Santa Clara’s City Council, meeting as the city’s redevelopment agency and also as its stadium authority, held a special meeting Monday to try to lock in plans to issue redevelopment bonds to subsidize a new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers.
The city has been working for several years to put together a plan to build a new facility for the National Football League team, which currently plays its games in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, widely seen as functionally obsolete.
Council members voted Monday to create a legal commitment and tax increment pledge to eventually finance $40 million in tax-allocation bonds if the city and the team can come to final terms on a stadium financing.
The timing of the action was driven by Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to abolish redevelopment agencies throughout California — which, if enacted, would protect any legal commitments made by such agencies.
“Staff has determined that changes should be made to the cooperation agreement to make it clear that the redevelopment agency is pledging its tax increment in support of the stadium project and that the stadium project meets the proposed definition of an 'approved development project’ under the governor’s proposal,” the staff report on the proposal said.
