By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
Editor’s note: Building Downtown Apopka: Money, Models and a Missing Anchor is a three-part series examining how the City can use its CRA resources to help create a more connected and active downtown. The series evaluates Apopka’s progress and remaining challenges, considers lessons from successful investments in other communities and concludes by exploring whether a library, event center and historical complex could provide the defining destination downtown Apopka still lacks.
Editor's Note: This article was republished from September 1 with additional details.
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The Apopka Community Redevelopment Agency enters FY2027 with something many redevelopment agencies would envy: money.
Related: Apopka CRA adopts $7.8 million budget, redirects money to park and sidewalks.
Its adopted budget totals nearly $7.85 million, including approximately $6.13 million in reserves and carryover funding. That balance partly reflects the CRA’s difficulty completing projects as quickly as revenue has accumulated, although a recent progress report shows meaningful work is complete.
Through June 30, the agency had spent approximately $870,000—or 13.5%—of its revised $6.43 million FY2026 budget.
Progress deserves recognition
The CRA’s latest report documents several accomplishments.
The first phase of the Downtown Apopka Trail is complete, including security lighting. Twenty-seven residential renovations have been completed through a program offering up to $30,000 for exterior improvements.
At Alonzo Williams Park, the CRA has resurfaced basketball courts, constructed pavilions and installed electrical outlets and water connections for vendors and events. The CRA also added additional tables and amenities.
Plans are complete for signal and pedestrian improvements at Fifth Street and Park Avenue and Fifth Street and Central Avenue. Staff also is revising assistance programs and preparing to include design standards in the updated redevelopment plan.
These projects improve the district and should not be dismissed because the CRA still carries a large balance. But progress on individual projects is not the same as completing a redevelopment strategy.
Apopka must show how its trails, parks, sidewalks, housing programs, property acquisitions and streetscape improvements will reinforce one another.
The agency is not inactive, but the larger question is whether these investments are creating a recognizable and economically productive downtown.
The CRA Board is asking Orange County to extend the agency for seven years. An extension may be justified because downtown Apopka still has infrastructure deficiencies, underused property, housing needs and limited private investment. But seven additional years should not simply provide more time to carry money forward. The extension should come with a focused mission, measurable objectives and a public schedule for completing the work.
Connect the park to downtown
The board’s decision to redirect $299,000 from a proposed East Sixth Street property purchase toward restrooms at Alonzo Williams Park makes more sense when viewed alongside the CRA’s other investments there. The restrooms would add to improvements already made to the courts, pavilions, utilities and event infrastructure. Together, those projects could make the park a stronger destination for recreation, festivals and community gatherings.
Making Alonzo Williams Park a connected priority should be a CRA board goal.
The next step is to connect the park to the Apopka Community Center, downtown businesses and surrounding neighborhoods. Sidewalks, lighting, accessibility, security and programming should support that objective.
Not every CRA expenditure must directly produce a new business. But every major investment should have an identifiable role in improving the district and advancing the agency’s broader goals.
Complete the pedestrian network
The completed first phase of the Downtown Apopka Trail represents substantial progress. Planned improvements at Fifth Street and Park and Central avenues could strengthen connections among the trail, public parking, and nearby destinations.
Phase II, however, still depends on land acquisition, drainage decisions, funding, and additional direction from the city. Those unresolved issues show how an important project can stall even after money has been budgeted.
The CRA should use its increased sidewalk funding to complete a network linking City Hall, the Apopka Community Center, Fifth Street, Station Street, Alonzo Williams Park, the Museum of the Apopkans, the trail, and surrounding neighborhoods.
That network should include safe crossings, lighting, shade and accessibility—not merely concrete. The CRA should publish the order in which the connections will be built, their estimated costs and anticipated completion dates.
For an agency carrying millions forward, “more sidewalks” is not a sufficient objective. A completed pedestrian network is.
Know why property is being purchased
The board was right to reject the proposed $299,000 purchase of an East Sixth Street property without a clearly established long-term use. The board should not acquire downtown land simply because it is available or convert it into permanent surface parking without considering better alternatives.
The $156,000 agreement for Duke Energy property on East Eighth Street deserves the same scrutiny.
The board appropriately directed staff to use the 120-day due-diligence period to investigate the site and identify possible partners to construct, operate, and maintain a resource center for people experiencing homelessness.
Before closing, the CRA should determine the specific use, environmental and legal limitations, construction and operating costs, effects on nearby properties, and relationship to the redevelopment plan. If a resource center for the homeless is viable, it should move forward with that long-talked-about plan.
Strategic land acquisition can be a powerful redevelopment tool. Buying small parcels without a clear purpose can consume money while accomplishing little.
Homeownership can support redevelopment
Mayor Nick Nesta was right to remind the board that a CRA must remain focused on building taxable value. But increasing taxable value and assisting homeownership do not have to be competing goals.
Owner-occupied housing can stabilize neighborhoods, improve properties and expand the tax base. The Residential Renovation Assistance Program shows that housing investments can produce visible results.
The proposed down-payment program, however, offered up to $30,000 without an income limit and would distribute assistance on a first-come, first-served basis. With approximately $354,000 available, it might help only 11 or 12 buyers if each received the maximum award.
Before reconsidering the program, the board should prioritize moderate-income households, first-time buyers, existing CRA residents and people purchasing vacant, deteriorated or newly constructed homes.
A targeted program can support neighborhood stability and redevelopment. An open-ended program without clear measures of need or public benefit would not use limited funds effectively.
Apopka still needs a defining destination
The CRA has budgeted $75,000 to update its 2017 redevelopment plan, although the project remained under procurement review as of August 24. Completing that update should be among the agency’s highest priorities.
The plan should show how existing projects connect with future investments. It should also identify what major destination could consistently attract people downtown and encourage complementary development.
It's simple - Apopka needs an anchor for its downtown.
Seven more years require accountability
If Orange County approves the extension, the CRA should publish an annual scorecard showing how much money was budgeted, contractually committed, and actually spent.
It should also report which projects were completed, how many neglected properties returned to productive use, how much private investment was attracted, and whether pedestrian connections, housing, and business activity increased.
The progress report is a useful step, but some figures need clarification. Downtown Apopka Trail Phase I, for example, appears with different budget amounts in the active- and completed-project sections. Clear reporting should distinguish original budgets, revised budgets and final costs.
Apopka’s CRA has completed meaningful work, and that progress deserves recognition. But the agency still must show how those accomplishments become something larger than a collection of public improvements.
After 33 years, the CRA is asking for seven more. It has accumulated the resources and begun completing projects. Now it must connect them—and turn that progress into a downtown.
Coming in Part Two: Winter Garden and Apopka created their CRAs only a year apart and had several similar assets, including historic commercial districts, railroad history, and access to the West Orange Trail. The next installment examines why their downtowns developed so differently and what Apopka can learn from Winter Garden, Winter Park, and Leesburg about connecting public spaces, cultural attractions, and civic investments.
