California’s community redevelopment agencies were created in the
1940s to encourage urban renewal. The agencies could acquire property,
including through condemnation, finance infrastructure improvements and
sell the land to private owners at below-market prices. Their
dissolution has thrown into question the fate of hundreds of projects,
including housing developments intended for low- and moderate-income
people.
In California, it is relatively rare for developers to be offered tax
abatements, density bonuses and other incentives for building in places
that are considered risky. Instead, the redevelopment agencies could
use the additional property taxes that were generated by enhancing the
value of the land, and this so-called tax increment financing became the
primary redevelopment tool. This year the incremental tax would have
amounted to $5 billion, or 12 percent of all of the property tax
collected throughout the state.
............ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/realestate/commercial/an-uncertain-fate-for-urban-projects-in-california.html?adxnnl=1&ref=realestate&adxnnlx=1334397364-XOV1j+dMvMrkEwBM9V51Yg
