HB1702: Urban Public-Private Partnership Redevelopment Fund; funding requirements, report.

Legislative Summary

Urban Public-Private Partnership Redevelopment Fund; funding requirements; report. Directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop criteria and guidelines for the use of funds from the Urban Public-Private Partnership Redevelopment Fund, including prioritizing grants to localities experiencing an above average or high level of fiscal stress as designated by the Commission on Local Government and localities experiencing a significant decrease in commercial real estate assessments. Under current law, the Board of Housing and Community Development is directed to develop guidelines for administration of the Fund. The bill expands the qualifying private entities available for partnership with a local government for the redevelopment of a local site, removes the existing $500,000 grant cap for such local government, and eliminates the requirement that each grant be conditioned upon a 100 percent match of funds by the local government. In addition, the bill requires the Department, on or before December 1 of each year, to submit a report to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, the Governor, and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, including the number of projects funded and the costs of the Fund. Further, the bill repeals the Housing Revitalization Zone Act.As introduced, this bill was a recommendation of the Virginia Housing Commission.