State Asks For $10.2 Million to Spare Alameda County Redevelopment Agency

One week after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state budget eliminating redevelopment agencies across California, Alameda County is weighing an expensive plan to save the unincorporated community's economic engine.

Redevelopment agencies across the state met their official demise June 29. They have the next few months to set their affairs in order, though they're forbidden from much of their normal activity through the so-called "dissolution" phase.

On Oct 1, they'll disappear—unless they're prepared to pay.

The opt-in payments are something of a Faustian bargain for redevelopment, which escaped Sacramento's sticky fingers in November when voters passed Proposition 22, an initiative that barred the state from seizing redevelopment dollars, only to land on the chopping block in January. 

That's when Brown announced a budget plan to end redevelopment, reclaiming $1.7 billion for schools and local government from agencies across the state. 

But the budget bill that passed last week contained an escape clause. For the Alameda County Redevelopment Agency, survival would require a onetime payment of $10.2 million, due in January, and more than $2 million annually in perpetuity. 

"Our budget is $18 million, but really when you look at our budget, what we spend on a project is about $10 million," said Redevelopment Director Eileen Dalton. "Right now, the Redevelopment Agency is analyzing the bills, the dissolution and the opt-in process."

Until it opts in, the agency will be limited in what it can do. Projects like the Ashland Youth Center and the San Lorenzo Library will move forward, but the San Lorenzo Theater, the Hesperian Streetscape and other projects across the Eden Area are stalled indefinitely. 

Whether the county can afford to hand over millions of dollars a year to the state remains to be seen. 

Alameda County Supervisors Wilma Chan and Nate Miley will meet Friday to hash out the agency's options. 

"I want to reassure you that I will do everything in my power, along with Nate, to make sure there’s money for this community," Chan told residents at Wednesday's San Lorenzo Citizens Advisory Committee meeting. "It’s going to be hard, but I don’t want you to panic, because we’re on it."