ELECTIONS / BALLOT MEASURES : Voters Face Tax and Redevelopment Plans : Revenues: Measure A would allow the city to proceed with revitalization plan. If that fails, Measure B would tax parcels to pay for police services.

After nearly two years of controversy over redevelopment, a special election on Tuesday will decide whether the city’s first such project, approved in June, should proceed.

Also on the ballot is a public safety tax which, if adopted, would take effect only if the redevelopment measure should fail. The tax, to pay for police services, would be $75 per parcel for residential land and 25 cents per square foot for commercial and industrial property.

If approved, Measure A would allow officials to move forward with the redevelopment process in four areas of the downtown core. It was placed on the ballot after a group called RAGE, or Referendum Against Governmental Evictions, collected 1,613 signatures opposing the project. A majority vote is required for the project to be approved.

The council, which also acts as the Redevelopment Agency, placed the public safety tax on the ballot as Measure B, arguing that essential services will go unfunded if the city is denied the tax gains expected from sales tax revenues stimulated by redevelopment. The public safety tax requires a two-thirds vote to pass.

However, Bernard Acton, a member of RAGE, said Measure B is a “punishing tax” designed by the city to force the voters to support redevelopment.

The redevelopment project calls for 92.7 acres, or about 4% of the city’s total area, to be redeveloped over 45 years. The project is made up of four separate areas strung north-to-south through the center of the city along Glendora Avenue and Hacienda Boulevard.

Opponents criticize the redevelopment project because the agency does not have a land-use plan. Community Development Director Rick Hartmann said a plan would limit the options for developers. Hartmann said the project would be “a very cooperative program where everyone gets involved.”

“They want a blank check,” said RAGE spokesman Richard Hanson, 59, whose wife, Shirley, owns a sportswear store in one of the redevelopment areas.

RAGE charges that most of the area under consideration is not blighted, which is a condition for forming a redevelopment project. The group also says redevelopment of the area is unnecessary and would cause property values to go down while increasing property taxes. RAGE is also concerned that eminent domain will be used to remove existing homes and businesses.

Hartmann said the city has not excluded the use of eminent domain, but said it would be used only as a last resort.

City officials believe redevelopment will bring $53.5 million in sales tax revenue. Hanson challenges that and says that with 9,000 households in the city, “Every household would have to increase spending by $6,000 a year” for the city to realize that goal.