3A Public Hearing 2010 0920 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

The West San Leandro - MacArthur Boulevard Project Area Introduction This project area was formed in 1999 and includes the City's industrial area west of Interstate -880 and MacArthur Boulevard. West San Leandro is the city's employment center, and its economic health affects the rest of the city and the region. MacArthur Boulevard is a neighborhood business district that was struggling with high vacancies, traffic, and minimal owner investment. As stated in the original Redevelopment Plan for the West San Leandro - MacArthur Boulevard Project Area, the goal of the Project is to: Eliminate or reduce blight and blighted conditions presently existing in the Project Area. Blight and blighted conditions include the following: • Aging and dilapidated buildings • Underutilized land • Inadequate building /property maintenance • Parcels of irregular form and shape • Parcels of inadequate size • Fragmented parcel ownership • Incompatible uses • Lack of adequate public improvements and facilities • Circulation and access problems In the context of California redevelopment, "blight" is a legally defined concept, referring to physical, economic, and social conditions that impair private investment in the West San Leandro - MacArthur Boulevard (WSL) Project Area causing it to be a burden to the larger community of San Leandro. The history of the redevelopment designation goes back to formation of a survey area in 1995. A community process guided the project area formation, eventually approved in 1999. The plan was subsequently amended in 2000 to allow the Agency to formally decline tax increment from 17 significant parcels, including the parcel now owned by Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. All other provisions of the plan apply to those 17 parcels. The project area is now scheduled to terminate in 2030. Program Funding Funding for the Redevelopment Agency's Economic Development and Public Improvement Projects in the WSL Project Area, like the other two project areas and the Affordable Housing Program, mainly comes from tax increment. "Tax increment" consists of the taxes collected on the increase in assessed value (over and above the base year assessed value) of properties in the redevelopment area. Table 7 on the next page provides the projected tax increment for the WSL Project Area for 2010 -2014. It also shows what portion of these funds will go to the Affordable Housing Program and what portion has already been committed to outstanding debt obligations. The debt service payments shown below are for 2004 Tax Allocation Bonds (TABS) that yielded proceeds of $5.5 million. The TAB proceeds funded MacArthur Boulevard and Doolittle Drive streetscape improvements and have been fully expended. These projects were successful in attracting private investment to their respective areas.