LOS ALAMITOS : City OKs Agency for Redevelopment

The City Council this week voted to form a redevelopment agency, saying the move was necessary to ensure the city’s future financial well-being.

Council members will serve both on the council and the agency.

An eroding sales tax base and less funding from state and federal governments have forced the city to look into different ways to raise revenue, City Manager Robert C. Dunek said.

Not having a redevelopment agency puts the city at a disadvantage in competing for new businesses, he said, noting that all cities within a 15-mile radius of Los Alamitos have such an agency.

“The scare tactic of redevelopment is the idea that the city is falling apart,” Councilman Ronald Bates said. “ . . . That’s just not the case. The issue is, the reality is competitiveness.”

While redevelopment has been talked about in general terms, no specific areas of the city have been targeted.

The city has hired the consulting firm of GRC Inc. to help with the redevelopment plans. In the next few months, the consultant and city officials will study which areas might be suitable for redevelopment, Dunek said.

Brice Russell of GRC Inc. set a tentative date of June, 1991, for pinpointing potential redevelopment areas.

The redevelopment agency was formed upon the recommendation of an advisory business committee that was established by the City Council last year after it became aware of the declining sales tax base.