Fees & public finance
Redevelopment agency (RDA)
California's former tax-increment agencies, dissolved February 1, 2012 after CRA v. Matosantos; their covenants and obligations still run with the land.
Definition
Redevelopment agencies were the local entities — roughly 400 of them, formed under the Community Redevelopment Law — that captured property-tax increment in designated project areas to fund infrastructure, economic development and affordable housing. The Legislature dissolved them effective February 1, 2012, and CRA v. Matosantos (2011) 53 Cal.4th 231 upheld the dissolution statute while striking the companion "pay to stay" alternative. Their assets and enforceable obligations passed to successor agencies under the dissolution law.
Why it matters in an underwrite
Fourteen years after dissolution, RDA paper still binds land: disposition and development agreements, owner participation agreements, and long-dated affordability covenants (commonly 45–55 years) recorded by former agencies survive and are now enforced by successor entities. Buying in a former project area means title review for RDA-era instruments, estoppels from the successor agency, and confirming that any promised agency performance actually became an approved enforceable obligation rather than dissolving with the agency.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
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Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.