on the vacant lots would encourage legal commercial activity – not illegal activity, like selling drugs – and in turn, bring down the crime rate.
“I walk my dog Daisy along here quite a bit and I am sick and tired of only seeing vacant lots here,” Grant told Contact 5 Investigator Merris Badcock Tuesday morning.
The lots are owned by the Community Redevelopment Agency, a group dedicated to cleaning up the ‘slum and blight’ in designated neighborhoods.
This is land off MLK Jr. Blvd. owned by the #BoyntonBeach CRA. Mayor says commercial development here could reduce crime. So why isn't it happening? https://t.co/jZC8TBn1eK@WPTV#Contact5pic.twitter.com/nWSdMDi6Zv
— Merris Badcock (@MerrisBadcock) January 2, 2018
One of those neighborhoods is the Heart of Boynton Beach, and the city’s desire to redevelop it is no secret.
Under the direction of Mayor Grant and city commissioners, the CRA was given $1.2 million dollars this fiscal year for an MLK Corridor Redevelopment Project. The project is meant to redevelop the vacant lots for commercial purposes, like restaurants and office spaces.
There is just one hold up: since the money was allocated, Grant says the CRA has not commercially redeveloped a single thing on MLK Jr. Blvd.
Last fiscal year, the CRA never followed through with the MLK Corridor Redevelopment Project, so the budgeted money rolled over into this year’s fiscal budget.
The lack of redevelopment goes deeper than the past few years. Grant says, other than a Family Dollar store from a few years back, the CRA has not commercially redeveloped a single piece of property on MLK Jr. Blvd in more than a decade.
Grant says the CRA has until the end of the fiscal year to make a redevelopment project on MLK Jr. Blvd. happen. “When people do not do their jobs, they need to be removed from those jobs,” Grant said. “There is no excuse not to use that $1.2 million to make this area better. I am letting the CRA Executive Director know that something needs to happen this year.”
In Boynton Beach, the mayor and city commissioners are responsible for dictating what projects the CRA prioritizes and how much money each project gets. They also have the power to fire the CRA’s executive director.
We reached out to the CRA for a comment but so far have not heard back.The next CRA Advisory Board meeting is Jan. 4th, and the next CRA Board Meeting is Jan. 18th.
