Published: Friday, Jul. 8, 2011 - 12:00 am
Redevelopment, a powerful and controversial tool that has remade
– for better or worse – California's urban landscape for the past six
decades, will soon die.
Or will it?
Two pieces of last
month's state budget package abolish the 400 local redevelopment
agencies on Oct. 1, but allow them to remain in business – albeit under
much tighter state control – if they agree to give big chunks of their
property tax revenues to schools, thereby reducing the state treasury's
educational burden.
Overall, state officials hope to gain $1.7 billion from the transfer
during the 2011-12 fiscal year and about $400 million each year
thereafter, plus inflation.
Gov. Jerry Brown and legislators adopted the historic change after
years of Capitol machinations over the agencies' shift from blight
eradication and low-income housing into complex subsidies for hotels,
retail complexes and
auto dealerships. It was one of those rare issues that transcended party lines with Democrats and Republicans lining up on both sides.
The
two bills also ended months of efforts by redevelopment agencies to buy
their way out of political trouble. And at the last moment, a bid by
Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez to exempt Los Angeles' redevelopment
agency from the
death sentence failed.
So what now?
A
court battle over the abolition decree looms, but if it survives, most
cities probably will continue redevelopment projects by paying tribute
to the state. However, they'd have less money to spend and less
flexibility in how they operate.
Submitted by Jim Alex
2 comments:
We missed the redevelopment boat for 25 years. What are the odds we'd catch it now even if it survives in some form? Know how to use it? Would we even know it's out there? I'm well aware of the historical reason for the statue of Don Gaspar de Portola facing inland but I laugh everytime I drive by. It's so very Pacifica.
He's probably checking for snakes and froggies
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