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r / Competing for Control Once owners become stakeholders in the redevelopment process, the better the process works, BASEL Sr SHME$ practim law in the am afland wand deve1oprrrt and is a sharAolder with Milk Starr& Regalit; Wated in Walnut Creek and PWo Alts, Cali orna ipment works because broad au. ty is given to locally elected ofFi- ts --^who know their communi- best to identify and guide all opportunities that arise. There are manly tools that legislatures around the nation have given edevelopment agencies, inciud- g the ability to acquire property r eminent domain and to relo- cate persons who live or work on property acquired, and the authority to fiance operations through borrowing and bond sales and to enter into agreements to develop and dis- pose of property within redevelopment area. With these powers canoe restrictions to ensure that re- development agencies do not become simply publily fi- nanced supercompetitors in the private market. Before the tools available to mdievelopment agencies can be used., cer- tain threshold determinations must be made. The first is whether or not there is blight, which cannot be remedied solely through private enterprise and development. A sec- ond, and often interrelated requirement, is that property owners be given a reasonable opportunity to participate in the redevelopment of their property, if blight is found to exist, it implies that the owner has riled to take steps to grunt blight from developing, which in turn, reffew on the owns ability, or willingness, to participate in redevel- opment Too often, these threshold requirements- � find- ing of blight and owner parti *tiomr are stumbling bkcks that slow down or derail a project. Determ ati.ons as to the ex�mm of'blight are subjeive, and often contentious. There is lade &sagreement that dilap- idated and verrnk- infestied aparmwnt buRdings are blighted, F. Urban Land October 2oo3 justifying exercise of the power of redevelopment --and condemnation, if necessary. What is less understandable occurs when a ruarginal, but viable, business- -chaps a small ethnic restaurant, a shoe or watch repair store, or a small grocery store' is designated a blight is order to maim way for more upscale retailers and restaurateurs. To use some real world exarnples� does the presence of a locally owned discount scare or a community church on proper- ty sought for development by a big -box retailer like Cost- co establish sufficient conditions of blight to justify acqui- sition of the property for redevelopment? In cases like this, does redevelopment improve the conununiWs quality of lie, or is it simply driven by the tax rewen"enerating poten- tials of the proposed use, compared with the existing one. Recendy in San Jose, Cafifornia, the local redevaelopment agency announced the condemnation of a shopping cen- ter shortly after the owner reportedly spent $8 million to renovate it. The property had been designated as blighted in 199 1, and the owner thereafter renovated the center in an effort to avert condemnation. The agency, however, has Plans to integrate the redevelopment with one across the street, which requires condemning the shopping center property and which also will exclude the current owner from the development process. The owner is fighting the condemnation in court, arguing that the lure of a greater economic return has been improperly used to justify a find- ing of blight, and that no public purpose is served by tak- ing private property from an active owner and giving it to someone else to develop. Examples such as this demonstrate that definitions of blight and how they might be applied by redevelopment agency and judges are inexact and often i mhm value judg- ments rather thm objective analysis and conclusions. There are some who would argue that dais is one of the legislative functions of redevelopmment agencies and if someone did not rnak these judgments, mi akation of rn neigh- borhoods would never occur. regardless of any real or per- ceived ambiguities in the definition of blight, owner par- ticipation in redevelopment —or at least a meaningful opportunity for owner participation —riot only can sim- plifY and expedite a redevelopment project, but also often can eliminate claims that the necessary predicate of blight is not present—Le., there is no underlying ' cation or need for redevelopment After ail, if the owner is engaged in the prod of `redevelopment, the process app d usually is- more de &milale and less arbitrary.