Redevelopment

A $45,000 check will soon be in the mail to Seifel Consulting after the City Council approved a contract with the company to create another feasibility study of a Martinez Redevelopment Agency.

The contract also directs Seifel to update its 2006 report on blight findings and tax allocation methodology. 

At the July 5, 2006 Council meeting, Libby Seifel of Seifel Consulting presented the findings of its first Redevelopment Financial Feasibility Study, commissioned by the City for roughly $10,000. more...

Facing a rancorous audience of residents largely opposing a Martinez Redevelopment Agency, Council members Lara DeLaney and Mark Ross attempted to shift the focus of Tuesday evening’s Redevelopment Subcommittee meeting from probing questions about tax-increment financing to wish-list spending.

Evoking the image of a parent endeavoring to quiet a squalling child by introducing a shiny new toy, DeLaney urged the audience to “get to the exercise at hand,” and vote on how they would like the RDA monies to be spent, not waste time debating the merits or failings of RDAs in general.more...

Prior to authorizing staff to draft an ordinance creating a Martinez Redevelopment Agency at next week’s Council meeting, two Council members are hosting a Redevelopment Council Subcommittee meeting on Tuesday evening.  

The I.B.E.W.#302 union headquarters on Arnold Drive is the venue for the 6 p.m. meeting.

Council member Mark Ross said Friday the City decided to hold the meeting at that location to make it more accessible to residents in the southern and eastern sections of Martinez.more...

At last week’s City Council meeting, member Lara DeLaney raised the controversial specter of a renewed push for a Martinez Redevelopment Agency (RDA), urging City staff to make it a top priority over the coming months.more...

In a blow to supporters of creating a redevelopment agency (RDA) in Martinez, California Assembly and Senate and the Governor reached a tentative budget agreement on Monday that, if approved by both branches of the legislature today, will mine almost $2 billion from the State’s 425 RDAs. more...

With an objective of “provid[ing] property owners specific ideas to assist them in making their properties safer and better suited to respond to today’s commercial market,” Martinez property owners were invited to a meeting on “Downtown Martinez Revitalization” on April 28, the second such workshop in the past six months.

Organized by Robert Clayton of the Urban Financial Services Group in Pleasant Hill, the workshop featured four speakers lending their experiences in structural design, architectural design, construction issues and the State Historic Building Code.more...