Redevelopment is dead. Long live redevelopment.
In one of his first major acts after returning to the governorship in 2011, Jerry Brown proposed to abolish hundreds of local redevelopment agencies, saying they had strayed from their original purposes and were consuming billions of tax dollars that would be better spent elsewhere.
The Legislature agreed, but this week, Brown signed legislation that brings back a pared-down form of redevelopment, authorizing creation of “Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities” with many, but not all, of the same powers.
Assembly Bill 2 sailed through the Legislature with bipartisan floor votes, responding to years of pleading by local officials for tools to clean up blighted neighborhoods and generate more money for low- and moderate-income housing.
The new agencies can be formed by individual cities or counties or as joint powers operations, and can issue bonds, acquire land and construct facilities within areas that meet the criteria of high unemployment and crime rates, and physical deterioration.
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