YBOR CITY, Fla. — At Tuesday's Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation meeting, some people who live in Ybor City made something clear—they do not support a proposal to create a Special Services District (SSD) in their community.
"We want to make sure that you guys knew that we don't support the bill. Community opposes the bill in the form it is," said Jose Cayon, who lives in Ybor City.
At a community meeting last week, it was revealed that this district would take over for the Ybor City Community Redevelopment Area (CRA), which is scheduled to be dissolved in 2034.
The special district would take on some of the duties that the CRA carried, like community clean-up and development and arts projects, but it would also add on other duties like funding certain community events.
Under this proposal, property owners in the district would be expected to pay yearly fees to help run the district itself and extra fees for certain community projects.
"The way we're looking at this is this is an opportunity for Ybor to be self-supporting," said Liz Welch, who works with the Ybor City CRA and the Ybor City Development Corporation (YCDC).
Related Story: Plans for 'Ybor City Special Services District' met with community pushback
But people in the community have overwhelmingly challenged the plan. They've also claimed they were never a part of the planning process.
"Who had the seat at the table here? Because obviously, we didn't," said a man at last week's meeting.
And this brings us back to Tuesday's meeting with state leaders.
Toward the end of public comment, several leaders representing Hillsborough County also expressed concerns about the plan because they thought the community supported it.
"From what was presented to me, it looked like the community wanted to tax itself for some needed improvements," said Rep. Mike Beltran.
"And it was intimated to me that there was full support, much like Representative Beltran," said Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby.
"I actually did meet with representatives of the SSD, and it too was represented to me that there was widespread support for it," said Sen. Darryl Rouson.
ABC Action News contacted Welch to follow up on the results of both meetings. She told us that the Special Services District plan is currently on hold after the feedback she got from the community.
We also contacted Tampa City Councilwoman Gwendolyn Henderson, who represents Ybor City.
And while she said there is a need for that area to be "forward-thinking," she also told us that she can understand why the plan was paused.
