Need for redevelopment program debated

A cash-strapped city like Marysville could benefit if redevelopment agencies ceased to exist, an assemblyman said Tuesday during a debate on the topic in Sacramento.

But at the same event, an advocate for redevelopment said doing so would hurt economically downtrodden areas where there is little going on otherwise.

"Those are the kinds of communities where developers aren't going to come in and build a grocery store," said Linda Barton, Livermore city manager and president of the California Redevelopment Association.

Her counterpart, Assemblyman Chris Norby, said Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to end redevelopment as a partial way to solve the state's $25 billion budget deficit acknowledges vital state services are more important than subsidizing private development.

"What's going to spur development is not public subsidies to private developers," he said. "What spurs development is consumer demand."

Redevelopment, where cities or other governments float bonds to fix up blighted areas and attract investment, have come under scrutiny from Brown and others who believe the property taxes paying off the bonds could be better spent elsewhere. Barton and Norby, R-Fullerton, spoke at the Sacramento Press Club's monthly luncheon.

City officials in the Yuba-Sutter area have been ambivalent at best about the governor's proposal, with the Yuba City City Council discussing a resolution at its Tuesday meeting to oppose Brown's idea.

Norby said public officials like Barton fighting the idea do so because redevelopment results in new sales tax revenues, which local governments rely on.

"We need to look at whether sales tax is really the best way to pay for local gover ment," Norby said.

Too often, he said, redevelopment results in stores, restaurants and improvements that don't make economic sense and don't work out over time.

Aaron Busch, Yuba City's redevelopment director, said that is not true in his city, which benefited from redevelopment in Gauche Aquatic Park and making improvements on Plumas Street.

"I don't think we have any bad examples of redevelopment in Yuba City," Busch said.

The Plumas Street project hasn't taken full flight because of the downturn in the economy, he said, but the improvements have set up the city to make strides when conditions improve.

In Marysville, redevelopment helped build low-income housing and make improvements downtown, though City Manager Steve Casey said the city hasn't undertaken a new project in years.

As a result, he said, there would be little benefit for Marysville in ending redevelopment agencies.

"We don't get all that much money," Casey said, estimating the annual amount would be about the same as one police officer's salary.