Hundreds turn out for Like Oak redevelopment meeting

Was there any organization behind the turnout?

Not really. The plan was the culmination of six months of community workshops, attended by about 500 people. All of those people were contacted about last night's meeting. Community organizations in Live Oak, such as the schools, family resource center, neighborhood associations, and Boys and Girls Club also turned out.

Nice for the article to disparage the plan, by the way. Sidewalks and bike paths might seem "lackluster" to the urban sophisticates at the Sentinel, but the people at the meeting were excited about them. Nor does the tax money represent a "windfall." The money is being spent in accordance with state law, which allows a certain amount of local property tax money to be returned to the community for redevelopment. Why the editorializing?

For those of us who can't attend these meetings, are there minutes posted anywhere? I would very much like to know what's happening as I have been here and plan to be here jeez, forever...!:)

And yeah, sidewalks and bike paths are a huge deal over here! Thank you...

A teen center in Live Oak is long overdue. But not one like downtown. What about a place where teens can go and learn life skills? Home repair, auto repair, cooking, managing personal finances,apprenticeships in the trades, community service? We ( Myself and a few other concerned parents) have been working on this idea for a few months now. Live Oak is the perfect location for this.

disabuser wrote:

Was there any organization behind the turnout?

COPA was prominent!

Our RDA does not follow the 20% of their funds stipulated by law for low income housing...our RDA has decided to use 25%!

Linden wrote:

Not really. The plan was the culmination of six months of community workshops, attended by about 500 people. All of those people were contacted about last night's meeting. Community organizations in Live Oak, such as the schools, family resource center, neighborhood associations, and Boys and Girls Club also turned out.
Nice for the article to disparage the plan, by the way. Sidewalks and bike paths might seem "lackluster" to the urban sophisticates at the Sentinel, but the people at the meeting were excited about them. Nor does the tax money represent a "windfall." The money is being spent in accordance with state law, which allows a certain amount of local property tax money to be returned to the community for redevelopment. Why the editorializing?

Charges of packing the meetings with COPA have been leveled by Katherine Sweet.

The best speaker, Doug Kaplan, challenged the ability of the RDA to borrow money without voter consent.

Read him in the SF Chronicle at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi...

More than 10 cents of every $1 in property tax collected in California last year - more than $4 billion - was intercepted and spent before reaching the school districts, fire departments, municipal general funds and other local agencies that the money should have supported. The taxes were diverted, as they have been diverted every year for the past 50 years, to an opaque network of private real estate interests and public development agencies.

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby calls this network of developers, national retailers and development agencies "California's unknown government." The network itself has chosen to go by the somewhat misleading name of "redevelopment." (Misleading because redevelopment long ago morphed from a program begun in the late 1940s to redevelop blighted inner-city slums into the current boondoggle used by some 360 California communities to develop brand-new Costcos, Home Depots, Walmarts, shopping malls, movie theaters, hotels and other tax-generating projects, many located on prime, sometimes pristine, commercial sites.)

California's fiscal crisis has provided the governor and the Legislature with a strong incentive to lift the cover off "redevelopment" and to reconsider its activities in relation to other public priorities. Lawmakers having to choose between paying classroom teachers and subsidizing yet another shopping mall or luxury hotel? Well, let's just say that was a no-brainer.

"Return the money you've taken from the schools," the governor and Legislature told the redevelopment network earlier this year. "No way!" replied the network. "We'll sue!" And that is exactly what it is preparing to do.

Acting through the California Redevelopment Association, the redevelopment network's powerful Sacramento lobby, the redevelopment community is preparing to file a $2 billion lawsuit that in effect will argue, "If we want to divert property tax dollars from schools and police departments to finance our hotels and shopping centers, then the people's representatives can't stop us."

The RDA says: "The fire station's location in the center of Soquel Village has regularly led to increases in response times due to traffic congestion.

The Fire District is currently seeking to identify a new location in Soquel to improve response time and remove its location within the flood plain to better serve the community."

PERFECT! THE TRAFFIC IS THE PROBLEM SO WE'LL MOVE THE STATION.

I'VE NEWS FOR YA...UNTIL THE TRAFFIC IS FIXED, THERE WILL STILL BE RESPONSE TIME DELAYS.

IF HWY 1 AND SOQUEL DRIVE ARE GRIDLOCKED, THAT AMBULANCE COMING FOR you MAY NOT ARRIVE SOON ENOUGH.

WIDEN HWY 1 AND BUILD THE 41ST AVE EXTENSION TO ACTUALLY HELP SOQUEL VILLAGE TRAFFIC, ANYTHING LESS IS SELF-DELUSIONAL FLUFF.

Several commenters at the RDA meeting wanted the rail-trail.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/opinion/ci_1...

Myth 3: The rail line can become a multi-purpose transportation corridor

The operation of freight trains, or passenger trains, or the implementation of pedestrian and bicycle facilities along the length of the existing rail line are...

mutually exclusive options.

Where freight and transit operations must share the rail, freight operations are typically relegated to the late evening and early morning hours. It is unlikely that local decision makers would impose the noise impacts of late-hour freight operations on the residents along the rail line.

The rail line right-of-way is not wide enough along its entire length to accommodate rail service and a shared pedestrian-bike trail. The 30-foot wide segment in the critical central section between 30th Avenue to 47th Avenue is not wide enough for rail service and a shared pathway. The most likely use of the rail line right-of-way would be exclusively for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Ron Marquez is the past executive director of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.

I am glad to see Supervisor Leopold pushing for using RDA housing funds in the community where the funds originated.

Please, no more trying to export RDA housing projects to communities that do not have adequate infrastructure to support them, such as the aborted Zayante Oaks proposal in Felton. By the way, that debacle cost Live Oak and Soquel residents at least 1.2 million dollars in a settlement with South County Housing Inc.

Great meeting last night. Huge turnout, excellent participation, and nearly universal consensus that the 5-year-plan is a good start for spending the available RDA money. Out of perhaps 70 speakers, only two spoke against the plan (Don Heichel and Doug Kaplan). I appreciate those with opinions outside the mainstream, but it's also important to recognize how rare it is to achieve near universal consensus, which is clearly a sign that all the outreach and community meetings that led to the proposed (and now passed) 5-year plan was well received. Thank you County Supervisors and RDA members for your excellent and thorough work. Thank you also for including so many people in this process.

LiveOakRocks wrote:

For those of us who can't attend these meetings, are there minutes posted anywhere? I would very much like to know what's happening as I have been here and plan to be here jeez, forever...!:)
And yeah, sidewalks and bike paths are a huge deal over here! Thank you...

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend either. I don't see any meeting minutes posted there, but the RDA does have an otherwise nice web site. RDA folks, meeting minutes would be a nice addition.

Santa Cruz County Redevelopment Agency - Five Year Plan
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/red/bui...

Here's the current proposed Five Year Plan for 2010-2014
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/red/bui...

Here's a link to the prior Five Year Plan (2005-2009)
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/red/ima...

RDA Home Page
http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/red/ind...

LiveOakRocks wrote:

For those of us who can't attend these meetings, are there minutes posted anywhere? I would very much like to know what's happening as I have been here and plan to be here jeez, forever...!:)
And yeah, sidewalks and bike paths are a huge deal over here! Thank you...

The meeting will be shown on Community Television tonight from 6-9. For Comcast customers, that is either channel 25 or 26. I also imagine that minutes are or will be available at the SC Board of Supervisors web site.

It's like Grandma sends you a check for $5000 and instead of thinking about paying down the credit card, fixing the heater, buying groceries, repairing the roof, you going to give it to the neighborhood bullies and buy candy with what's left over.

COPA = neighborhood bullies.

The original concept of tax increment financing for blighted areas has been rendered obsolete. It is no longer self-financed through value added by the activities of the redevelopment agency. Instead it allows the agencies to capture of taxes that come the general appreciation of real estate values and the reappraisal of under market value appraisals due to Prop 13. While it has the appearance of funny money, that is no one see the connection between their taxes and redevelopment, it removes a portion of property taxes from the kind of opportunity cost analysis that is necessary for our tax dollars to be spent on what returns the highest value for citizens.

Read "Subsidizing Redevelopment in California" at http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp...

Kaplan is a man of principle and logic. Listen to his well crafted message, which has great merit. RDA money is not free money, which appears to be the mindset of most of these folks, Leopold especially. Our community is way over-budget in a great part due to the funds robbed from the general fund into the private government entity known as RDA.

Heichel is a nut however.

Perhaps this part of Doug Kaplan's article:

California's fiscal crisis has provided the governor and the Legislature with a strong incentive to lift the cover off "redevelopment" and to reconsider its activities in relation to other public priorities. Lawmakers having to choose between paying classroom teachers and subsidizing yet another shopping mall or luxury hotel? Well, let's just say that was a no-brainer.

"Return the money you've taken from the schools," the governor and Legislature told the redevelopment network earlier this year. "No way!" replied the network. "We'll sue!" And that is exactly what it is preparing to do.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi...

...is the real reason for this dog and pony show. Leopold doesn't want to spend RDA money the way it was intended by voters.

The COPA connection is a concern. It is interesting to note that John Leopold's campaign platform equals COPA's Shared Prosperity Agenda. This RDA Live Oak 5 year plan is really COPA's plan to raid the vault.

Why does the title above say: "Suspect in Santa Cruz County holdups arrested; investigators...". It should read "Hundreds turn out for Like Oak redevelopment meeting". Odd.

To Fred: Yes, watch out for Leopold. The last paragraph in the article reads:

"Leopold hopes a portion of the redevelopment funds can be used for economic stimulus, though the new plan is vague about how exactly that might be done."

Voters don't really understand the unintended consequences of the RDA robbing the general fund, but it really smacks of arrogance when Leopold believes he can take RDA money and use it for 'economic stimulus'. That and "green" are the new buzz words. And he is vague about how this would work. What a crock. Keep an eye on Leopold, we don't need a male version of Wormhoudt.

I wish I'd gone to this meeting, and pushed the cross-town bike path we so desperately need.