MONTEREY – Legislation to extend the Fort Ord Reuse Authority another two years to June 30, 2022 was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and cannot proceed further, presumably derailing the effort as the clock ticks toward the Authority’s sunset on June 30, 2020.

According to Assemblyman Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley), who co-authored the bill, the legislation is essentially dead.

Senate Bill 189, authored by Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel) and co-authored by Assemblymen Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and Stone, would have extended FORA for two years, altered its powers and responsibilities with a re-focus on winding down the affairs of the agency. It outlined a limited set of powers and duties for a reconstituted board, and further detailed the FORA dissolution process, according to the bill’s summary.

Legislation is held in committee when it fails to get sufficient votes to pass out of committee.

“I am disappointed that the Assembly Appropriations Committee held SB 189,” said Sen. Monning in a press release. “Without this bill, local jurisdictions may struggle to find sufficient funds for the region’s Habitat Conservation Plan, to address critical successor agency agreements, and have limited resources to remove blight. I fear this will complicate the transition of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority for all parties and hinder the redevelopment of this vital part of the Monterey Bay Region.”

Assemblyman Rivas had no comment for this story.

According to the analysis from the committee, in the fiscal year 2018-2019, FORA received $2.8 million in local property tax revenues diverted from other local entities including 15% of that amount from local schools. Extending FORA’s sunset by two years would result in increased General Fund expenditures of $420,000 annually over that period to offset, under the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantees, the continued diversions from the local school share of property taxes to FORA.

Extending FORA’s sunset would allow the agency to continue to collect, for two additional years, local property tax revenues, the Community Facilities District tax and other fees from affected local agencies, particularly the cities of Marina and Seaside. Absent this bill, local agencies would otherwise retain those revenues for local purposes, including providing affordable housing, said the committee analysis.

Seaside City Manager Craig Malin said Seaside “was opposed to the extension of FORA, and we are pleased and prepared to undertake all responsibilities necessary for Seaside’s success.”

After the 77-year-old army base closed in 1994 during the federal Base Realignment and Closure process, the California State Legislature established the Fort Ord Reuse Authority to complete the planning, financing, and management of the 45-square-mile former Fort Ord Army Base per the 1997 Reuse Plan developed by the new agency.

The plan lays out the future land uses including areas for housing, commerce, recreation, public uses and open space. The agency’s governing body of 13 voting members and 11 non-voting members is made up of representatives from cities, Monterey County, special districts, public education institutions, the military, and state and federal legislators.

FORA revenues are derived from multiple sources such as membership dues from the entities with representation on its board, a local facilities district tax paid when developers pull building permits, and property tax revenues received as pass-through payments from city and county redevelopment successor agencies related to project areas within FORA’s boundaries, among others.

Existing law specifies that when FORA dissolves, the property tax revenues allocated to FORA would be used to service specified debt incurred by the authority, with the remainder divided as follows: 54% to city or county redevelopment agencies, 38% to the county, and 8% to other affected tax agencies.

As an assemblyman, Monning introduced AB 1614 in 2012 that extended FORA’s sunset from 2014 to 2020. The legislation required FORA’s board to approve and submit a transition plan to the Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission by Dec. 30, 2020 or 18 months before FORA’s sunset, whichever occurs first.

FORA’s board voted to approve a transition plan in Dec. 2018, which addresses the remaining regional issues of roads, water, habitat conservation and ordnance remediation.

Local officials indicate local jurisdictions are finalizing implementation agreements that enable cooperative transition and allow FORA to sunset on June 30, 2020.

Assemblyman Stone said that both Marina and Seaside were opposed to the extension because they are ready to move on.

In its argument in opposition, the city of Marina said it, along with Seaside, is expected to fund projects established by the FORA board located largely outside their jurisdictions and which show little, if any, benefit on regional traffic impacts and water augmentation, both critical concerns.

It said that in the last five years, FORA has captured and spent more than $50 million generated from land sales and development fees from developments in the city of Marina on nonsensical priorities established by the FORA Board. During that same period, the agency did nothing to prioritize or allocate funds to remove the remaining 588 blighted and dilapidated military structures in Marina the estimated cost of which is $35 million for removal, money the city is unable to generate with the continuation of FORA and diversion of funds.

“Being fully empowered to support investment for job growth, affordable housing, capital improvements and the strengthening of (California State University Monterey Bay) can only help our community and the region,” said Malin.