SANTA CLARA – The city of Santa Clara this week took steps to keep millions of redevelopment dollars, including money earmarked for a new 49ers stadium, from state officials eyeing it to help close the state's massive budget gap.

The Santa Clara City Council called a special meeting Tuesday to transfer $140 million plus 178 acres of property from its redevelopment agency into city-controlled coffers. The council voted 6-0 in favor of the move.

"We have no funds now in our redevelopment coffers that can be taken," Mayor Jamie Matthews said.

That redevelopment money had been earmarked for an array of projects, the most high-profile being the 49ers' $937 million stadium that is planned to open in 2015.

In June, Santa Clara voters gave the go-ahead to build the 68,500-seat facility on a city-owned parking lot adjacent to the 49ers' training facility. The city has agreed to provide $114 million toward the project, including $40 million in redevelopment dollars.

Part of Gov. Jerry Brown's budget-balancing proposal calls for eliminating the 425 redevelopment agencies across the state and shifting the billions of tax dollars collected by them to school districts and other local services.

Santa Clara is one of several California cities that have acted to hold onto their redevelopment money. A provision in the budget will attempt to prevent cities from protecting those funds from the state.

"The language tries to distinguish between valid obligations and attempts to simply shuffle the money around," said Marianne O'Malley, the general government section director of the Legislative Analyst's Office. "Whether it's going to work completely is not entirely clear."

Matthews said Santa Clara feels confident its money is off-limits because the city's actions were made in advance of the budget being passed.

Last month, 49ers president Jed York said he didn't want to lose the redevelopment portion of the stadium funding but that the project didn't depend on it.

"We're looking at alternative plans if that goes away," he said.

For instance, York said the team's stadium plans were buoyed by a recent naming-rights deal for a future football stadium in downtown Los Angeles. If that stadium gets built, Farmers Insurance has agreed to pay $700 million for the facility to be known as Farmers Field.

"You see the L.A. deal, and you see the other deals that are going to get done in the future, and I think you can pick up that money in other places," York said.

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