On April 9, the California Senate Governance and Finance Committee will have a hearing on  California Senate Bill 1129. We’ve mentioned this bill before, but its passage could be hugely beneficial to Castro Valley, and to the town square proposal.

The 2012 dissolution of the California redevelopment agencies has been messy, and unfortunately in Castro Valley the Daughtrey Building can practically serve as a case study on the problems with the dissolution. Senate Bill 1129 aims to mitigate many of the problems caused by the dissolution process. Section (4) is the key part that is relevant to a public use of a redevelopment property:

(4) Existing law requires a city, county, or city and county that wishes to retain any properties or other assets for future redevelopment activities, funded from its own funds and under its own auspices, to reach a compensation agreement with the other taxing entities to provide payments to them in proportion to their shares of the base property tax for the value of the property retained, as specified.

This bill would specify that these provisions do not apply to the disposition of properties pursuant to a long-range property management plan.

In short: you don’t have to pay twice if you are holding on to a redevelopment property for public use. Transferring the property from one public agency to another could be done for a nominal fee. In practice, this could make it significantly easier for Alameda County to hold on to the Daughtrey Building for a public use . . . such as a town square.

So what can you do? Today, Wednesday, April 2, you can email Brian Weinberger (Brian.Weinberger@sen.ca.gov), the analyst who is putting together the packet for the senators on the committee. Emails to him supporting SB 1129 will show that there is public interest in the bill, and public benefit from the bill. Next, before the hearing on April 9, contact State Senator Ellen Corbett, whose district includes Castro Valley, and is one of the co-authors of this bill. Send her a letter (or an email!), telling her why you support it, and why you think it can help Castro Valley. Then send letters to the members of the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. This bill is heavy on policy, and a quick read of it doesn’t give you a broad sense of how it can help the people and communities of California. Writing to the legislators about why you support it and how it can help Castro Valley will help them put a face on it, which is crucial for its passage.

(If you want more background and policy analysis, see this post from the League of California Cities on Senate Bill 1129 and other assembly bills aimed at cleaning up the mess left behind by redevelopment dissolution.)