The state Supreme Court decision supporting California's elimination of redevelopment agencies is forcing Rancho Cordova to abandon blight-fighting projects along Folsom Boulevard, the mayor said today.
Mayor David Sander said the court's Dec. 29 decision means the Rancho Cordova Redevelopment Agency will not purchase the property near Folsom Boulevard and Mather Field Road that has been part of a larger plan to redevelop the area, in part with a satellite Los Rios Community College District campus.
"We can't continue on with this project in this context," Sander said ."It would make no sense."
Under the Supreme Court decision, redevelopment agencies are to dissolve early this year. Any existing assets and obligations are to be shifted to a successor agency.
Sander said the city still has hope that the satellite campus can be created, despite the change in redevelopment law. "I think the goal is still the same," he said.
A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled 13 months ago that the Rancho Cordova Community Redevelopment Agency had the right to acquire 9.5 acres at Folsom Boulevard and La Loma Drive to eliminate blight. The site is southwest of Mather Field Road.
In the second phase of the eminent domain case, a jury last October found that Rancho Cordova would have to pay landowner Lily Co. $7.9 million, more than 20 times what the city redevelopment agency had offered.
The Los Rios Community College District had proposed in 2007 to buy the site directly from the Lily Co. for $8.6 million. That deal, however, fell apart. And properties values fell sharply.
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