LAKEPORT — The Lake County Redevelopment Agency (RDA) is considering Holiday Harbor as an anchor for business and redevelopment in Nice. The Lake County Board of Supervisors, sitting as the RDA board of directors, instructed the RDA”s two lead officials to continue pursuing the idea at its Tuesday meeting.
District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing proposed the harbor as a town center. Redevelopment plans for Nice originally identified Hinman Square, located across Highway 20 from Holiday Harbor, as a possible town center. Developing town centers for blighted communities on the Northshore is one of the RDA”s primary goals.
“In my view, it”s transformational,” Rushing said. “This is something that could literally not only transform the community of Nice, but could transform the Northshore. It”s something others from around the lake could come to and that folks from outside the area would come to.”
The 4.2-acre harbor boasts 100-plus boat slips that were discussed as a possible source of cash for the RDA. “We believe there may be an opportunity to acquire the property for less than the $2.9 million asking price,” deputy RDA director Eric Seely told the board. Seely said the agency might have to take out a loan or issue bonds in order to make the sale.
Lake County RDA executive director Kelly Cox said the deviation from the RDA”s original plans for the area would likely mean less money would be spent developing Hinman Square as Nice”s town center, unless the board wanted both projects pursued.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said that buying the harbor would help the RDA fulfill state requirements to go into debt. “That”s why this project is important,” Smith continued. “We”re coming to a time frame where we have to incur debt, because redevelopment agencies are supposed to go into debt. Then the income in the last few years of the life of the agency is to pay that debt back.”
Cox said, “We haven”t identified the projects we”re going to be investing millions of dollars in yet. We need to do that pretty soon, because we need to incur the debt.”
Supervisor Rob Brown questioned Cox about the RDA”s priorities, asking what the county could do with the property that a private investor could not do. Referring to adjacent lake-front property the county owns, Brown said, “We can”t own it all. At some point, there has to be something left for the private sector to operate and pay taxes on that will still fund all these projects. I just want to make sure that our focus stays on the projects that need to be done, not the ones we just want to have done as they come up.”
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