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What
is the RDA in Desert Hot Springs?
The Redevelopment Agency (RDA) in Desert Hot springs is a separate
governmental entity to administer RDA funds. The board of this agency is
the City Council which regularly sits as the RDA Board – usually just
before a regular Council meeting.
According to California State Law here is the definition of
Redevelopment:
33020. Redevelopment defined
(a) "Redevelopment" means the planning, development,
replanning, redesign,
clearance, reconstruction, or rehabilitation, or any combination of
these, of all or part of a survey area, and the provision of those
residential, commercial, industrial, public, or other structures or spaces
as may be appropriate or necessary in the interest of the general welfare,
including recreational and other facilities incidental or appurtenant to
them and payments to school and community college districts in the fiscal
years specified in Sections 33681, 33681.5, 33681.7,
33681.9, and 33681.12.
33021. Public and private improvements; open space; replanning
Redevelopment includes:
(a) The alteration, improvement, modernization, reconstruction, or
rehabilitation, or
any combination of these, of existing structures in a project area.
(b) Provision for open-space types of use, such as streets and other
public grounds
and space around buildings, and public or private buildings, structures
and improvements, and improvements of public or private recreation areas
and other public grounds.
(c) The replanning or redesign or original development of undeveloped
areas as to
which either of the following conditions exist.
(1) The areas are stagnant or improperly utilized because of defective
or
inadequate street layout, faulty lot layout in relation to size, shape,
accessibility, or usefulness, or for other causes.
The entire State Law regarding Redevelopment may be
read by clicking here
There are two Redevelopment areas in Desert Hot Springs. The Maps below
show the current areas included within the DHS Redevelopment project
areas. It is easy to see that virtually the entire older part of the City
is within a Redevelopment area. (This is virtually all of the buildings
and land north of Two Bunch Palms; south of Mission Lakes Blvd and between
West Drive and Mt. View.) This means simply that the City some time ago
– probably in the 1980s – determined that there was significant
"blight" within these areas so that the City could then use RDA
funds to improve all or merely portions of the area.
At this time the City has not filed a "Project Master Plan"
which would require CEQA (an Environmental Impact Report). However, the
RDA rules allow the expenditure of monies within the Redevelopment area as
long as the money being spent will reduce "blight" and not
"significantly" change the uses allowed within the area. My
understanding - and I am not a lawyer – is that on a house by house or
building by building basis RDA funds can be used for rehabilitation.
However, any plan to "significantly" change, remodel,
rehabilitate, a large area, e.g. one full block, would require the filing
of a Project Master Plan and CEQA review. To date this has not been done
in DHS.
Many citizens are running around and saying that the City is going to
take the entire downtown area via eminent domain, level the buildings and
start over again. At this point in time there is no justification for
these comments. There is the possibility for the City to use RDA funds to
purchase property within the RDA area – hold on to it and develop it in
conjunction with a private party. Any "eminent domain"
proceedings would require City council action including a public hearing.
There is nothing scheduled or even significantly planned for major
redevelopment projects at this time – to the best of my knowledge. Many
ideas are being thrown around – but nothing specific has been proposed.
This is (above) the original project area maps for DHS Redevelopment
Areas 1 and 2. Below I have expanded upon the downtown portion of the RDA
areas.
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