Battered by deteriorating economic conditions on many fronts, Jackson has seen the emergence of a number of concerned residents who have devoted time and energy to create the Strategic Plan 2008, brainchild of the Economic Development Committee.

"This is where the rubber meets the road," pronounced Mayor Rosalie Pryor Escamilla at last week's city council meeting. "After all the work that has gone into the strategic plan, there is much more work to come in implementing the plan."

Among the dozens of suggested projects contained in the plan, relocating the current firehouse, annexing the vacant courthouse buildings, altering the parking and directional situations downtown, changing the street lights and finding grant funding jump out.

The Economic Development Committee has also chosen to recommend its own demise and transformation into a new, hopefully more financially effective, organization: the Jackson Revitalization Committee.

As a more official entity, the newly formed JRC, comprised of two city council members and as many as nine citizens from business or other involved areas of the community, should have a vastly elevated ability to acquire funding and effect change. The new committee's first tasks will be finalization of the strategic plan, sponsorship of its projects, informing the public of proposed changes, securing resources and performing other helpful services.

All of this segued into council discussion of redevelopment. Jackson officials are moving forward, at least conceptually, with a process that could lead to the formation of a redevelopment agency.

City Manager Mike Daly, along with Councilman Wayne Garibaldi and Amador Community Foundation Director Shannon Lowery, recently visited the city of Sonora, with an eye toward investigating that city's successful redevelopment agency.

Economic Development Committee member Shelley Scott told the council that she has "done a lot of research on redevelopment, in cities too numerous to mention. Sonora now receives $400,000 annually in redevelopment agency revenues."

Pryor Escamilla chimed in with her thoughts. "Timing is everything," she said. "When I first came on the council, in 2001, there was a lot of resistance to the 'R-D' word."

Much of the resistance to redevelopment has stemmed from fears that eminent domain could be used to condemn and take property away from unwilling owners. City Attorney Andy Morris sought to allay those fears.

"The law has changed," he said. "Proposition 99 passed in June, so it is no longer possible to take property for private development. There is greater protection for property owners."

"Also," Morris continued, "the blight definition has been changed," which is of great importance to any consideration of formation of a redevelopment agency.

The question arose as to whether Jackson is blighted enough to qualify for redevelopment. Rules for redevelopment agencies are contained in the California Health and Safety Code, beginning with Section 33000. Within the verbiage regarding blight, among many sections and subsections, the following pertinent passages may be found:

- Section 33030 (b)(1): An area that is predominantly urbanized ... in which the combination of conditions ... causes a reduction of, or lack of, proper utilization of the area to such an extent that it constitutes a serious physical and economic burden on the community that cannot reasonably be expected to be reversed or alleviated by private enterprise or governmental action, or both, without redevelopment.

- Section 33031 (b)(1): Depreciated or stagnant property values.

- Section 33031 (b)(3): Abnormally high business vacancies, abnormally low lease rates, or an abnormally high number of abandoned buildings.

- Section 33031 (b)(6): An excess of bars, liquor stores, or adult-oriented businesses that has resulted in significant public health, safety, or welfare problems.

The city council authorized Daly to acquire additional information and move forward with redevelopment research, as long as there is no financial commitment.

The four-page Strategic Plan 2008 can be seen online at the city's Web site, http://ci.jackson.ca.us/index.html.