Garden Grove City Council members Tuesday night approved an inventory of the properties owned by its former redevelopment agency, a step that hands over a number of key developments to the city and allows the projects to move forward.
The long-term property management plan details each property and plans for its future use, the last step in the process of dissolving the city’s redevelopment agency.
The plan still needs the approval of the city successor agency’s oversight board and the state Department of Finance before certain projects can go forward, including a 12-acre water park resort hotel, 200-room hotel project on Harbor Boulevard and the mixed-use Brookhurst Triangle project.
Previously, local governments in California could declare a region a “redevelopment area,” effectively freezing property taxes and funneling funds into a redevelopment agency with the goal of combating urban blight. After the state dissolved redevelopment agencies in 2011, cities began winding down the agencies’ activities and debt.
City officials have touted the tourist-oriented projects on Harbor Boulevard as a “ray of hope” for redevelopment.
The water park hotel project has been in the works for more than a decade, after the city evicted and relocated residents from a trailer park in 2003 to free the property for development. Officials say the $300-million project, once completed, will generate $8.5 million a year in tax revenue, create 600 jobs and draw tourists from the Anaheim resort area.