The San Francisco Board of Supervisors today authorized the city’s redevelopment agency to borrow $70 million for development in the Mission Bay neighborhood, passing the legislation quickly before a state proposal to disband redevelopment agencies could go into effect.
The board made the unusual move of calling a special committee meeting today to get the item on the agenda and unanimously approved the issuance of the bond hours later at its regular board meeting.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed eliminating city redevelopment agencies to help reduce California’s budget deficit, an action Mayor Ed Lee has opposed. Lee sponsored the resolution authorizing today’s $70 million in bonds.
Supervisor Carmen Chu said, “the item would’ve come before us anyways, even if the actions in Sacramento weren’t happening,” but that the legislation was hurried along because “there’s a lot of uncertainty around what is going to be happening with redevelopment agencies at the state level.”
Chu said the $70 million bond issued by the redevelopment agency would allow the city to build 150 affordable housing units and repay the developer who has built up the infrastructure in the Mission Bay area.
However, she said “whether or not they issue the bonds in time (before redevelopment agencies are disbanded) is something we still don’t know yet.”
The bonds would be paid for by a $5.4 million tax increment, the expected increase in tax revenue from the area when the redevelopment is finished, Chu said.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
Want more news, sent to your inbox every day? Then how about subscribing to our email newsletter? Here’s why we think you should. Come on, give it a try.
