The project is comprised of portions of the former Central Business District (CBD) Redevelopment Project, which was adopted in 1975, and adjacent areas, which were not part of the original CBD Project area.  Following a legal challenge to the CBD Plan, the Agency in 1977 entered into a stipulated judgment, which capped the tax increment that could be received from the CBD project.  While the CBD Plan does not expire until 2010, the tax increment cap has been reached and, as a result, the Agency’s ability to address remaining blight in the CBD has been severely limited.  The Agency explored various avenues to seek relief from the effect of the tax increment cap, and ultimately determined that the most effective approach was to adopt two new redevelopment project areas, this City Center Redevelopment Project which was adopted on May 15, 2002, and the Central Industrial Redevelopment Project, which was adopted on November 15, 2002.

Although progress has been made toward eliminating blight in the former CBD project area, recent surveys indicate significant blight remained in the areas incorporated into the new redevelopment project areas.  Numerous old and obsolete structures, a lack of sites for business expansion and major new development, substandard and overcrowded housing, a shortage of affordable housing, small and oddly shaped parcels, complex and sometimes absent ownership entities that complicate or stifle revitalization and redevelopment of the area, and other conditions of blight prevail.