What you need to know about how California's Surplus Land Act might impact a potential sale of city riverfront property, what options the city is exploring, and why a vote on riverfront land has been delayed.
A group of “interested downtown stakeholders” met twice with the city in February and March to help shape updates to Redding's Downtown Specific Plan. The changes could expand the area considered downtown and allow development to be approved by city staff without public hearing or comment. During a recent meeting in which the Planning Commission discussed whether to endorse the plan updates, so many commissioners had conflicts of interest that one commissioner with downtown real estate investments was asked to vote anyway.
New lease terms will be discussed by the Redding City Council on Tuesday. Terms call for a significant reduction in rent and a ten-year lease. Bethel Church, Redding’s controversial megachurch, started Advance Redding and serves as its anchor tenant for the Civic.
Native people presented a united front against selling riverfront land to private developers at Thursday’s Redding City Council riverfront development workshop. They invoked their responsibility to protect their homelands and the remains of their ancestors and pledged to prevent further erasure.
A series of public workshops, surveys and social media posts by the city haven’t reassured many community members that they’re being included in the riverfront planning process. Shasta Scout looked at how the city’s process compares with best practices in community engagement.
As Redding considers selling riverfront land for redevelopment, news archives from the 60’s and 70’s provide insight into how the city became owners of the land. Another public workshop on the possible sale and redevelopment of the land will be held tonight.
Speropictures' new docuseries, ReAwakening, includes interviews with Trump allies who’ve pushed election fraud narratives, high-profile COVID vaccine opponents, and evangelical leaders. Critics say the series is designed to build momentum in the far right leading up to the 2024 election.
Despite recent losses, Advance Redding hopes to manage events at the Civic even after the new Bethel Church campus opens. Some in the Redding community worry about their connections to Bethel Church. Their contract renewal for Civic management is being negotiated and is likely to come back before the Council in November.
In the first of four public workshops on a proposed riverfront land development, the Council will hear a presentation on the process for declaring city land surplus in preparation for sale. A report from the City Attorney indicates that the City could declare the properties as “exempted surplus land” and sell to a developer ready to build at least three hundred housing units, with 25 percent of them meeting affordable housing requirements.
Recall Shasta has found new focus after Newsom’s recent announcement of vaccine mandates for school children. A gathering held Wednesday, October 6, by those opposed to COVID mandates in schools, drew hundreds of supporters. A second meeting is scheduled for Monday night, October 11. COVID vaccine mandates for California school children are not yet in effect.
