Politics & Government

City Gets More Time to Decide on Redevelopment

The state Supreme Court announced Thursday that it would hear a case against new RDA legislation.

Hercules will now have more time to determine whether it will “pay-to-play” to keep its Redevelopment Agency open or shut down the agency after the California Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to hear a case against new legislation abolishing s statewide.

The League of California Cities, California Redevelopment Association and the cities of San Jose and Union City filed the petition asking the California Supreme Court to overturn legislation that would shut down California's 400 redevelopment agencies by Oct. 1, part of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to balance the state budget.

A companion law lets agencies continue operations by paying their share of $1.7 billion this year and $400 million each year moving forward, which would largely go to school districts and other community agencies. The amount varies from city to city.

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The court's decision to review the lawsuit will allow Hercules and other cities to keep their redevelopment agencies intact without paying a “pay-to-play” fee, at least until the court makes a decision on the constitutionality of the bills, expected in mid-January. Agencies will not be allowed to begin new redevelopment projects in the meantime.

To keep its redevelopment agency, Hercules would have to pay $1.4 million to the state by Oct. 1 through this fiscal year, and an additional $375,000 per year thereafter, interim City Manager Liz Warmerdam said at a Hercules City Council subcommittee meeting in July.

Find out what's happening in Pinole-Herculeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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