Council Agrees to Save Redevelopment Agency

The City Council voted on Tuesday to save the city's Redevelopment Agency, but it comes with a price.

Shrugging off Gov. Jerry Brown's desire to eliminate all redevelopment agencies throughout the state, the council adopted an urgency ordinance to protect the city's redevelopment dollars and current projects in the works under the agency.

Without that move, said Mark Sullivan, the city's housing and redevelopment manager, economic growth in San Bruno would be greatly compromised.

"During this prolonged nationwide recession, where investment and lending activity can be deterred by even the slightest negative variable, it is critical that local government provide a stable and predictable environment in which to operate," Sullivan told the council at Tuesday's meeting. "Without a Redevelopment Agency, the local environment is neither stable nor predictable."

Continuing to operate the Redevelopment Agency will mean that the city has to pay the state $3.2 million this fiscal year and an annual payment of up to $800,000 for the following years as part of the state's efforts to raise $400 million annually.

The state created that deal as part of AB1X 27, which essentially allows the agency to resume redevelopment operations without having to worry about being dissolved.

That money will likely come out of redevelopment funds that would otherwise have gone to projects that develop more low-income housing.

Mayor Jim Ruane and Councilman Ken Ibarra said the council had no choice in approving the urgency ordinance, but Ruane said the decision didn't sit well with him and called the payments to the state "extortion."

"It's a form of extortion," he said. "Hopefully, we'll see a light at the end of the tunnel. And when we see the big light, hopefully it's not a train coming the other way."