City Council to (Again) Consider CRA/LA's Proposal to Move $930 Million Dollars in Redevelopment Funds to the City [Updated]

Round and round we go, but will the City take action, nobody knows.

On Wednesday, February 16, 2011 [Update: Council continued consideration of this item until February 23, 2011], the City Council will consider two items (a Report and Resolution and a Supplemental List of Activities) from the CRA/LA Board relative to a proposed cooperative agreement with the City for payment of approximately $930 million for costs associated with CRA/LA funded projects located within the City's existing redevelopment project areas (Council File 11-0086). The City Council was originally scheduled to hear this item on January 18, 2011, but has, so far, postponed taking any action (it is likely that the delay is related to possible Brown Act violations at the CRA/LA's January 14th Board Meeting).

CRA/LA's summary of the proposed cooperative agreement:

Under the Agreement, CRA/LA will enter into a contract with the City providing that, among other
things, the City will perform certain eligible activities on behalf of the CRA/LA including installation of
publicly-owned capital improvements, public improvements, the creation and preservation of
affordable housing projects and other redevelopment projects located throughout the 31 adopted
Redevelopment Project Areas.

Via this agreement the CRA/LA would "pledge the unencumbered resources in the current FY2010-11 Budget" (about $344 million) and the "Net Tax Increment from FY2011-12 through FY2015-16" (about $540 million) to the City for the completion of the projects identified in the agreement.

Additionally, it should be noted that the CRA/LA Board recommends that a successor entity (non-profit or development corporation) be formed to implement these projects on behalf of the City and that this successor entity be managed by the current CRA/LA CEO "with support from designated members of the management team and staff." 

As has been said here and elsewhere, the point of CRA/LA's action is to lock down these redevelopment funds and shift the administration of various redevelopment projects to the City. The CRA/LA pushed forward this cooperative agreement in response to Governor Brown's proposal to phase out State Redevelopment Agencies and return those redevelopment funds to local school districts, counties, and the State.

Approximately $58 million in capital improvement, public improvement, and affordable housing projects identified by the CRA/LA for inclusion in the proposed cooperative agreement are located in Hollywood or East Hollywood (22 projects in total). Below are descriptions of these projects, and their proposed funding, as provided in the two CRA/LA reports:

• 5555 Hollywood Housing: 120 unit affordable housing development for seniors - $4,680,000
• Business Incentive Programs: On-going program to provide facade improvement grants and matching rehabilitation loans for commercial businesses - $250,000
• Business Attraction/Retention: Commercial storefront improvements - $750,000
• Business Retention/Attraction: Provide financial assistance to business that are relocating, expanding, or "greening" their operations - $1,750,000
• Children's Hospital: Bridge between parking structure and hospital; Installation of traffic signal at dangerous intersection; and, parking lot seismic retrofitting - $2,250,000
• Coronel Housing Project: 54-unit affordable housing development for families - $5,027,000
• Green Retrofit Program: Provide financial assistance to industrial companies that are relocating, expanding, or "greening" their operations or facilities - $50,000
• HCIP Commercial Historic Storefront Grant: Provide financial assistance to business for facades improvement - $457,500
• Hollywood Boulevard Retail Business Attraction and Retention Strategy: Implementation of a strategy to attract additional resources to and physically improve the project area's core commercial corridor - $125,000
• Hollywood/Western Streetscape: Implement public improvements consisting of sidewalk repairs, bike racks, and design features, crosswalks and street trees - $2,000,000
• Housing Projects Pending: Pipeline of housing projects currently being underwritten; Gordon, Selma Cherokee/LAUSD and Western-Carlton are family projects and the Step-Up projects are special needs - $8,800,000
• Metro Bike: Implement design improvements and construction of a bicycle facility to be operated by Bicycle Kitchen - $465,000
• New Fire Station: Site acquisition for development of a new Fire Station at Hollywood Boulevard and Hillhurst Avenue
• Open Space/Sustainable Improvements: Public improvements on Hudson Plaza, De Longpre/La Brea - $1,500,000
• Orchard Gables: Rehabilitation of historic resource and conversion to space for operation of cultural program and a small business office space - $1,910,900
  Pedestrian Crossroads: Implement public improvements consisting of sidewalk repairs, tree wells, tree planting - $1,116,300
• Santa Monica/Western: Implement public improvements consisting of sidewalk repairs, bike racks, and design features, crosswalks and street trees - $500,000
• Selma Hotel: Development of a 136 unit boutique hotel - $500,000
• Villas at Gower: 70 units of special needs housing - $6,750,000
• Vine Street Tower: Development of a 128,000 square feet office building to serve entertainment related companies - $4,625,000
• Walk of Fame: Provide improvements on the Walk of Fame - $500,000
• Wilcox Schrader DOT Lot Mixed-Use Development: Mixed-use development to provide 300 public parking spaces and 60-units of affordable housing - $4,000,000

The full, Citywide, list of projects and activities can be found in Attachment A in the CRA/LA Report (.pdf) and in Attachment A of the Supplemental List of Activities (.pdf). It should be noted that the total cost for the identified projects and activities exceeds the $930 million dollar ceiling for the proposed cooperative agreement. CRA/LA did this because some of their projects "may, for various reasons, not come to fruition" and the CRA/LA wanted to ensure that there would be "sufficient eligible activities to ensure the full allocation of the obligated funds." Read into that what you want.

[Image via LoopNet]