Redevelopment Strategies

The biggest challenge facing urban planners, especially in California, is recovering from the elimination of redevelopment in 2012. Redevelopment agencies (RDAs) were originally put in place to revitalize rundown properties and turn them into physical attractions and economic machines. The land that was eventually developed would then later be sold at a fair market value to developers who thought big on what projects to construct that were also consistent with a city’s development goals and standards. Their idea was to “make urban sites available for private redevelopment at prices comparable to those of ‘green field’ sites in rapidly growing suburbs” (Lefcoe, Swenson, 720). The redevelopment that did occur happened within the neighborhoods …show more content…
One aspect of urban redevelopment that gained a little bit of steam was revitalizing under-utilized brownfield sites that are located in blighted, core, and urban areas. Brownfields are areas where once commercial and industrial lands contaminated the land there, whereas today the land is vacant and undeveloped due to that problem. In recent years, “brownfield redevelopment has emerged as a sustainable land use strategy and one of several ways to address urban sprawl and promote economic development through new job creation” (BenDor, Metcalf, Paich, 915). But unless more new innovative strategies are identifying creative ways to develop and attract new funding sources, redevelopment’s demise could result in the displacement, instability, and even homelessness for thousands of California residents. The loss of redevelopment agencies has increased the burden on cities in attracting any investment without the access to redevelopment funds. Redevelopment supporters argued that the use of those funds was the best way to encourage business development and improve infrastructure in areas that needed it the most. Also, losing dedicated funds for affordable housing will make it harder for many cities to meet specific obligations under the Regional Housing Needs Assessments (RHNA), which is set up by the state-mandated Housing Element that each city has to complete. “RHNAs spell out the number of housing units each city must build at each income level in order to take on its fair share of regional growth” (Leffall, Bruce, and Rein, 58). How redevelopment went from unfairly displacing residents to a last resort to repair (at the time) California budget deficit is astounding, given the fact it was used to fund future transit and development opportunities. All