SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — On Tuesday, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee and Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced a resolution at the Board of Supervisors to ensure that major redevelopment projects, such as Mission Bay, the Hunters Point Shipyard, and Transbay as well as affordable housing projects under the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency can continue after the State required their elimination. The resolution is also co-sponsored by Supervisors Jane Kim and Christina Olague.
By State law, all redevelopment agencies in California will be eliminated by February 1, 2012.
“San Francisco will not let the elimination of redevelopment agencies impede our progress in moving the City forward. We will keep creating jobs, boosting economic development and building critical infrastructure in our City. Our continued progress on developing affordable housing, revitalizing blighted neighborhoods and generating the resources for urban infill development must continue,” said Mayor Lee. “We will make good on our promises from Hunters Point to Mission Bay to Central Market to the many communities who have worked hard for so many years on these projects, and we will show an unwavering commitment to our investors as we deliver on these projects.”
Mayor Lee highlighted in his Inauguration Address on Sunday the importance of redevelopment as a tool for innovation and the challenges San Francisco faces in the elimination of the redevelopment agency. In recent years, the City has leveraged the powers of redevelopment to build more than 11,000 units of affordable housing, create a growing biotech hub, a new UCSF Hospital and a new salesforce.com campus at Mission Bay. Using the tools of redevelopment, the City has built world class convention facilities and museums around Yerba Buena Garden, and is on the verge of 10,000 new housing units and hundreds of acres of new parks and commercial space at the renewed Hunters Point Shipyard.
The City must transfer assets, obligations and functions into a successor agency of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. The resolution introduced by the Mayor and Supervisor Cohen ensures that major projects and affordable housing can move forward.
The resolution will ensure that the obligations tied to the Mission Bay, Hunters Point Shipyard, and parts of Transbay will be transferred to the City. The Mayor’s Office will explore the creation of a successor entity to implement and carry through the functions necessary to meet these obligations. The City will move forward the existing affordable housing goals and commitments by transferring functions to the Mayor’s Office of Housing, working with the state on legislative responses, and working locally to develop new tools to finance affordable housing. And, the City will continue workforce and local hire programs that directly benefit low-income and at-risk populations by seeking alternative sources of funding including the General Fund. The City will adopt and continue neighborhood revitalization efforts including small business support, corridor façade improvement and public realm improvements.
State law requires the creation of a new Oversight Board to oversee fiscal management of former Agency assets other than affordable housing assets. The Oversight Board will approve certain changes to obligations and new agreements and implement enforceable agreements, including review and approval for issuing bonds. The resolution designates that the Oversight Board to exercise authority in land use, development and design approvals under the enforceable obligations for Mission Bay, Hunters Point Shipyard and parts of Transbay.
The Oversight Board will include seven members, four appointed by the Mayor, one appointed by the Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District, one appointed by the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges and one appointed by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Today, Mayor Lee nominated San Francisco Planning Director John Rahaim, Mayor’s Office of Housing Director Olson Lee, Controller’s Office of Public Finance Nadia Sesay and IFPTE Local 21, AFL-CIO Executive Director Bob Muscat.
