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Our Concerns About RDA
Do you wonder why we're against the Redevelopment Project in Meadowbrook? Read the list below for background information to understand our concerns. Alert! On Jan 6, 2012, a decision by the California Supreme Court has saved us from the county's redevelopment plans for Meadowbrook. One of the court's primary concerns is the use of Eminent Domain practiced by counties under Redevelopment Agencies, including Riverside County.
California law requires that 80% of the area to be redeveloped must already be "urbanized." Do you think Meadowbrook meets that criteria?
Did you know Meadowbrook is next to several hundred acres of Wildlife Conservation land?
Did you know Meadowbrook is next to several hundred acres of Wildlife Conservation land?
Doesn't it bother you that the county hasn't offered translations in Spanish during the meetings with our Hispanic neighbors?
Why isn't the county sending notices and surveys about the RDA to property owners who don't live in their Meadowbrook homes?
We Win!!!
On Jan 6, 2012, the California Supreme Court determined that the California Redevelopment Agency concept is unconstitutional under our state Constitution. The court has done for us what we could not do ourselves--freed us from the control, restrictions, and indebtedness of the Riverside County Redevelopment Agency (RDA). The Board of Supervisors ignored our voices in opposition to their plan. The RDA did a sham communty opinion survey about their plan and distorted the statistics in their report to the Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors ignored our weekly appeals at their public meetings. They ignored our petitions against the RDA--which had more signatures than their survey results received. But, all of their RDA plans have been thwarted by the state Supreme Court ruling.
No doubt, the county Board of Supervisors will look for loopholes to get around the court decision, so we must remain vigilant. The supervisors want to develop the land along Hwy 74 that is within Meadowbrook. They are going to seek other ways to achieve their purpose. They cannot do this without getting control over our community. We would be foolish to ignore their goals...no doubt, eventually Hwy 74 will be developed in Meadowbrook. Our objective is that it be handled in a reasonable and fair manner that is in keeping with our community's rural environment and values.
The following list of concerns about our community's well being shows why we opposed the Redevelopment Agency concept:
On Jan 6, 2012, the California Supreme Court determined that the California Redevelopment Agency concept is unconstitutional under our state Constitution. The court has done for us what we could not do ourselves--freed us from the control, restrictions, and indebtedness of the Riverside County Redevelopment Agency (RDA). The Board of Supervisors ignored our voices in opposition to their plan. The RDA did a sham communty opinion survey about their plan and distorted the statistics in their report to the Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors ignored our weekly appeals at their public meetings. They ignored our petitions against the RDA--which had more signatures than their survey results received. But, all of their RDA plans have been thwarted by the state Supreme Court ruling.
No doubt, the county Board of Supervisors will look for loopholes to get around the court decision, so we must remain vigilant. The supervisors want to develop the land along Hwy 74 that is within Meadowbrook. They are going to seek other ways to achieve their purpose. They cannot do this without getting control over our community. We would be foolish to ignore their goals...no doubt, eventually Hwy 74 will be developed in Meadowbrook. Our objective is that it be handled in a reasonable and fair manner that is in keeping with our community's rural environment and values.
The following list of concerns about our community's well being shows why we opposed the Redevelopment Agency concept:
• Developers are buying up Meadowbrook land, primarily southeast of Hwy 74, toward Canyon Lake. This means danger for our rural environment and lifestyle. In 2006 the Press Enterprise published a news article that reveals these land purchases by development speculation corporations in Arizona and Nevada.
• The State of California is going broke and currently seizing the funds of Redevelopment Agencies throughout the state. Riverside County was ordered to turn over $4.5 million of county RDA funds in May 2010. The state is literally stealing that money from the citizens who live in the RDA areas. We citizens will be paying for those lost revenues with our taxes for the next 45 years! RDA funds are not secure from confiscation by a desperate state government during fiscal crisis. Sacramento took RDA monies eight times during the 1990s. If we become part of an RDA, there is no assurance that our money will be used as the county promises. If the state takes our money, it's gone and won't be returned to us--we will have nothing but empty promises from the RDA personnel. But we still must repay the bonds that generated the money in the first place. Bottom line: We lose. We get less redevelopment that was promised to us, AND we still have to pay for what we don't get.
• The whole concept of Redevelopment means changing our community. The county wants to put businesses along Hwy 74 all the way from Perris to Lake Elsinore. To do that, they need infrastructure, like street lights and sewers. (In case you haven't noticed, Wal-Mart doesn't operate using a septic system). The county can't afford lights and sewers right now, so they will use RDA bond sales (to be repaid by OUR community tax dollars) to do it. With the necessary infrastructure (such as sewers), they can lure businesses and other development along Hwy 74. Unfortunately, once sewer lines are in, the next step is to condemn our septic systems (via Codes Enforcement) and force us to tap into the sewer line at our own personal expense. They won't issue permits to replace the condemned system if a sewer line is available. THEN, we must pay the EVMWD for sewage fees, which doubles our water bills every month. (Old timers remember the "discount connection offer" from EVMWD to tap into the Meadowbrook water lines when they were put in. The deal required property owners with water wells to cement over their own wells.)
• The Redevelopment staff shows pictures of improvements to areas they have worked on in the past. If you've seen them, you know the majority of the improvements went to businesses, not individual homes. Despite their many promises to help individual property owners, the RDA objective is to bring in more commercial activity with businesses and apartments so the county can get more tax revenue from sales and property taxes. The county NEEDS RDA bond money to do this, and the county can't do it without our property tax value as collateral for the bonds.
• The redevelopment plan also wants to put in "medium density" housing in several places along Hwy 74 in Meadowbrook. Medium density is 5 to 8 homes per acre! The land for this is already identified--on the east side of Hwy 74, from Greenwald, up to beyond River Road.
(If you own an acre of land, imagine sharing it with seven other homes in the same space!) In some areas, the plan is for apartment buildings. The county gets more money from property taxes on eight houses per acre than from our current limit (in Meadowbrook) of two houses per parcel.
• Once the businesses and higher density housing come in, the county is poised to change our land use designations. Apartment dwellers don't want to hear chickens crowing or smell livestock. That means more changes--with us losing our rural environment because newcomers don't want to share our lifestyle.
• Although, at this time, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors mandates that there will be no use of Eminent Domain, there is no guarantee that they will not change their position in the future. They have used Eminent Domain in other RDAs in the past to seize private property from landowners. If they want YOUR property and you don't like the price they offer, you need to be ready for an onslaught of Codes Enforcement activity which can ultimately force you to sell (or risk losing your property because of liens on your property taxes for fines and interest due). The cost of bringing "substandard" issues up to code can run thousands of dollars. You can be forced to move out of an "uninhabital" home and be faced with removal of children or elderly by Social Services if you don't comply.
• When a Redevelopment Area is established, it has a negative impact on future sales of homes and properties in that area for 45 years. Buyers are very wary about buying a home in an area officially designated by the county as blighted. There is too much left up to "chance" that the project will actually improve the area. Also, buyers are reluctant to commit their future tax dollars for redevelopment projects that they had no voice to create (or oppose).
• Once the Redevelopment Area is established and approved, we citizens lose control over our community’s future and must rely on the "good will" of those in control of the Redevelopment Agency projects and the Codes Enforcement Division. The RDA will decide what projects they want to do (with "input" from us, of course--they say); and they will determine what the future of our community will be, based on their priorities and the Supervisor's decisions for the county's economic future. They control us by their "Land Use" determinations, changing our status from "Rural Mountainous" to "Commercial" in a series of decisions that gradually forces us to give up rural characteristics, such as having livestock and fowl on our acres of property. Most of these decisions are made by administrators sitting in offices far removed from our humble community borders--with little consideration for how those decisions impact us individually and as a community. Result: no pigs, cows, goats, sheep, horses or crowing roosters in Meadowbrook!
• The Redevelopment Agency has "relocation authority" for residents to find temporary housing if our properties are determined as being uninhabitable during the redevelopment, BUT they are not required to relocate us within our community of Meadowbrook. In most cases, uninhabitability is determined by the Codes Enforcement Division. We can be "temporarily" removed from our homes for up to three years!
• By law, redevelopment projects require debt by the community involved. The debt is created by the sale of bonds which we citizens have no vote to approve or deny. The bonds must be paid off from our Meadowbrook taxes--for the next 45 years!!
• The bonds are sold to investors using our property and future tax increases as collateral for the debt to be repaid--by us. The bonds give the RDA money to work on redevelopment, but they also use the money to pay for administration costs, staff needs, and interest on the debt.
• Recently, the Riv Co Board of Supervisors authorized the County Treasurer's Office to purchase the bonds from the county Redevelopment Agency in previous redevelopment projects. So, instead of outside investors buying the redevelopment bonds to put money into the county, our own county is buying them. This means that the county is using our taxpayer monies to buy the redevelopment bonds secured by our own properties--so our tax money will be used to repay the bonds, plus interest! In essence, we're using our own money to borrow money from ourselves so we can pay it back, with interest. This is a terrible way to do business!
• Despite claims by Redevelopment staff, our community loses control over its future because we are only asked for input about our desires--there's no assurance that what we want will be accepted for approval. If you live in Meadowbrook, you should have received a copy of their "survey" which asks what services you think our community needs. They didn't ask you if you don't want this project to go forward because they know it automatically will--unless we oppose it and make our wishes known. Other than that, we have no recourse to stop or alter the plans created by the Redevelopment personnel.
• Historically, in California, only a small fraction of RDA money goes to pay for actual redevelopment projects. The greatest share (70% to 80%) goes to maintain the RDA costs and interest on the bonds. (Drive by the large and modern Economic Development Building at 1325 Spruce Street in Riverside to see what we mean.)
• Once established, the Redevelopment Project remains in force for 30 years and the bonded indebtedness it has created remains in force for up to 45 years--until the year 2054. Will you still be alive by then? Your property may be indebted for the rest of your life!
• The funds collected from Meadowbrook's taxes can be used anywhere in the RDA area--that means our Meadowbrook money can be used in Goodhope, Warm Springs (The Grove), Wagon Wheel, or Mead Valley, and we have no say about it. In fact, the money doesn't even have to be spent on any of the five communities within the RDA area, according to the proposal.
• Redevelopment by the agency requires our community to be labeled as "blighted"--which lowers our property's potential value to buyers. Do you want that label to be put to YOUR property or our community?
• Many of our homes are being described as “substandard” and don’t conform to tract home conditions that are opposite to our rural lifestyle and environment. Codes Enforcement personnel can inspect properties within RDA areas at any time, without prior notification to the property owners.
• Redevelopment gives Codes Enforcement personnel a lot of power in the areas it controls. They no longer need to have a "complaint" filed before they can enter your property to inspect it and look for code violations. However, they cannot go beyond gates and fences without your permission--for the most part. If they have a Riv Co Deputy Sheriff with them...beware, they are not there for a routine inspection.
• The proposed plan for Mead Valley, Good Hope, Wagon Wheel, Meadowbrook, and Warm Springs (The Grove) stipulates curbs and street lighting which are not compatible with Meadowbrook's rural environment of partial & ulti-acre parcels. These five communities span several miles and combine many diverse community environments. The county is forcing us to conform to standards that may not work for Meadowbrook, although they would be good for the other communities.
• At this time, the Redevelopment Division has NO specific plans as to exactly how they will improve our community, yet they expect us to give them the green light based on promises that we will like what they come up with.
• Redevelopment is NOT Free, and the staff is not explaining exactly how all these changes are going to be financed, or how the bonds will be handled–and what this indebtedness means to us as individuals and families.
• Redevelopment requires successful commercial enterprises to generate sales taxes to help repay the debt from the bonds. This is NOT a good time to be trying to lure businesses into our community. The current economic outlook can’t support new debt for our community.
