Healdsburg is pushing ahead with an ambitious plan to extend the life of its redevelopment agency and take on more debt, despite uncertainty in Sacramento whether such programs will be eliminated.
The City Council last week took another step to lengthen the life of its redevelopment agency by 10 years - to 2034.
"Redevelopment is the only tool we have available to use for capital improvement projects," said City Manager Marjie Pettus. "We can't afford not to take action and move things forward."
Healdsburg officials credit redevelopment programs over the past few decades with remaking the downtown and creating affordable housing in ways that private enterprise would not have done.
Although they have been around since the 1940s and helped countless cities remove blight, redevelopment agencies are also criticized for siphoning off property tax revenues that would otherwise flow to schools and other agencies.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating the 400-plus redevelopment agencies as a way to help balance the state budget. In response, many cities and counties re-committed to future redevelopment projects and took other measures to try to protect their existing programs.
But Healdsburg also has been in the process of extending the life of its agency, beginning with a $221,000 consultants study awarded last year.
Last week the City Council approved their preliminary report, allowing the plan to proceed. It will be subject to more public hearings, including at the Planning Commission meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m.
The City Council is tentatively scheduled to hold two hearings on the final report - in August and October.
"I'm really proud of us as a city moving forward with this, considering all the threats the governor has made to eliminate redevelopment," said Councilman Gary Plass.
"It's a critical tool for the economic vitality of Healdsburg," said Assistant City Manager David Mickaelian. "We can't wait any longer for what happens in Sacramento."
Keyser Marston Associates, the city's consultants, estimate that extending the life of the agency 10 years beyond its current 2024 expiration date could generate an additional $77.5 million for very-low and low-income housing programs and $48.3 million for capital projects.
Redevelopment agencies do not levy taxes, but get a portion of the property-tax revenues generated as property values rise. Those revenues are used to repay bonds and other debt the agency incurs to make investments in project areas.
Healdsburg last year sold $21 million in bonds to finance $13.5 million in future programs.
Some of the money, potentially up to $6 million, is programmed to buy the old Foss Creek Elementary School site. The city leases it for use as a community center, but has been negotiating to buy it from the school district.
Installing a traffic round-a-bout at the downtown five-way intersection and conversion of the old Purity warehouse for public events and parking are also high priorities for redevelopment funds.
But the city wants to make sure it has enough money to cover projects well into the future.
Healdsburg has some of the highest residential property values in the county and is known for its historic, showcase homes, but there is another reality detailed in the consultants' report.
The city wants to finance new infrastructure and seismic retrofits and revamp blighted and under-utilized properties, especially in South Central Healdsburg and across the Healdsburg Memorial Bridge.
To justify their plans, redevelopment agencies have to document substandard conditions in their territory, which in the case of Healdsburg covers 1,432 acres, more than half of the city.
In summing up blight, the report said about 194 acres in south Healdsburg have no water or sewer utilities.
Building officials have identified serious code violations at 11 percent of the properties in the project area.
About 22 percent of rental units are overcrowded.
Some 132 parcels, or 161 acres, are in the 100-year flood zone.
About 23 percent of commercial properties provide no on-site parking and another 11 percent are "parking deficient."
A couple dozen parcels are contaminated with hazardous materials.
The plan calls for reinstating the redevelopment agency's eminent domain authority, except for residential property.
Such power allows the government agency to force a property owner to sell at fair market value, making it easier to implement improvements.
Plass noted that "any condemnation we've done has been friendly, where folks are agreeable. They wanted to use eminent domain because they got a tax break."
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