The neighboring Orange County cities of Stanton and Westminster are set to become the first in the state to take an old tactic to a new extreme--raising revenues by declaring virtually their entire towns "blighted" redevelopment zones.
Instead of using redevelopment to restore dying city centers, officials in Stanton and Westminster voted Wednesday night to designate their cities redevelopment areas in an effort to keep hundreds of millions in extra tax dollars over the next 30 years. Stanton and Westminster officials say they'll use most of the new revenue to rebuild roads, sewers and housing.
Westminster spokesman Mark Brewer said it was the only way his city could pay for necessary improvements to its aging infrastructure without raising taxes.
"The word we got [from residents] was, 'We don't want to pay anything more,' and this was the only way we could get more money," Brewer said.
State redevelopment experts said the two cities are the only places in the state where such huge swaths of land have been declared blighted since the law was changed in 1993 to tighten loopholes and prevent cities from putting previously undeveloped land into project areas.
Peter Detwiler, staff director of the state Senate Local Government Committee and a redevelopment expert, called the cities' concept laudable, but wondered whether the emphasis on improving housing stock was economically sound.
"They key is: Can they pencil it out?" Detwiler said. "People usually think housing is a fiscal loser that consumes more in services than it generates in municipal revenue."
The object of most redevelopment efforts across the nation has been to entice industry and large retailers into town, adding sales and property tax revenue to city treasuries and creating jobs.
But cities also receive a greater share of property taxes from redevelopment zones.
For example, in 1995-96, 11 cents of each regular property tax dollar was returned to Orange County cities. But they got back about 65 cents of each dollar from tax increases in redevelopment zones, said Michael Dardia, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute in San Francisco.
Local officials insist it's a coincidence that the Orange County cities are trying this tactic at the same time.
"Westminster and Stanton each began independently and unbeknownst to the other," said Don Anderson, Westminster's community development director. "It's permitted. We're comfortable with it. It's not something that we see as unusual or out of the ordinary."
