OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'BBB+ ' long-term and underlying rating (SPUR) on the Successor Agency (SA) to the Soledad Redevelopment Agency (Monterey County), Calif.'s series 2016A tax allocation refunding bonds (TARBs) and series 2016B taxable TARBs. The outlook is stable.

"The rating reflects our view of the project area's moderately-high volatility (base-year to total assessed value) ratio of 0.31 in fiscal 2016, which indicates the sensitivity of pledged revenue to changes in AV and historical insufficient MADS coverage of less than 1x," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Li Yang.

The series 2016A bond proceeds will be used to refund the SA's 1998 series A tax allocation refunding bonds and the series 2016B bond proceeds will be used to refund the SA's series 2007A, and taxable 2007B tax allocation bonds. Upon issuance of the 2016A and 2016B bonds, the 1998, 2007A, and 2007B bonds will be subject to discontinuance.

The agency's original project area was originally adopted in 1983 with 524 acres and amended in 2006 with an additional 224 acres; collectively the project area encompasses a total of 748 acres. The city of Soledad is located in Monterey County off of Highway 101, about 116 miles south of San Francisco and 229 miles north of Los Angeles. The community has traditionally served as an agricultural service town and increasingly serves as a bedroom community to the cities of Salinas and Monterey.