Pittsburg has taken the first step toward adopting the state's "pay to play" rules for keeping its redevelopment agency alive and preserving the agency's assets.
Under the new rules, city and county agencies must opt in by paying a fee, which would be used to offset state budget deficits, to allow their agencies to continue operating.
Pittsburg's buy-in is $6.5 million for fiscal year 2011-12 and about $1.5 million in subsequent years.
The state Supreme Court has delayed implementation of the law while it considers a challenge filed by the California Redevelopment Association.
The City Council tentatively approved opting into the new revelopment rules this week. It could move ahead quickly to officially pass an ordinance agreeing to the rules if the state wins, said City Manager Joe Sbranti.
If the law is upheld, opting out could result in turning redevelopment assets over to an oversight committee consisting of the county, school districts, fire districts and other agencies that could sell the assets and spend the money themselves, Sbranti said.
Pittsburg's agency, one of the largest per-capita in the state, has about $24 million in assets, in the form of property, leases and loans in various forms, he said.
"Reducing crime and blight aren't necessarily the goals of the school district and the fire district; they're the goals of the city," Sbranti said. "If we were to lose all that property, there would no longer be a focus on the big picture Pittsburg has been working toward."
The city would pay the buy-in fee by scaling back or canceling projects it has already committed to build, Sbranti said.
Turning over the money would seriously limit what Pittsburg's agency could do, he said.
"About half of that will be housing money," Sbranti said. "So our agency would be paying $3.2 million to balance Gov. Brown's budget rather than building affordable housing."
The Pittsburg Planning Commission has dropped consideration of a second phase of the La Almenara housing project from its Tuesday agenda because of uncertainties over redevelopment funding.
The opening of the first phase of the project, a joint venture between the redevelopment agency and San Francisco-based Domus Development, is scheduled in about two weeks, Sbranti said.
Contact Rick Radin at 925-779-7166.
