What is SPARC?

SPARC Developmental Criteria and Goals Background

The City intends developers to assess the following goals in their proposals:

· Adherence to existing master planning and facilitation of immediate development action as well as increase the guarantee of long-term success.

· Leverage financial value with the immediate influx of substantial public
spending, provided business plans are sound.

· Create the opportunity for rehabilitation tax credits and/or New Market Tax Credits for restoring significant and historic structures, particularly as they relate to preserving community character, affordable housing, central business districts, and Main Street economic development activity.

· In the case of any listed project, relate to alleviating urban flight (and blight), property abandonment, and economically distressed neighborhoods—and as a tool for sustainable and environmentally-conscious development.

· Provide the potential for mixed-use.

· Promote diverse ownership and partnering.

· Preserve not displace, separate or marginalize our city and its neighborhoods and people.

Moreover, the City Administration concurs with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), which has publicized its “Principles for Infrastructure Stimulus Investment.” ASCE believes that all projects supported by an economic stimulus investment must meet the following fundamental criteria:

· Projects must create and sustain employment increases;

· Investments must provide long term benefits to the public (such as congestion relief);

· Long term maintenance and upkeep needs of all infrastructure projects— existing and new—must be taken into account; and

· To ensure accountability and transparency an auditing program must be established to review the program and measure desired outcomes.

In order to ensure the above criteria are met, the following principles will guide SPARC selection decisions:

· The project should deliver measurable improvements in public health, safety and quality of life;

· The project should provide substantial, broad-based economic benefit;

· The project should be designed and built in a sustainable and cost-effective manner, and proper consideration must be given to life-cycle costs; and

· The project should have a significant environmental benefit such as area restoration, improved air quality through reduced congestion and better watershed management through eliminating vulnerabilities in a system.

Alexandria is in a strong position to make this investment, with no new taxes despite the current economic conditions. Across the nation, cities that invest in their inner cores are cities that succeed, are better able to attract and retain a modern workforce, and can best combat poverty, unemployment, and blight.

The best way to ensure future success is to invest right now. The money is budgeted and available, now, for ready projects involving transportation and hard infrastructure support to major transportation improvements. The City seeks matching to go along with the substantial commitments from the City.

· Alexandria will bond: $50M (has $40M in the bank, now, since September 2008)

· Alexandria will seek to leverage from other sources: $30M (federal and state)

· Alexandria will fund from municipal capital outlay program: $16M (available)

· Total package of investment: $96M

The state of Alexandria is very sound as it moves into 2009. The City has achieved an AA(-) bond rating, which is in the highest range for Louisiana governmental entities.

To maintain that stability, particularly during this time of economic uncertainty, our community must be efficient and responsive, and truly create stimulus opportunities. Infrastructure reinvestment is nearly always appropriate spending because it invests in our future, augmenting capacity. It is the community’s ability to handle increasing economic activity—from a trained workforce, to drainage, to the ability of public safety to provide adequate protection and services—that the City focuses on with SPARC.

SPARC addresses areas that have been neglected: roadways need attention and severed passages need to be reconnected. Forty years of sprawl development in Alexandria have created enormous opportunity for some, though, at the same time, it has drained significant resources and attention away from Alexandria’s historic neighborhoods and inner city. SPARC is no give away; it is reinvestment in business and capital improvements. SPARC is about sustainability over time, not fixes on the cheap. SPARC addresses our problems in three ways: targeting help to identified areas where change has the greatest impact (CRA corridors 1-3), providing those areas with new or enhanced transportation improvements, and offering unique incentives to business entrepreneurs.

According to the 2000 Census, the population of Alexandria was 46,342. This was down from the 1990 Census, which recorded a population of 49,188, though the 2008 population for the City has been estimated to be 50,236. There were 17,816 households in the City in 2000, nearly 66 percent of which were family households. While elderly householders are relatively evenly dispersed in the City, SPARC areas have a higher concentration of female-headed households with children. In 2000, median household income for the City was over $26,000, with 27.6 percent of Alexandrians living below the poverty level. Most census tracts within the SPARC-CRAs, however, had median incomes below $20,000 and over 40 percent of residents below poverty. 55 percent of residents within the City of Alexandria are African-American, and in many SPARC areas the African-American population is over 80 percent.

As a whole, 27.6 percent of Alexandrians over 25 had less than a high school education in 2000; in much of the SPARC area, that number was over 40 percent. Unemployment in Alexandria has impacted African-Americans most significantly, recorded in 2000 as being 13.5 percent, compared to less than 4.5 percent for whites.

The home ownership rate in the City of Alexandria was 57 percent in 2000. For whites, the rate was over 68 percent, while it was under 47 percent for African-Americans. Residents in most areas of the SPARC-CRAs live in rental units, though in some pockets home ownership is strong. The overall median home value in the City in 2000 was $72,200, up significantly from 1990, though in most of the SPARC area median home values were below $50,000. In most areas, 20-40 percent of homeowners were paying over 30 percent of household income on housing; in some areas, over 40 percent of ownership households were cost burdened with housing expenses. For renters, the cost burden of housing was more pronounced. In all but one census tract in the SPARC-CRAs, between 30 to 50 percent of renters paid more than 30 percent of household income for housing; in three tracts, over 50 percent of renters were cost burdened. In the inner-core neighborhoods of Alexandria, between 60 and 80 percent of the housing stock was constructed prior to 1960.

A recent housing survey conducted by J-Quad Planning Group identified a total of 8,839 parcels in the City’s CDBG target areas. J-Quad found: The survey documented 3,869 residential buildings in need of minor repairs, 1,249 major repairs needed, 468 dilapidated buildings, and 2,223 vacant lots. Therefore, 84.4% of residential buildings are in need of minor or major repairs, or dilapidated and vacant lots account for 25.1% of total parcels in the target areas. A large number of these vacant lots and some properties with structures are also a part of the adjudicated property inventory of tax foreclosure properties transferred to the City or properties awaiting Sheriff’s sale.

This survey, taken in light of the above demographic information, led the Administration of the City of Alexandria on September 17, 2008, to preliminarily find the existence of blighted and depreciated areas in the City of Alexandria, declare the elimination of this blight to be a matter of public policy, and set forth a workable program to rehabilitate and redevelop blighted areas. On February 24, 2009, the Alexandria City Council declared by resolution two Declarations of Need, one for the general elimination of blight and the other to specifically address housing deficiencies in the City of Alexandria.