History of the Urban Renewal Agency

In August of 2006 the Florence City Council adopted an ordinance approving the Florence Downtown Preservation and Renewal Plan. The plan creates an urban renewal district encompassing properties along Hwy 101 generally south of Highway 126, east of Kingwood Avenue and inland of the Siuslaw River. Urban renewal projects under the Plan are financed by private and public funding sources as well as tax increment funds (taxes on the increase in assesses value of property in the urban renewal district that occurs after the Plan was adopted).

The Plan does not increase taxes that property owners pay. The Plan proposes projects such as construction and repair of public infrastructure including parks, streets, and other public facilities; facilitation of public-private partnerships to revitalize and preserve downtown properties; promotion of mixed-use development; and rehabilitation of the waterfront for public and commercial uses.

The Florence Urban Renewal Plan was approved by the voters in November of 2007. The maximum indebtedness authorized under this Plan is twenty-two million, five hundred and forty-five thousand dollars ($22,545,000)