Column updates: low-cost housing units, Friends Christian High School progress
Time to update two topics from past columns--and add a new note:
--Despite the dissolution of the city’s Redevelopment Agency and the dispute with state officials over some of the late agency’s financial obligations, the city’s 2011 decision to acquire units in several residential complexes for affordable housing can continue.
The city has purchased 26 of 48 approved units through September, with funding from Redevelopment Agency property tax revenue before Feb. 1 and by the state-authorized Successor Agency since. City Council members named themselves to both bodies.
Acquisitions are permitted in any condominium complex, but six--five on the westside and one on the eastside--were identified in 2011 for additional buys: Evergreen Villas, The Hills, Jamestown, Lakeview Retirement, Rancho Linda and Yorba Linda Village.
Initially, $9 million was set aside for purchases, with $5.7 million remaining in the fund, according to the latest listing. The purchased units have “affordable covenants,” so they count in meeting the city’s state-mandated allocation for low-cost housing.
Acquired units are administered by Evergreen Villas L.P., which also handles affordable properties previously purchased in the city. The firm rehabilitates and markets the units as rentals to low-income households.
--Friends Christian High School reps and city staff are meeting “to address refinements” in the ground lease for 32 acres of city-owned land along Bastanchury Road “to make it a financeable document,” according to the school’s latest report to the City Council.
“Performance standards are proposed to be added to the lease documents to ensure that the project commences and progresses in a timely manner,” the report stated. Possible termination of the unpaid lease was delayed another 120 days at an Aug. 21 meeting.
Rent negotiations are expected to take into consideration the property’s fair market value by two independent appraisers, evaluations projected to be completed early this month. A target date for presenting the new lease has been fixed for the Nov. 20 council meeting.
“Refinements” to a city-school pact for the joint-use of school facilities also are planned for discussion, with new verbiage “to ensure that the guiding principles…will be clearly spelled out and available to future participants in the administration of this program.”
Four payments totaling about $840,000 remain due for the current calendar year. School officials previously said they cannot obtain financing to build the proposed 1,200-student campus due to terms in the lease that has 94 remaining years.
--Restaurant owner Roslyn Ruocco, barbershop proprietor Mike Ruocco, hardware store owner Art Brown and insurance agent Dale Madsen were interviewed by Swedish media recently for a story on the election published in the daily Expressen newspaper.
Reporter Niklas Orrenius and photographer Axel Oberg visited Main Street and toured the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace before traveling to Ohio. Orrenius had viewed this column online from Sweden and emailed to ask me to set up local interviews.
--Despite the dissolution of the city’s Redevelopment Agency and the dispute with state officials over some of the late agency’s financial obligations, the city’s 2011 decision to acquire units in several residential complexes for affordable housing can continue.
The city has purchased 26 of 48 approved units through September, with funding from Redevelopment Agency property tax revenue before Feb. 1 and by the state-authorized Successor Agency since. City Council members named themselves to both bodies.
Acquisitions are permitted in any condominium complex, but six--five on the westside and one on the eastside--were identified in 2011 for additional buys: Evergreen Villas, The Hills, Jamestown, Lakeview Retirement, Rancho Linda and Yorba Linda Village.
Initially, $9 million was set aside for purchases, with $5.7 million remaining in the fund, according to the latest listing. The purchased units have “affordable covenants,” so they count in meeting the city’s state-mandated allocation for low-cost housing.
Acquired units are administered by Evergreen Villas L.P., which also handles affordable properties previously purchased in the city. The firm rehabilitates and markets the units as rentals to low-income households.
--Friends Christian High School reps and city staff are meeting “to address refinements” in the ground lease for 32 acres of city-owned land along Bastanchury Road “to make it a financeable document,” according to the school’s latest report to the City Council.
“Performance standards are proposed to be added to the lease documents to ensure that the project commences and progresses in a timely manner,” the report stated. Possible termination of the unpaid lease was delayed another 120 days at an Aug. 21 meeting.
Rent negotiations are expected to take into consideration the property’s fair market value by two independent appraisers, evaluations projected to be completed early this month. A target date for presenting the new lease has been fixed for the Nov. 20 council meeting.
“Refinements” to a city-school pact for the joint-use of school facilities also are planned for discussion, with new verbiage “to ensure that the guiding principles…will be clearly spelled out and available to future participants in the administration of this program.”
Four payments totaling about $840,000 remain due for the current calendar year. School officials previously said they cannot obtain financing to build the proposed 1,200-student campus due to terms in the lease that has 94 remaining years.
--Restaurant owner Roslyn Ruocco, barbershop proprietor Mike Ruocco, hardware store owner Art Brown and insurance agent Dale Madsen were interviewed by Swedish media recently for a story on the election published in the daily Expressen newspaper.
Reporter Niklas Orrenius and photographer Axel Oberg visited Main Street and toured the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace before traveling to Ohio. Orrenius had viewed this column online from Sweden and emailed to ask me to set up local interviews.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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