Today's the day: all of the local redevelopment agencies in California are officially dissolved. That doesn't mean they're gone, of course--rather, today begins the long process of settling all affairs. Most of the RDAs, which once partnered with private developers to build in blighted areas, have become the responsibility of successor agencies; in most cases, that's the local city government, but Los Angeles voted to wash its hands of the Community Redevelopment Agency of LA. The CRA/LA is now actually a ward of the state. Here's the latest news and all the details you might want to know about the death of redevelopment in Cali:
-- The CRA/LA has 26 projects "in various stages of completion," according to the LA Daily News.
-- Governor Brown created the CRA/LA's three-member governing board today, according to the LA Business Journal. Members are Mayer Brown partner/former James Hahn chief of staff Timothy McOsker, former MPG Office Trust chief executive Nelson Rising, and former CRA/LA city council liaison Mee Semcken.
-- Today, redevelopment agencies "essentially become accounting firms: poring over their books, figuring out their assets and liabilities, and submitting to the approval of oversight boards -- one seven-member committee for every defunct RDA -- to ensure that funds are disbursed to either the state or to legitimate creditors," according to the California Planning & Development Report.
-- The 192 employees of the CRA/LA still went into work today, according to the LADN, but now they're getting paid by the state.
-- County assessor-controllers will "help determine how to allocate their former tax increment funds," according to the CP&DR. LA County alone has 71 redevelopment agencies and lawyer Brent Hawkins, who's worked on redevelopment issues with the League of California Cities, is concerned it can't be done: "The task of inventorying all of those agencies and getting it done by sometime this summer, while taking care of everything else they’re supposed to be taking care of—I don’t know how they’re going to do it."
-- The state senate passed a bill that would let local governments keep redevelopment funds that were earmarked for affordable housing, but didn't pass it with enough of a majority to get it implemented immediately, according to the Sacramento Bee. It's unclear what's next for the measure.
-- Riverside is putting two historic Victorians up for sale, cheap. Each one is going for $1, but a buyer has to be able to move and rehab them, reports ABC7.
-- And Culver City is having a fire sale. Besides the Jazz Bakery deal to bring a Frank Gehry theater to Washington Blvd., the city council also voted to sell Parcel B (future site of a big stairwayed retail project) and the Market Hall project site to their developers.
· CA Supreme Court Votes to Kill Local Redevelopment Agencies [Curbed LA]
· LA Won't Take Responsibility For Redevelopment Projects [Curbed LA]
Loading comments...