The $300,000 grant is to be used to plan the revitalization of the Twin Rivers community at the corner of Richards Boulevard and 12th Street. But by the time the planning is complete, the agency heading the revitalization will have been disbanded because of Governor Jerry Brown's plan to eliminate redevelopment agencies.
City Councilman Steve Cohn says he is hopeful the agencies can be saved…somehow.
COHN: "I have a lot of confidence that here we'll figure out a way to make things happen."
The redevelopment agencies in the state were created by the Legislature by allowing a small portion of various taxes to be siphoned off. The money those agencies have collected and would have collected in the future will go to local schools and other local government starting February 1.
More than 200 families live in the Twin Rivers low-income housing units in the area northeast of the Railyards. Federal and local leaders hope the neighborhoods can be transformed with more single family housing, shops and mass transit.