Yuba County District 4 supervisor candidates take on homelessness, housing questions

Editor’s Note: This is the sixth in a series of eight Q-and-as featuring candidates for local offices. Respondents were given questions with word limits; ellipses are used if a candidate went over the limit. Responses are in the candidates’ own words.

Candidates for the Yuba County District 4 supervisor’s seat are incumbent Gary Bradford and challenger Joe Henderson. Following are their responses to our questionnaire:

Gary Bradford

1. Please tell us a little about yourself – you are free to list any background or credentials you feel are relevant.

Bradford: I’ve lived in south Yuba County for over 14 years and since 2017 I’ve been honored to serve as the supervisor representing the Beale AFB, Plumas Lake and Wheatland areas. Prior to being elected as supervisor

Joe Henderson

velop a multi-family housing de- velopment.

Another option is to develop multi-family housing with some retail.

The last option is to allow for industrial development with some sort of cannabis business park located at the site.

The latter option is most likely to generate the greatest amount of revenue for the city, Brown said, but the city also has a need for more affordable housing.

“We wanted to look at all of the options to help the council make an informed decision on the direction they would like staff to go in, so we wanted to turn over every stone,” Brown said.

Challenges

The property presents development challenges, which is one of the reasons it has remained vacant for more than a decade. It’s located along a four-lane state highway and backed up to a railroad line. Utility lines also cut through the site, which will need to be moved before development can occur.

The city bought the property for $2.8 million in 2006 and funded the purchase with a $3.5 million general obligation bond. As the site sat vacant, the city continued to make annual debt service payments in excess of $600,000 on the land, according to Appeal-democrat archives.

The city refinanced its bonds for the property last fall, which helped reduce its annual costs and allows the city to sell the property – prior to refinancing, the property was considered collateral on the bonds.

“Now that it is no longer collateral, it’s going to be a lot easier for us to do different things with it and market it to developers,” Buttacavoli said.

Brown said all three options included in the market assessment would result in either the selling of the property or a longterm ground lease with a developer.

Buttacavoli said he thinks the property would benefit from being split up into multiple parcels so that the city could market it to multiple retailers, which would result in more sales tax income for the city.

“Whatever the council decides on, I think now is the time that we’ve got to move forward with some real strong marketing to get something done at the site,” he said.

Following a presentation by the consulting firm regarding the market assessment, council members are expected to provide staff with policy direction for the property. If given the green light, Brown said, the city will begin circulating requests for proposals in hopes of attracting a developer interested in entering into an agreement.

Tonight’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. and will be at City Hall – 526 C St., Marysville.