Council Moves Ahead with Housing Authority; Redevelopment Assets Transferred

The City Council adopted a series of resolutions at a special meeting Friday morning, putting into effect a Poway Housing Authority intended to protect redevelopment dollars from a state grab.

Council members—who adopted the resolutions by a 4-0 vote with a staff recommendation—were told that the move was necessary as the threat of Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies becomes larger.

"These are concrete steps that are necessary," said Murray Kane, a special counsel to the city from the firm Kane, Ballmer and Berkman. "The moment the bill is signed, the city will no longer have the power to carry out the redevelopment plans for affordable housing."

The adoption of the resolutions allows the city to transfer assets from the Redevelopment Agency to city control, including: 75 grant deeds, $9.2 million in redevelopment debt service and operating funds, $23 million in housing funds and $7.7 million in notes receivable. Also transferred to the city is the authority to collect property tax increments through the year 2037, a revenue stream of $610 million for capital projects and $346 million for low and moderate housing. 

The City Council will serve as the Poway Housing Authority commissioners, and the city will have one year to seek two additional commissioners who live in the affordable housing projects.

Councilman Dave Grosch said he agreed with the city staff's rush to adopt the resolutions while Mayor Don Higginson said, "It's a no-brainer that we need this local control."

The special City Council meeting was called and the agenda item was pulled from Tuesday's meeting as talks intensified about the Legislature immediately passing a budget that includes Brown's proposal.

"We want to move today to protect the assets," said City Manager Penny Riley. "Things are moving faster than we are comfortable with."

Riley said had the City Council not held the special meeting to implement the , the city's redevelopment projects could have been "out of business by this weekend."

If Brown's plan to eliminate California's roughly 400 redevelopment agencies goes through, an estimated $1.7 billion could be saved, according to the governor's office.

Councilwoman Merrilee Boyack was absent from the meeting because she is out of town.