By: Libi Uremovic| Original Article at Patch.com
December 2, 2014 Agenda Item 4.a.13 Ratification of 2007 Heartland Approval of Final Tract Map for 981 Homes. Below is the full transcript of the following Speakers:
Jim Houlihan from Stantec Consulting represented Lehman Brothers LV Heartland LLC
Rebecca Deming: City Planning Director
Wysocki: City Attorney Partner in Aklufi Wysocki Law Firm
Lloyd White: Councilman
Alan Kapanicas: City Manager
Deming tells Council there is legal ramifications if the City doesn’t approve the 2007 Map. Wysocki Confirms Deming’s Statement.
Deming tells Council that they Approve and Deny Zoning.
Both Deming and Houlihan claim to have no knowledge of the fact that the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District will not issue Area 5 a will-serve letter. Deming claims that 2007 EIR has a ‘water component’, but that doesn’t effect the BCVWD’s policy on will-serve letters.
Audio Podcast of Council Meeting: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/index.aspx?NID=212
37:30 Jim Houlihan Stantec Consulting representing the Owner of Heartland Residential project: What i’m asking is that you don’t postpone the approval of the Consent Item 13. We were pushed back from last meeting and as considered pushed back again. What we’re trying to do is get a ratification of approval back in 2007. We agreed to go through the process; reviewing the plans, the maps with Staff. We went through the process on the parcel map and that was approved, ratified in August; ratified in July and recorded in August with the County. So now we move forward with the tract maps; all except one, which we’re working on a quick-claim with that. That’s Southern California Edison, and we’re not asking for that. That’s tract 5, so all the other ones we’re looking to move forward with hopefully to get the approval tonight and get recordation this year. The owner has moved forward with the property taxes for this year, got approval from the tax collector as required by the City. And we move into the next year we’re going to go through the process again. We’re just trying to get through this process. We spent the last 8 months with the City Surveyor and the Planning Director working through the process and getting all the approvals from the various Staff. So I’m asking that it remains and is considered.
86:45 Deming: This is the ratification of the November 2007 approval of final tract map 27971 through 12 excluding 5. the street improvements including other improvements will be required per the conditions of approval and the subdivision agreement. There is a breakdown on the report of the lot sizes minimum to maximum and average residential lot size. With final maps there are findings that would have to be made in order to both approve it and not approve it. It is simply the engineering done from the previous approval of the tentative tract map. The reason this one is coming back to you for ratification is that fact that after the last approval prior to the land owners signing the final map the landowners changed hands, there was a bankruptcy and other issues that never had the signed maps and now that everything is back in order we had to redo and re-plan check the maps so the Title page changes, it gets updated, with no substantial changes have been made to the previous map approval.
90:00 Deming: Is there legal ramifications they could have on us if those findings that have to be made; to deny it as well as the development agreement, so we have a contractual obligation to move the project forward as was originally approved in the original specific plan.
Wysocki: What the Planning Director said.
White: Okay. Someone mentioned that there is a new land owner. First of all; is this the same property that the warehouse was going on last summer?
Deming: That is correct. I skipped over that as the Council did not approve that, so therefore the proposed changes the landowner had were denied by Council. Therefore the original specific plan and tract map were still valid and are still valid today.
White: So when we went through the process of the Heartland warehouse there was no zoning change, so this is not, we’re not going to be asking us for any zoning change to make these residences.
Deming: That is correct. Council denied the proposed zoning change so the zoning remained the same.
White: Okay. The old owner was Lehman Brothers, is that correct? Who’s the new owner now? Lehman Brothers.
Deming: There was an LLC that I believe it went from SunCal Heartland LLC to LV Heartland LLC, so there were two different limited liability companies.
White: Is this property under any effect from the Water District’s cancelation or none renewal of will-serve letters?
Wysocki: No
White: So this has a will-serve letter?
Wysocki: I don’t know if it has a will-serve letter, but it’s not effected by the recent moratorium or whatever it was that the Water District approved because this was approved back in 2007.
White: Okay, my understanding is that of that is that as long as investments and infrastructure had been made; that was the only thing excluding someone from getting a new will-serve letter. So what i’m asking you is do you already have a will-serve letter for water?
Houlihan: I don’t know if it was issued or not, it was annexed into the district, that’s all I know.
Deming: It did go through a full environmental impact report and would have had a water component to the EIR that was reviewed at that time by the Water District and commented and it is a certified EIR, so this has all the environmental.
White: But if it doesn’t have a will-serve letter and the Water District is saying that unless there’s significant infrastructure investment, until this drought is over, are not going to be making any new will-serve letters. Correct?
Deming: Again, I don’t know the details of what the Water District will and will not uphold from their water assessments or if there is a previous will-serve letter. Again, that would not effect the final map because the tentative deal is already and the environmental is already approved.
White: So let’s assume that the water is not an issue, which is a huge assumption. If we approve this when do you break ground on construction of homes? When do you start making that infrastructure investment that the Water District is using as a measurement?
Jim Houlihan: LV Heartland, as you know is Lehman Brothers. They’re not a developer. They will be looking for a developer. They’re an Investor. They are the lender and it was defaulted to them. That’s how the process occurred.
94:00 White: I’ve been through this with the warehouse situation, Gateway. And I understand what’s your telling me. My question then becomes: you get this approved; these plans are approved and Lehman Brothers sells it to a developer and we’re required to honor the plans we approved tonight, correct?
Jim Houlihan: Correct.