City Aggressively Moving Forward with Redevelopment Projects

When Mayor Gina Belforte and City Manager Gabe Gonzalez met with the Senate Budget Subcommittee last week to discuss disbanding redevelopment agencies, as scores of California's leaders did, one thing stood out, said Belforte: the senators asked city leaders for their opinion on how to keep the tax increment dollars.

"What really surprised me and encouraged me was that Senator La Malfa [R-Richvale] asked for our ideas ... on how we can keep redevelopment agencies, but possibly tighten up on the rules a little bit," Belforte said. "Some cities may have used the funds inappropriately."

"Nothing's been decided so we're moving forward as planned," Gonzalez said.

So, what should Rohnert Park residents expect?

Patch sat down with Linda Babonis, who’s in charge of all redevelopment projects here, after the City Council agreed to fast-track 13 new redevelopment projects on Jan. 25 for $22.5 million — here's a run-down on the projects currently underway.

We’d like to hear from you, readers. What do you think of the projects? How will they impact Rohnert Park, either for the better or the worse?

1. Recreational and Community Facilities Improvements: City allocated $3.2 million to improve the city’s recreational and community facilities. Some possible projects include building an aquatic facility, installing an all-weather field and building a sprinkler park for kids. Babonis said she's unsure of where these projects will be located as of yet.

“We’re moving forward on those projects pretty quickly,” Babonis said.

2. Community Center Improvements: City allocated $2,463,824 for improvements of the Community Center campus. That includes possibly installing solar and switching to energy-saving lighting, for example.

3. Community Building Improvement Program: $1.6 million was allocated for the Commercial Loan Rehabilitation Program, which is the program that allows the city to give below market-rate loans to commercial developers who want to renovate their dilapidated shopping centers and office parks.

4. Rohnert Park Housing Rehabilitation Loan Program: $535,000 was allocated to help make health and safety improvements on housing for low-income families, seniors and people with disabilities.

“Most of those loans are forgivable,” Babonis said. “In many cases, maintenance and improvements to these people's homes have been delayed to the point that they pose a risk to the residents' health and safety."

5. Assistance to Community-based Organizations: the city allocated $843,000 to area nonprofits such as SCAYD, COTS, and Rebuilding Together. Read the story about how redevelopment funds keep nonprofits afloat.

“This allows us to step in and help when needy families and individuals need emergency assistance,” Babonis said.

6. Temporary Fire Station Facility: $267,500 was allocated to provide funding for public safety officers to operate out of a new fire station on the west side of Rohnert Park.

7. Community Sign Program: $377,571 was allocated for the city to install new signs all over Rohnert Park, that highlights major attractions in the city, public facilities and schools, for example.

“This will help with tourism and economic development,” Babonis said. “People from outside of the city will be directed towards our main attractions.

8. Neighborhood Beautification Program: The city is setting $30,000 aside in case a specific neighborhood needs improvement.

"If an area is blighted or a neighborhood needs to be cleaned up, residents or community service organizations may apply for grants through the city's neighborhood beautification program," Babonis said.

9. Avram Development and Former City Hall Rescue: The city is giving more than $4.7 million to subsidize the development of affordable housing at the former city hall, 100 and 120 Avram avenues, Babonis said.

“We want to explore mixed-use development and include possible some retail or commercial use on the ground level, and build affordable housing on top,” she added.

10. Southwest Boulevard Shopping Center: City is setting aside $1,840,400 for the development of a possible mixed use affordable housing complex at the Southwest Shopping Center, Babonis said.

“That complex also needs to be retrofitted for earthquake safety and it needs safety improvements,” she said.

11. Subsidies for Nonprofit Development: $3.3 million is allocated to help fund affordable housing.

12. Southwest Fire Station Reuse: The city says this $2.14 million set aside could be used to create a nonprofit incubator at the former Southwest Fire Station, and could include low-income housing.

13. Acquisition of Affordability Covenants: This $1.16 million is set aside to pay property owners who agree to allocate a portion of apartment complexes to low-income people. The city would pay for any repairs that need to be done, such as replacing roofs, resurfacing a parking lot or even installing solar paneling, and in return, the property owner would designate a portion of the housing on site as low-income housing for a set period of time.

Editor's note: Rohnert Park Patch has been closely following the city's redevelopment projects. Read about , and read the we published last week after the City Council approved these projects.