Redding Rodeo Association wants long-term lease. Will it happen?
Buoyed by the 75th anniversary of a beloved North State institution, local businessman Mike Quinn started circulating a petition at last month's Redding Rodeo that asks the city of Redding to guarantee another 75 years of bull riding, barrel racing, bareback riding and calf roping at the event’s current site behind the Civic Auditorium.
“I am just asking that there be a long-term lease for them (Redding Rodeo Association),” Quinn told the Record Searchlight.
Quinn, who has a website (www.75more.com), said he collected signatures all four nights of the rodeo and said he is lobbying on behalf of the Redding Rodeo Association and Asphalt Cowboys, the nonprofit group that hosts Rodeo Week events like the Pancake Breakfast and the mock bank robbery.
“I just think it’s nice for the City Council to know the support,” Quinn said of the signature drive.
While Quinn doesn’t know how many signatures were collected, Quinn and others helping him certainly had a receptive audience as attendance at this year’s rodeo was up significantly.
The rodeo sold 20,693 tickets for the four-day event, a 23% jump from last year’s total of 16,853, Redding Rodeo Association spokesman Baron Browning said.
Redding Vice Mayor Mark Mezzano said he would give the rodeo a long-term lease, but state law makes that impossible.
The rodeo's current lease expires in 2026.
“In order to give them a 75-year lease, which I would do today, if I could, we would have to declare that land surplus property and then open it up for speculation,” which includes the potential under the state's Surplus Land Act for affordable housing being developed there, Mezzano said.
Mezzano acknowledged that building affordable housing on prime riverfront property in California probably wouldn’t financially pencil out for a developer.
“But I don’t know if the rodeo (association) wants to take that chance. I know I really don’t,” he said.
Mezzano wants to meet with City Manager Barry Tippin and Redding Rodeo Association officials to talk about extending the lease for five years. That would not trigger the state Surplus Land Act, he said.
Redding Mayor Michael Dacquisto, who’s an attorney, doesn’t think the act would factor because the city would be amending an existing lease, not executing a new one.
Dacquisto said the city recently extended its lease with Advance Redding to operate at the Civic Auditorium for 10 more years. At the time, the mayor said City Attorney Barry DeWalt told him the Surplus Land Act was not a factor because it was an amended lease.
Also, Dacquisto, said, “I don’t think it falls in the definition of the Act to begin with because the (rodeo) land is not surplus.”
DeWalt said he doesn’t recall that conservation with Dacquisto, but he doesn’t doubt it occurred.
The city at the time did contact state Housing and Community Development Department officials about the Surplus Land Act and how it would affect Advance Redding’s lease extension, DeWalt said.
“HCD determined that even though the Advance Redding extension was a term greater than five years, construction or demolition was not anticipated during the lease extension. As such, it didn’t qualify as a 'lease' and would not require that we surplus the property and offer a lease opportunity to affordable housing providers,” he said in an email.
But DeWalt couldn’t say at this time if a Redding Rodeo lease extension could be accomplished under the same grounds without having to comply with the Surplus Land Act.
Redding rodeo officials have said they want a long-term lease so they can do capital improvements and turn the site into a multi-use complex that could stage events year-round.
“Hopefully we will be able to utilize that property more,” Redding Rodeo Association President Bennett Gooch said, adding that they can’t get a loan to do the improvements with a short-term lease.
Meanwhile, the city has just started a two-year, $1.25 million Redding Riverfront Specific Plan update that will be a blueprint for future development stretching from the Redding Rodeo Grounds/Civic Auditorium property to the Cypress Avenue Bridge.
The city plans to hold public meetings later this year to get feedback for the plan. The meeting dates have not been set.
“The consultant is now putting together the workshops for the community to express their opinion on what they want for the riverfront and I can only assume that includes the rodeo,” Mezzano said.
Dacquisto said the city can update the riverfront specific plan and negotiate a long-term lease with the Redding Rodeo Association.
“The support I’ve received from the community and citizens in favor of keeping the rodeo where it is for an extended time has been overwhelming,” Dacquisto said.
Gooch called what is going on now a “chess game” and everyone needs to determine what is best for the community.
That includes the major overhaul the city wants to do to the Sacramento River boat ramp used by hobby anglers, professional fishing guides, kayakers and others. The ramp is east of Riverfront Park.
“They are going on our leased property and it seems like we should get that resolved” before work starts, Gooch said. “And they are doing it right in the middle of the riverfront plan. We’re trying to figure out whey they are moving forward while everyone else is on hold.”
Redding Community Projects Manager Travis Menne said the project is in the design and environmental phase, and any construction, if it happens, is still years away.
The city received a $311,000 state California Wildlife Conservation Board grant to do the design work.
Menne estimates that construction will cost between $2 million and $3 million and that money would also have to come from grants.
Improvements would include more parking, new bathrooms, lighting, security cameras and extending the riverfront trail.
Menne said they are working with the rodeo.
“We need to figure out how it will work best for them as well,” Menne said.
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding Rodeo Association wants long-term lease. Will it happen?
