CRA INITIATES DISSOLUTION PROCESS; NEXT GENERATION OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE FORMS

The April 10 letter from CRA President and Alhambra City Manager Julio Fuentes, and CRA Interim Executive Director Jim Kennedy reads, in part:

“Thirty-three years later we are confronted with the unfortunate reality that the years of incredible success with redevelopment – building affordable housing, creating jobs, cleaning up and reusing contaminated sites, and revitalizing communities – have now come to an end due to a policy choice of the State of California to address its fiscal imbalance in part by dissolving redevelopment agencies. As a result, cities and counties in California will, at least for a time, have to address community revitalization needs without this incredibly powerful tool. “With the dissolution of local redevelopment agencies as of February 1, it has become clear to the board and executive staff that the business plan for CRA is no longer sustainable. (T)he CRA Board of Directors has now concluded with great reluctance that it has no other prudent choice but to initiate the dissolution of the association. This process will take a period of time… (and) will include a membership vote to affirm dissolution actions that the Board of Directors will be asked to take.”

Fuentes and Kennedy explain that the League of California Cities has already taken a leadership role in discussing the future of any “next generation” local community revitalization tool:

“The League of California Cities has already convened a Next Generation Task Force to assist in these discussions. The imperative for California’s communities to continue addressing their infrastructure, affordable housing, jobs/economic development, brownfield reuse, and military base reuse challenges remains. We encourage CRA members to stay active with your local legislators and the League of California Cities as the State Legislature discusses both fixes to current law, and the next generation of local government tools for community revitalization.”

CRA’s website, www.calredevelop.org, will continue indefinitely after April 30, and various materials related to the dissolution of redevelopment agencies and follow up legislation are posted there.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

AB 1585 (Perez) is now in the Senate, after passing the Assembly, 58-7. Thank you to those who have sent in their support letters to their State Senators and the Senate Leadership. The bill is a redevelopment cleanup bill that contains numerous policy and technical cleanups to AB 1x 26. You can find a summary of the bill as amended on March 21 posted on the CRA website, as well as on CRA Connect.

Other redevelopment-related legislation includes SB 986 (Dutton), which address bond proceeds and tax exemption issues arising out of AB X1 26. The bill is scheduled to be heard in Senate Governance and Finance Committee on April 18. SB 1335 (Pavley) was introduced to address issues related to brownfield clean up in a post-redevelopment world. It has a hearing scheduled for April 16 in Senate Environmental Quality Committee. Many of you know of SB 1220 (De Saulnier), which concerns funding affordable housing for low-income households in California. It is the proposed Housing Opportunity Trust Fund Act of 2012 and the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee will hear it on April 29.

Members can continue to see these and other bills being tracked by going to Bill Tracking and Resources under Legislation on the CRA website. Once there, click on STATENET bill tracking.