SANTA ANA : School Board OKs Redevelopment Pact

The Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Trustees has approved a redevelopment agreement with the city that could eventually bring in nearly $190 million for new schools and other projects.

Without comment, the board unanimously adopted the plan last week, despite pleas from two opponents to reject it.

Under the agreement, the district will receive as much as $189 million generated from the city’s South Harbor redevelopment project. However, school and city officials said the district will start getting its share of the revenue only after the city has received $109 million from the project, which will take between seven and 10 years. The city is expected to receive a total of about $2.6 billion by the time the project ends in 2032.

In a redevelopment project, a city defines a specific area to be improved and freezes the amount of property taxes paid to the state. As the redevelopment area is improved, its value increases, which brings increased tax money to the city that previously would have gone to the state. The city then uses the money to continue improving the area, although it must share the added revenue with other taxing agencies in the area, such as school districts.

By law, all taxing agencies are permitted a share of the revenue generated by redevelopment projects, which exist within their boundaries. When the South Harbor plan was formed in 1982, the Santa Ana school board gave up its potential income from the redevelopment project when it declined to negotiate the district’s share, said Gaylen Freeman, assistant superintendent of business services.

However, because the city revised its redevelopment plan last year to increase the amount of money it can raise from the project, other taxing agencies, such as the school district, were entitled to negotiate for a percentage of the new revenue, said Bob Hoffman, city redevelopment and real estate manager.

However, John Raya, a member of the city redevelopment committee, objected to the agreement, arguing that the district will receive too little too late. Under the agreement, the district will not start to receive its share until 2000 or 2003.

“An entire generation would go through the district without the benefit of that money,” he said. “We need the money now. I cannot in good conscience look at it and say we’re doing good by our children.”

However, Freeman said that the district could borrow money immediately against future revenue and build schools and other buildings within a few years, if necessary.