Facing a deadline, the city may give up millions in grant money if landowners don’t plug a gap in local funding.
Beaumont leaders may consider pulling the plug on the Potrero Boulevard/Highway 60 interchange project if nearby landowners and potential developers do not step forward to cover more than $2.5 million in additional costs.
Developers already have agreed to contribute $5 million upfront toward the estimated $33.96 million phase one cost, but the Beaumont City Council expressed hesitation at a study session Jan. 3 about committing any more scarce city dollars.
“There is no money in the strong box, so to speak, to take it out and take care of this first phase of Potrero,” Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Carroll said Friday, Jan. 13. “We would be talking money away from other things.”
The city is on fiscally shaky ground. It is trying to negotiate a settlement of a legal judgment over transportation funds that could cost millions, plus find a way to pay for a necessary sewer plant expansion project.
The vision of the interchange project is more than a decade in the making, with the city having already spent $11 million before progress slowed.
Some of the initial $11 million went to Urban Logic, a former consulting firm for the city in the eye of a corruption case where seven former city officials face felony charges, including misuse of city funds.
The Riverside County Transportation Commission informed the city last year it was in jeopardy of losing millions in federal funds if the city didn’t meet certain deadlines on a time line toward insuring the project is ready to go to bid by the end of May. Those dollars could benefit projects elsewhere.
The city received letters from the commission last year indicating the intention to “de-program” $8.929 million due to lack of progress, according to a staff report by city Director of Public Works Amer Jakher.
The money is only for the first phase, which would include construction of a six-lane bridge to extend Potrero over the 60, build a connection ramp on Western Knolls to Potrero north of the freeway and include some widening.
A second phase, with an estimated $23.3 million price tag, includes a partial cloverleaf interchange and access on and off the highway in both directions.
Earlier this month, the council asked City Manager Todd Parton to continue meeting with landowners to determine if they are willing to increase their participation, including obtaining necessary right of way for the improvements.
“I think the project is beneficial. I think this is a good program,” said Councilman Mike Lara at the meeting. “The problem is the timing.”
Mayor Lloyd White said the issue “is a distraction getting in the way of more important things,” including getting the city on a better financial footing and regaining trust of the community.
At the Jan. 3 meeting, Michael Busch and Barry Foster, consultants with different firms, shared the potential for development and sales tax dollars to bolster the city’s revenue if the interchange developed.
Last August, the council — with a different make up — voted 3-2 in favor of moving forward with the project.