By DUANE W. GANG
The Press-Enterprise
The San Bernardino County grand jury is looking into the 1,200 acres of surplus flood control land near Rancho Cucamonga that the county hopes to sell for development, officials said this week.
The property is north of Highway 210 and is one of the last large undeveloped parcels in the San Bernardino Valley. Five development groups are fighting for the right to build homes, stores and golf courses on the land.
Although declining to discuss specifics, two officials said the annual grand jury has started asking questions about the property.
Rancho Cucamonga City Manager Jack Lam said Monday he met with the grand jury last week about the property. Board of Supervisors Chairman Gary Ovitt also has discussed the property with members of the grand jury, said Mark Kirk, Ovitt's chief of staff.
"The subject came up in the supervisor's regularly scheduled meeting with the grand jury," Kirk said by e-mail on Sunday. "I don't believe I can legally discuss specifics."
Most of the land is in unincorporated San Bernardino County.
The county entered a cooperative agreement with Rancho Cucamonga last June to choose the winning development proposal because about 40 acres of it is within city limits. Once the land is developed, it will all be annexed by the city.
The City Council will choose the top two proposals. As part of the agreement, the Board of Supervisors could either approve the city's recommendation or "reject it by unanimous vote of the supervisors present at the meeting."
The City Council toured the property earlier this month, and will meet June 1 to discuss the proposals, Assistant City Manager Pamela Easter said Monday.
If council members need more time, they will meet again on June 3, she said.
The five groups competing to develop the land include Rancho Alliance Investors, Stockton-based Richland Communities, which teamed with Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers, Orange County-based Brookfield Homes, Irvine-based Foremost Communities and Los Angeles-based K&K Developers.
The Rancho Alliance consists of a group of prominent Inland-area developers, including the Lewis Group of Companies, Shea Homes, Young Homes and Diversified Pacific.
Reach Duane W. Gang at 951-368-9547 or dgang@PE.com
http://www.pe.com/localnews/politics/stories/PE_News_Local_N_property21.4396dfb.html
3 comments:
Click on the link and read the article about More open space in danger, thanks to the Rancho Cucamonga City council...of course they found a way to steal this away from a conservation group...and why can't they wait until the appeals process is over...why in such a hurry...is the fire getting too hot...Please Grand Jury follow the link and look into this too. If the link doesn't wok, copy and paste into your browser
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_preserve21.422d0f3.html
Why in such a hurry...why can't they wait for the appeal process to end. The answer is clear to me, this land is next to preserve, which is next to the 1200 acres, whose future sale and all the players involved are being investigated by the Grand Jury. I hope the same Grand Jury gets wind to this, and investigates it as well..seems like this may be part of the "sweet heart" deal package. Also by getting it sold and using a start bid of zero dollars an acres, will allow them to use it as a low comp(and it will sale low with no advertisement and this economy) for the 1200 Acres(make sense now)...here is the where Biane and Postmus lack of appraisal experience shows...this is a foreclosure sale, and therefore does not represent fair market value so any appraisal using it as a comp should be called into question....of course Biane has a back up plan in place...he just appointed his Uncle to a the land Assessment appeals board...can anyone spell NEPOTISM...are you starting to connect the dots here...something stinks in San Bernardino county...but that is nothing new
Anonymous said...
Grand Jury should look into what the guidelines assessors office currently uses to determine the value of raw land in San Bernardino County...Residential raw land is about $5 per square foot and commercial raw land is about $17 per square foot...a lot higher than Paul Biane's Low ball Estimate of the land being Valued at $25 - $50million per acres(which sets it at $25-45 thousand dollars an acre)....even using the County's current guides that had not change as of Yesterday(4/23/09)...the lowest cost per square foot would have it coming in well over $200,000 an acre
April 24, 2009 4:46 PM
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