Hoffmeister: What a Redevelopment Agency Means to the City

At this week's annual Mayor's Luncheon, Concord Mayor Laura Hoffmeister pulled no punches when describing the impacts the governor's proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies will have on the city of Concord.

Patch correspondent Edi Birsan has the lowdown on what the mayor said. Quite simply, redevelopment has been integral to Concord's growth in the past, and is vital to its future.

The object of eliminating the Redevelopment Agency was described as “shortsighted,” while Hoffmeister also expressed annoyance at the state’s attempt to go around the results of Prop 22, which protected the Redevelopment funds from take-away, by the state’s technique of simply abolishing the whole program as a way of taking the funds.

She quoted numbers for the state that the Redevelopment Agency generated 304,000 full and part time private sector jobs of which 170 thousand are in construction and said that $40 billion is annually put into the economy with $2 billion in state and local taxes in a typical year.

The Mayor said Concord has benefited from redevelopment by:

• 2 million square feet of office buildings,
• Eliminated blighted areas
• Downtown events
• 1900 affordable housing
• The CNWS will be in jeopardy without the Redevelopment money,

The four development areas in Concord are

1.     Central: 672 acres (includes Todos Santos and area around Willow Pass going west to Pleasant Hill.)

2.     North Concord: 188 acres (around Port Chicago Highway and Concord Avenue)

3.     Willow Pass Road: 89 acres going east from Todos Santos Plaza

4.     Monument Corridor: 123 acres around Monument Boulevard

The Mayor gave some examples of the “before and after” Redevelopment projects were put into play showing:

• Metroplex Office Center
• Brendan Theatre
• Airport Plaza
• Salvio Paceheco Square
• Auto Row
• Bank of America
• One Concord Centre
• Concord Senior Center
• Concord Skatepark
• Concord Community Pool
• Ed Dorado/Westwood Playfields

Some examples of the original value of the properties vs. their current property values were sited.  For example at Airport Plaza the city put in $250,000 and the current value of the property is $56 million.  It was unclear if the number given was the property tax evaluation current or the straight value if sold now.  Regardless, the point was that there was a substantial improvement in the economics of the city for the investment. I would have liked to see examples from each district as most shown were from the Central area. 

Additionally there were on and off ramps, façade improvements and lighting improvements mentioned in general.

Hoffmeister expressed skepticism over the realignment of state activities to the Cities where she feels that the necessary funding will not be redirected to match the services that the cities would be expected to perform.

She asked that you write to your legislator to support the retention of the Redevelopment program.

The immediate impacts on the City Budget in terms of city employee jobs whose salary is in part of the Redevelopment program was not detailed,  nor what projects currently planned for the various districts would be affected.

Edi Birsan is a longtime Concord resident and came in fourth in the November city council elections.