San Ramon Council Decides to Oversee Redevelopment Agency Dissolvement

At its meeting Tuesday night, the San Ramon City Council decided the city will be in charge of the dissolvement of its redevlopment agency.

The action by the council was in response to the Dec. 29 California Surpeme Court decision that deemed it legal for the state to seize redevelopment funds. The council was faced with the choice of either handling the dissolvement of the agency itself or letting an outside successor take control.

There are two affordable house sites and one park property (the park property is where Mudd's Restaurant used to operate) that the city will dissolve. How the process will actually work, and how much influence the city will have over the process, isn't completely clear yet because of the complexity and at times contradictory instructions the state has given, city manager Greg Rodgers said.

The council chose to do the dissolvement itself so the city could, in theory, have some control over the process. Council member Philip O'Loane said that if the city wasn't in charge of the process, the dissolvement could be treated like a bankruptcy and the sale of the sites and properties will be strictly financial, and not factor in other community concerns.

The city also receives some money from the state (at minimum $250,000) for administrative costs to do the dissolvement itself.

In the big picture, what hurt San Ramon most from losing the agency is projects the city might want to conduct in the future. Some of the past projects that came from redevelopment funds include: the community gyms at Iron Horse and Pine Valley Middle schools, road improvements to San Ramon Valley Boulevard and Alcosta, the senior center remodeling project and a training facility for the .