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Most local legislation enabling redevelop- ment provides for owner participation. For ex- ample, CAifornia's community redevelopment law requires that; 0 a redevelopment plan contain specific pro - visions governing owner participation to the redevelopment; r each agency adopt rules to implement the owner participation provisions contained in the redevelopment plan; 8 each agency follow the owner participation provisions of its plans and irriplement.ing reg- ulations in the "course of redevelopment r each plan contain alternative provisions to accornphsh redevelopment if owners do not or cannot undertake the redevelopment; and ■ a reasonable preference be afforded to busi- ness ovivners within the project area to contin- ue operating following redevelopment. While most redevelopment agencies do in fact routinely extend an offer to property own- ers to participate in redevelopment, there can be numerous structural and psychological i n- pediments to meaningful owner participation. Often, the redevelopment agency viil identi- fy the property owner with the property as part of the problem. Such perceptions are some- times justified, in that the property owner may have owned the property for a long period of time but lamed the vision of creativity to see its potential. Another obstacle to owner par- ticipation is that redevelopment frequently re- quires assembling several pieces of property for a master - planned redevelopment. Such a large -scale redevelopment project likely is be- yond the ability of a single - parcel property owner to achieve, either financially or in terms of expertise. A further obstacle to owner participation is the increasing number of `specialist" rede- velopment developers, who focus on redevel- opment throughout a region or a state. These developers become familiar with how redevel- opment agencies operate and what redevelop- ment projects require, and the agencies regard them as natural allies. Specialist developers par- ticipate in the same organizations and trade groups as redevelopment agencies, formulate glitzy marketing techniques based on other redevelopment projects in which they have been uivolved, and develop a track record in redevelopment` They are typically sophisti- cated, congenial, and focused, and have ready access to capital- By contrast, owners may- lack the interest or incentive to partidpate in redevelopment, par- ticularly when they have held the property for some tune, have no debt servicing load, and are generating an adequate cash flo %v to carry the prop". If, despite these obstacles, a redevelopment agency comes to term with the owner reprd- ing redevelopment of the property, the agree- ment is documented in an owner participation agreement (OPA), which governs the reiation- ship between the parties. Typically} such an agreement includes provisions regarding the scope, nature, and tirning of development, aged assistance, financin& and the agmcy re- view process. If the agency cannot come to terror with the owner and reaches agreernen with a third -party developer, it often will. eat ter into a development and disposition agree. ment (DDA) with the developer, which in cludes the elements cited above, as well as ar additional element governing acqu� .0 the property on which the de oprniLF +_ ts tc occur, and subsequent transfer of the proper - ty to the doper a=rding to sped Ws Agency stance in the development, whether to an owner -develoM or a third -party devel- oper, can include contribution of land, ft, �� pp� "'1111 Illllu 11114 mPill ul" IIIIIY "Illl�p� IIIII� '11111 mu ■ Ili a iii� October 2003