City Beat

SNI areas expect to receive RDA funds

New legislation shouldn't affect pending projects

By Moryt Milo

Recent legislation signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis holding cities and redevelopment agencies to tougher definitions of blight, concerned neighbors at the Oct. 29 meeting of the Gardner Neighborhood Advisory Committee. But city officials tried to reassure them of San Jose's commitment to funding improvements in their neighborhood.

Legislation, effective Jan. 1, 2002, will put the brakes on funding any redevelopment program that doesn't satisfy the state's 1993 definition of blight.

The 1993 state law allowed redevelopment agencies to use redevelopment money, generated through the difference between property taxes raised before and after an area is improved, to upgrade blighted communities. The law defined blight using both physical and economic criteria. The new definition defines blight more stringently.

The older law also allowed the agencies only 10 years to generate redevelopment funds. The law will expire in 2004, although San Jose and Santa Clara county officials are hoping to extend the law's time limit, mayoral spokesman David Vossbrink said.

The Gardner community is part of San Jose's Strong Neighborhood Initiative program, which was implemented by the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. The program is working to upgrade 20 neighborhoods through the use of $100 million in redevelopment funds during the next five years.

Neighbors living in the greater Gardner neighborhoods have been working since fall 2000 to finalize a master plan, which would repair broken streets and sidewalks, install new street lighting, find solutions to traffic and trash problems and improve neighborhood beautification.

At the Oct. 29 meeting, the neighborhood advisory committee prioritized its top 10 goals and asked San Jose Planning Department Principal Planner Pat Colombe if, as a result of newly signed legislation, redevelopment funds slated for June would be affected by the new law.

Colombe said that the projects already committed under the Strong Neighborhood Initiative programs would not be affected.

Acting Director of Neighborhood and Industrial Redevelopment Richard Keit told The Willow Glen Resident that the $100 million for SNI projects is already in the budget and that money has been put aside to fund neighborhood grants.

"For those with SNI programs in place, we are going to do everything we can to accomplish the top 10 items on each community's list," Keit said. "The SNI is a comprehensive project trying to use existing city resources, future city resources and redevelopment money. The $100 million infusion is big but not the sole source of funds."

The redevelopment agency also plans to seek out private funding to match various grant requirements over the next few years, Keit said.

The new law--sponsored by state Rep. Tom Torlakson of Walnut Creek--will allow local officials to "extend the life of older redevelopment projects for 10 years," said Peter Detwiler, a staff consultant to the state Senate Local Government Committee, who assisted in the drafting the legislation.

Detwiler said the law was passed to stop projects trying to use redevelopment funds in areas that do not fit into the definition of blight and to stop abusive behavior by developers.

Now, in order to satisfy the law, any redevelopment agency seeking project funds must satisfy stricter conditions of both physical and economic blight such as crumbling buildings, broken roads and unemployment.

For the neighbors living in the SNI communities, the definition may be too stringent. But the city has promised to complete the projects now grandfathered into the system.

When neighbor Harvey Darnell questioned the planners at the Gardner meeting, Terry Bottomley of Bottomley Design and Planning, a consultant working with the Gardner Community to bring the neighborhood plan before the San Jose City Planning Council for approval, said, "I think this is a city commitment. One way to think about it is the number of voters in the SNI neighborhoods. They equal one-third of the voters."

The Gardner Advisory Committee meets in November for the last time as an advisory committee. The group will transition into a coalition, focusing on the implementation of its master plan, when funds become available in June.

As for reassurances that the city will continue to fund and support the SNI programs, Mayor Ron Gonzales, at his Nov. 1 re-election campaign kick-off at the Willows Senior Center, 2175 Lincoln Ave., reaffirmed his commitment to slow down traffic, fix broken sidewalks and roads, make neighborhoods safer and continue his pledge of "$100 million for the next five years to make our neighborhoods stronger."

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