SAN DIEGO-In the wake of the state’s dissolution of redevelopment agencies, on which GlobeSt.com has previously reported, organizations like Civic San Diego could be viable solutions to the city’s redevelopment concerns, said panelists at a recent Urban Land Institute San Diego/Tijuana District Council breakfast forum here. The newly formed organization was heralded as an example of how new ways to tackle redevelopment are being created.
Civic San Diego, the city’s redevelopment agency, was formed earlier this year to replace local organizations, including Center City Development Corp., which was dissolved after the California Supreme Court ended traditional redevelopment throughout the state. Civic San Diego has quickly earned the moniker of a model agency for urban revitalization and economic development.
According to forum panelist Brad Segal, president of Progressive Urban Management Association, other cities with good models include Denver, Cincinnati, Memphis, Oklahoma City and Seattle. Key to these cities’ revitalization successes is the use of public/private partnerships. Segal said at the breakfast that California has been slower than other states to utilize such partnerships that focus on the private sector leading the way.
Forum moderator Ian Gill of Highland Partnerships said that the private sector brings new and different financial benefits to redevelopment efforts. Finding alternative funding sources is vital to the future, he believes, as is creating new solutions to redevelopment challenges, perhaps on a more regionalized basis than in the past.
David Graham, deputy director of policy with the City of San Diego, added, “We can’t expect the state to find solutions for us.” Graham expressed optimism that by finding more public/private partnerships and tapping into the expertise of Civic San Diego, “we can work on how to get projects done.” He also called upon ULI and other organizations to help create these new solutions.
In addressing the ever-growing need for affordable-housing redevelopment, panelist Jeff Graham, VP of Civic San Diego, said that thinking must be regionalized. “Homeless housing is the victim. Tax-increment financing was the source of this housing, and without it, it is nearly impossible to build these units. We will continue to lose companies to other states if we don’t provide it … but it doesn’t need to all be [from] public financing.” He suggested one way to meet the demand is to decrease the cost of building.
David Graham noted that there are new bills circulating in Sacramento designed to help the affordable-housing situation and that the use of infrastructure bonds to curtail the shortage is being discussed but is still in its infancy.
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
