City May Pay $1.8M to Keep Its Redevelopment Agency

The City Council will vote Wednesday night at 6 on whether to keep the city's redevelopment agency under new rules from Gov. Jerry Brown.

If the city keeps the Community Redevelopment Agency, it is required to pay the county and local schools $1.6 million to $1.8 million this year and $385,000 to $438,000 in future years.

The reorganization was designed by the governor as a partial answer to California's looming fiscal crisis.

Redevelopment agencies are mechanisms that draw tax money from blighted areas. The tax money is then recirculated back into one of the city's redevelopment areas.

Usually the City Council acts as the redevelopment agency and decides where that money is spent, as is the case in Mission Viejo.

Several nearby cities have opted into the state's new voluntary redevelopment agency program. to take part last week, and on the issue last night.

At least one city watchdog thinks the redevelopment agency should be dissolved. Larry Gilbert says Mission Viejo doesn't have blight. He calls the city "a poster child of agencies who have abused the system."

The city would be out of time to preserve the redevelopment agency if the council had met at its regularly scheduled date of Aug. 15, hence the special meeting Aug. 3.

Also during that meeting, the City Council in closed session will discuss two properties for possible purchase. The first is a 10.5-acre lot at 28601 Los Alisos Blvd. that was once a Kmart. The second is about 7 acres at 26742 Oso Parkway, which is the address to the Mission Viejo Country Club and golf course.

Both properties will be considered as future affordable-housing sites, according to the council agenda.