UNION CITY — Union City is asking a judge to validate recent City Council actions taken to keep several key land parcels under city control if the state eliminates its redevelopment program.
The city has filed six complaints in Alameda County Superior Court seeking judicial blessing for actions that included transferring properties, leases and development contracts from the Redevelopment Agency to the city.
Because there are so many uncertainties about the future of redevelopment, the city is hoping that judicial validation could help safeguard assets and prevent the state from undoing the transfers if redevelopment is ended.
Several other cities, including Healdsburg and Pinole, have taken similar measures, Union City City Attorney Benjamin Reyes said.
Union City earlier this year was one of several cities, including Hayward, to transfer redevelopment agency assets to municipal control.
The moves could help preserve city redevelopment efforts to fight blight and build affordable housing. But they also could spur opposition from the state and local agencies that could lose tax revenue.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to end redevelopment calls for redevelopment assets to be sold, with some proceeds going local agencies that collect tax money, including school districts and water districts.
But if the city controls the land and sells it, it could keep all of the proceeds. It also could steer clear of oversight boards, proposed in the governor’s legislation, which would be stacked with representatives from other local taxing agencies and given power to challenge actions taken by redevelopment agencies.
It’s unclear whether other taxing agencies in Union City will challenge the city’s legal filings.
“Our attorney is just gathering the documents to take a look at it,” said Walt Wadlow, the Alameda County Water District general manager. The district was not alerted by the city when the complaints were filed in March, he added.
If no interested party responds to the complaints by the deadlines set in late April, the court presumably would validate the city’s actions, Reyes said.
Union City is maneuvering to protect a carefully planned residential and office development adjacent to its BART station, with several residential towers to be constructed by the development firm, Barry Swenson Builder.
Since the Barry Swenson project properties were purchased with bond money, proceeds from the land sale to the developer would have to be used for redevelopment agency purposes, and could not be disbursed to other taxing entities, like the water district, Reyes wrote.
Even if a superior court judge validates the city’s actions, the decision could be appealed. Hayward has decided not to seek validation in superior court, City Attorney Michael Lawson said. “We believe the actions are valid without needing to have superior court validation.”
Contact Matthew Artz at 510-353-7002. For more Fremont news, go to IBAbuzz.com/tricitybeat.
