The Redevelopment Agency will revamp the application process for developers seeking to propose a project in the city.
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The seven-member board unanimously adopted a resolution (Res. 29-21) at its Oct. 20 meeting, approving and authorizing a revised application process and procedures.
The resolution establishes a formal application process for redevelopment projects that’s more specific than in the past, according to Redevelopment Robert Landolfi. “There wasn’t any real application that people were asked to complete” before seeking designation as a redeveloper, he said during a telephone interview on Thursday.
As an example, Landolfi said the application process would what ask what’s being proposed but also, does it require variances and does it confirm with existing plan. “Simple things like that, applicants weren’t being asked to do those reviews,” he said. “Do you have the financial wherewithal, and financial equity to undertake this project. Have you undertaken such projects in the past, if so, where — questions that you’d normally have answers to when entertaining developers,” Landolfi said.
“We need to put an application in place and think about the kind of information we want prospective developers to give us before we entertain” a concept. “That what we’re doing because it didn’t exist,” Landolfi said.
UPDATED, Nov. 17: You can see the different applications for yourself: the new application is 13 pages compared with the previous version of three pages.
There is an application fee as there was previously but Landolfi said that appeared to be something that was negotiated. “Those fees were almost on a case-by-case basis. We want to avoid that — there’s always exceptions — but for the most part, we wanna avoid that,” he said.
Landolfi, a former city administrator for Woodbridge, was appointed as director of the Redvelopment Agency in early 2019.
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