By November 15, the city of Thousand Oaks will have to send to the state of California around $6.1 million in redevelopment money that comes from local property taxes. That is just a little over half of the net revenue for the redevelopment agency, according to an article in the 8-22 Ventura County Star.  The state will then use the money, along with funds from other redevelopment agencies throughout the state, to make up the shortfall in education funding, it said in the article.
What’s a redevelopment agency, what do they do, and how come they have so much money ? In Thousand Oaks, the city council is also the redevelopment agency (let’s call it the RA), and often in regular meetings, council members will have a City Council meeting, with an RA meeting on the same night. A city council can vote that an area is a “project area”, according to The Star article, and they must declare it “blighted.” Then, property tax in the area that goes to all the usual places, like city and schools, freezes at the existing amount, and any increases in the amount of tax goes to the RA. You could use the old saying, “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” and there is some poetic justice in that money now having to go back to the schools.
What is an example of a project that used RA money? I’ll bet you guessed it…The Lakes Shopping Center, next to the T.O. Civic Arts Plaza! You know, it is the fancy restaurant mall.  Incidentally, the  City Council voted earlier this year to have a study done on it, to the tune of around $90,000, to see how to get more customers for it.
Here is a link to the Ventura County Star article by Tony Biasotti:Â http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/aug/22/redevelopment-agencies-lose-millions-buildings/, and here is Tony Biasotti’s small article about The Lakes:Â http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/aug/22/thousand-oaks-most-visible-project/
Posted by Janna Orkney
I have been to The Lakes shopping center twice. You really not need a lot of to figure out how to get more shoppers. In one word, PARKING.