Updated: Thursday, Feb. 8
The Mission finance and administration committee sent both items to the city council’s consent agenda for the Feb. 21 meeting.
Items on the consent agenda are considered routine enough to approve in one fell swoop. The committee did not discuss the items.
The original story continues below:
The city of Mission is poised to cut the final lingering ties it has to the latest and now-defunct development agreement for the long-troubled Mission Gateway project.
A city council committee on Wednesday is set to consider two ordinances that will terminate a tax increment financing project plan and a proposed Community Improvement District associated with the Mission Gateway plan agreement the council approved roughly a year ago.
The city council ultimately terminated that agreement last summer after New York-based developer Aryeh failed to pay roughly $450,000 in local property taxes.
The motions under consideration Wednesday, though not nearly as significant as the decision to end the development agreement itself, serve as a symbolic bookend to the city’s involvement with Aryeh’s latest plan to remake the former site of the Mission City Mall.
This week’s moves are essentially housekeeping
- It is “appropriate to formally terminate” both the TIF project plan and the CID because there is no project moving forward and no redevelopment plan, according to city documents.
- City Administrator Laura Smith told the Post that the city waited until now to terminate these items because city staff was busy working on other projects, including putting together the city’s annual budget.
- Smith said the already-terminated redevelopment agreement is the document that outlines and controls how any incentive are provided to the developer.
- “The termination of the TIF Project Plan and CID are more administrative and just keeps everything cleaned up,” Smith said.
Mission ended the redevelopment agreement in July
- The termination came two months after developers were notified of the agreement’s jeopardy due to unpaid property taxes.
- Mission cited more than $450,000 worth of unpaid property taxes as its reason for ending the redevelopment agreement.
- City officials in July told the Post that any developer can come in and build out the final development plan that envisions residential, office and retail space at Mission Gateway.
- The ongoing foreclosure lawsuit by a New York bank against the developer needs to play out first, though, city officials said.
- A New York bank, Metropolitan Commercial Bank, last year moved to foreclose on the Mission Gateway property, accusing Aryeh of defaulting on a $26 million loan for the project.
The city council has final approval
- The finance and administration committee on Wednesday is considering approval of the two separate ordinances to end the TIF and CID agreements.
- Still, Smith said the ordinances are expected to be approved by the committee and then taken to the city council’s Feb. 21 agenda for final adoption.
- The finance and administration committee meets after the community development committee at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at city hall, 6090 Woodson St.
Go deeper: City ends latest Mission Gateway deal — What happens next?
