| Is the
Louisville Revitalization Commission improperly increasing the urban
renewal area? |
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| There
is reason to believe the answer is yes. 1. The maps show a significant increase in the proposed urban renewal area. In 2000, long before the Louisville Revitalization Commission was "reactivated" in December 2003 from its long-dormant state, the City initiated a study of the so-called "Highway 42 Revitalization Area." In May 2003, the study became the Highway 42 Revitalization Area Framework Plan. The Framework Plan's purpose was to guide development in the "Highway 42 Area." The Highway 42 Area was identified as "the area of town bordered by Highway 42 on the east, South Boulder Road on the north, the BNSF railroad on the west and Pine Street to the south." The "primary study area" was the subarea between Harper and South streets. The maps included in the Framework Plan are consistent with the written description of the Highway 42 Revitalization Area. If you look at the Urban Renewal Plan that the Louisville Revitalization Commission submitted for approval by the City Council, you will see a crude map with a rainbow of different shades of red, green, blue, brown, gray, purple and yellow. If you look closely and follow the green line representing the proposed boundary of the urban renewal area, you will see an area that dramatically increases the geographic volume of the previous "Highway 42 Revitalization Area." You will not find in the Renewal Plan an explanation for the expansion of the Highway 42 Area. 2. What was the effect of increasing the proposed urban renewal area? The expanded urban renewal area encompasses the Safeway, Christopher Plaza/Wells Fargo, and King Soopers shopping centers, Main Street from South Boulder Road through Old Town Louisville (and in Old Town, both sides of Main Street), the Mayhoffer Farm on the northeast corner of 95th Street and Hwy 42, and the so-called Pow Wow grounds--undeveloped land just east of the King Soopers shopping center. None of these areas were the subject of the Highway 42 Framework Plan. Yet in December 2003 the City Council had made it clear that the entire purpose of "reactivating" the Louisville Urban Renewal Authority/Louisville Revitalization Commission was to implement the Highway 42 Framework Plan, not to create a new, expansive plan going well beyond the boundaries of the Framework Plan. 3. Is there an unspoken motivation for significantly expanding the urban renewal area? City officials and their consultants have not specifically answered this question. Nonetheless, there are clues. Leland Consulting, which conducted the "blight" study and helped the LRC create the proposed urban renewal plan, said "[t]he mission of the LRC is to encourage private reinvestment within designated areas where redevelopment would not occur solely through private investment." Leland's premise, however, is dubious at best following the approval of FasTracks and the decision to locate a commuter rail station in the Highway 42 area. There is another clue. To constitute "blight" even under the broad definition of the term, at least four conditions must be found. Leland Consulting produced a PowerPoint presentation. It contains a map showing parcels of land within the proposed urban renewal area. Even with virtually an unchecked discretion to declare blight because of the broad definition given to that term, as the map shows, Leland had difficulty finding more than 2 blight conditions for well over half of the parcels in the proposed urban renewal area. Yet, all of them are included in the proposed urban renewal area. Main Street is illustrative. Along Main Street, there are according to the map 104 parcels with buildings on them. Of these 104, five were found to have four or more blight conditions. Yet, the entire east side of Main Street is part of the proposed urban renewal area and in Old Town Louisville, both the east and west sides of Main Street are included. Also illustrative is the Pow Wow grounds. Since Leland included these grounds in the proposed urban renewal area, it must believe that the Pow Wow grounds will not be developed with "private reinvestment" or development would not occur "solely through private investment." Yet, that land and all the vacant land to the north and east of the King Soopers shopping center is currently the subject of a development plan pending before the Planning Commission. The development plan is proposed by a private developer, Michael Markel. The LRC's ambitious expansion of the urban renewal area has not gone unnoticed by Boulder County, which complained in August 2006 that the urban renewal plan could significantly harm the County's ability to fund services to citizens. Here is what the County said of the plan: The 230 properties encompassed in
your Plan include far more territory than is defined in your Highway 42
Revitalization Area Plan/transit oriented development. For example, the
Plan includes all of Downtown Louisville, the currently developed areas
north of downtown including the Safeway and the King Soopers shopping
centers, Christopher Plaza, and the "Old Pow Wow Grounds." From our
perspective, this conflict in territory definition is confusing.
4. The powerful draw of big money. The LRC's consultant has estimated that the proposed, expanded urban renewal area will generate more than $77 million in sales and property tax increment revenue over 25 years, and that the LRC intends to keep 100% of it for use in the urban renewal area. It goes without saying that if the LRC had retained the original boundaries of the Hwy 42 Revitalization Area Framework Plan, the revenues generated would be a fraction of the $77 million. Under that Plan, the Safeway, King Soopers and Christopher Plaza shopping centers would be excluded, as would be downtown Louisville and the Pow Wow grounds. At the October 3, 2006, City Council meeting, Councilmember Don Brown removed any doubt about why the urban renewal area had been expanded to include, for example, the Pow Wow grounds. He made it clear that the purpose was to “increase the potential for increment” and to “expand potential funds.” (DVD of meeting available at City Hall.) |
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