City Plans Final Days of Redevelopment Agency

The Watsonville Redevelopment Agency appears to be dying and, at Tuesday’s city council meeting, leaders took steps to manage the end of an organization that has had an immense impact on the city for nearly four decades.

The city will be the “successor agency” for redevelopment—an economic growth agency—and the housing agency. In a nutshell, a small staff will handle the final business of the organizations but no new revenue will come in. The agencies are slated to end Feb. 1.

Jan Davison, Housing and Economic Development Director, likened it to a person getting a terminal diagnosis from a detached doctor but being asked what kind of role to play in medical care until the patient’s demise.

The tax revenues generated by Redevelopment that had gone to local projects are now directed to state coffers.

“We’ll no longer have the resources to participate in projects,” Davison said.

Watsonville’s Redevelopment Agency launched in 1973. Mayor Eduardo Montesino, in a release earlier this month, released a list highlighting many of the projects:

• Assisted in the development of the downtown Cabrillo College Watsonville Campus;
• Assisted in the development of the ;
• Developed the new downtown 42,000-square-foot Watsonville Public Library (more than double the size of the previous library);
• Assisted in the development of the , which features four courtrooms and critical access to the judicial system for Watsonville and South County residents;
• Developed the Civic Plaza Parking Garage and the Beach Street Parking Garage;
• Assisted in the development of the ;
• Numerous Street Improvements and Parks;
• Downtown Façade Improvement Program;
• Sunny Meadows Housing Rehabilitation Project;
• Hundreds of units of Workforce Housing and First Time Homebuyers Assistance.

Kurt Overmeyer, economic development manager, touched on one of the biggest coups of the Redevelopment Agency. In 1999, Fox Racing Shox had outgrown its space in in south San Jose. Redevelopment loaned them $325,000 to move to Watsonville, a loan that was forgivable if Fox employed 100 Watsonville residents during the tenure of the loan.

That happened within months and now the company has 800 local employees. Recently, it expanded to Scotts Valley because Watsonville is out of industrial space, Overmeyer said.

“Redevelopment has been an invaluable tool to Watsonville and its loss is immense," Davison said.

But "this is not the end," she said. Davison hopes they can find a way to continue to help businesses, provide residents jobs, housing and public amenities, like parks.

Monday, city leaders were in Sacramento meeting with state officials about Redevelopment. Watsonville City Manager Carlos Palacios said he was optimistic the would be some compromise.

"It’s a very fluid situation," Palacios said. "There are a lot of possibilities.”

City Councilor Emilio Martinez added “I really don’t believe that they’re going to shut us down completely."