Monday, January 02, 2006
New plan for BART to San Jose
The Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), which runs San Jose transit lines, has been in financial trouble since it built some of the worst-performing light-rail lines in the country. It wants to build a BART line to San Jose even though the regional transportation commission has predicted that this line will cost $100 for every new rider it attracts to transit.
After the BART line to the San Francisco airport went over budget and attracted only half as many riders as predicted, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) got cold feet about providing federal tax dollars to the San Jose BART line. To get the FTA back on board, the VTA has to cut costs and boost its ridership predictions.
The headline of this article in the San Jose Business Journal is, "Can Private Enterprise Save BART?" But VTA's new plan can hardly be described as "private enterprise." Under the plan, VTA would use eminent domain to take all land within a quarter mile of proposed BART stations. It would then sell development rights to that land to developers on the condition that they also build the BART stations and parking garages. VTA could then tell the FTA that it saved taxpayers the cost of those stations and garages. The cost of condemning the land, meanwhile, would be covered by the property taxes that developers would pay on their new developments (i.e., tax-increment financing or TIFs). VTA hopes that the high-density developments that it expects developers to build by the stations will boost BART ridership.
California already has one of the nation's most abusive systems of eminent domain. Under this system, any California city can have a "redevelopment agency" that can take people's property and redevelop it using tax-increment financing. According to former Fullerton city councillor Chris Norby, more than 10 percent of the state's property taxes are currently diverted to such redevelopment, and Norby expects this share to increase to more than half by 2040.
But apparently that isn't enough, because the California Senate has passed a bill extending eminent domain and TIF authority to transit districts as well as cities. This bill would be needed for VTA to realize its BART dreams. Thanks in part to the debate over eminent domain that followed the Supreme Court's Kelo decision, the state assembly (i.e., house of representatives) has not yet passed the bill.
San Jose developers are enchanted by the opportunity to get land for development. Opposition to the BART eminent domain plan will have to come from taxpayers and property owners.
After the BART line to the San Francisco airport went over budget and attracted only half as many riders as predicted, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) got cold feet about providing federal tax dollars to the San Jose BART line. To get the FTA back on board, the VTA has to cut costs and boost its ridership predictions.
The headline of this article in the San Jose Business Journal is, "Can Private Enterprise Save BART?" But VTA's new plan can hardly be described as "private enterprise." Under the plan, VTA would use eminent domain to take all land within a quarter mile of proposed BART stations. It would then sell development rights to that land to developers on the condition that they also build the BART stations and parking garages. VTA could then tell the FTA that it saved taxpayers the cost of those stations and garages. The cost of condemning the land, meanwhile, would be covered by the property taxes that developers would pay on their new developments (i.e., tax-increment financing or TIFs). VTA hopes that the high-density developments that it expects developers to build by the stations will boost BART ridership.
California already has one of the nation's most abusive systems of eminent domain. Under this system, any California city can have a "redevelopment agency" that can take people's property and redevelop it using tax-increment financing. According to former Fullerton city councillor Chris Norby, more than 10 percent of the state's property taxes are currently diverted to such redevelopment, and Norby expects this share to increase to more than half by 2040.
But apparently that isn't enough, because the California Senate has passed a bill extending eminent domain and TIF authority to transit districts as well as cities. This bill would be needed for VTA to realize its BART dreams. Thanks in part to the debate over eminent domain that followed the Supreme Court's Kelo decision, the state assembly (i.e., house of representatives) has not yet passed the bill.
San Jose developers are enchanted by the opportunity to get land for development. Opposition to the BART eminent domain plan will have to come from taxpayers and property owners.
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