In the PRESS and FROM THE EMAIL INBOX:

After setbacks, city rethinking its retail - Stephen Wall, Staff Writer

GRAND TERRACE - The city is forsaking adventure in favor of tradition. Their dreams dashed by a lawsuit and economic realities, officials are trying to make good use of the largest remaining block of vacant land in the city. http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_5059808?source=email

Worries about Wal-Mart - Leonor Vivanco, Staff Writer

Decades-old mom-and-pop stores will close their doors for good. More traffic will be backed up on already-clogged streets. These are the fears many residents express when a Wal-Mart supercenter is proposed in their neighborhood. http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_5059800

From the Email InBox:

The only thing that will guarantee the economic future of Grand Terrace is to do away with the RDA. All it does is put the tax payers deeper in debt and provides nothing. Any revenue that an RDA project produces goes back to the RDA, not to the General Fund. The General Fund is being used to pay off RDA debt and the City is using RDA money for it's everyday operation. An illegal act. The City failed to put the traffic fees for the OAC on the developer an $18,000,000 cost the taxpayers would have been burdened with. Judge Wade ruled in favor of the citizens because of this ineptness. Here's proof.Mr Schwab had to ask the Council for approval to pay the $34,000 out of the City Redevelopment Agency. A paltry sum compared to the $18,000,000 favor the Mayor and City manager were doing for the developer. Mr. Koontz, the City Planning Director, and now a employee Mr. Megna,C.E.O. of Jamieson Group,that are drawing thousands a month from the City coffers, are responsible. Mr. Megna and Mr. Schwab, who brought the flawed OAC plan to the city should be held accountable. Mr. Megna made hundreds of thousands off this flawed project as well as Nolte Engineering, the then three day a week employer of Mr. Koontz. If we had a Council that was doing it's job and not just posing for pictures in the Blue Mountain Outlook the City would not have to file false reports to the State, putting State funding in jeopardy, to cover their illegal acts. The OAC is the prime example of the ineptness of this Mayor and why she will not answer or cannot answer any questions at Council meetings nor will she allow any other Council member to respond to citizens questions. The Grand Terrace Partners came into the OAC project and did a market study and feasibility and found it to be neither, stating at the Council meeting it would not produce the revenue that Mr. Schwab still claims in the Sun press release. The Partners came in with a plan that seemed to appease everyone concerned and the community was led to believe by Mr. Schwab that the Grand Terrace Partners were the chosen developers. Now he claims that there are no plans. What was that the the Grand Terrace Partners presented to the City. Which is it? The false report the City filed with the State claims the original OAC still to be a project. Why were the infrastructure questions not addressed by Mr. Schwab, Mr. Koontz and Mr. Megna at the time instead of just plowing ahead and throwing money into the project without a market study or feasibilty study before hand. Mr. Megna, Mr. Koontz and Mr. Schwab cooked up a report that verified everything they claimed the OAC would produce. At that time the citizens asked where they got their figures because they were based on nothing. They appeared to just be taken from out of the air. That is what these three people are being paid for, not to waste taxpayers money on projects that are not thoroughly researched. The need to get revenue into the City before the State or Federal Government comes in and audits the RDA, the CRA and the General Fund trumps everything. Now the very thing Mayor Ferre and the other Council members and Staff said they would not allow is being planned for the land. Tilt up buildings and the freeway strip mall that you see all over California. Mr. Schwab states in the press release that the plans are going ahead on the Town Center, evident by the grading being done there encompassing more than the approved Miguel's. When was Jacobsens Plan B brought before the Planning Commission, the Council and the Community? Why is it Mr. Schwab is given the authority to approve projects that do not have to go to the required vetting process that the law requires. Mr. Schwab now receives $150,000 a year and cost the taxpayers more than that in irresponsible acts. He demonstrates he is under qualified for the position. He has run the City into bankrupt obviously. Why would he need to take $30,000 from the Redevelopment Agency and not the General Fund or the $5,000,000 reserve he claims we have. Mayor Ferre motives are already known by her past newspaper stories where she has said she wants to out develop her father, Mr.Megna's motives are he is in business and out to make a profit. Mr. Koontz is employed by him and the City. Council member Miller questioned an $8000 check to Mr. Megna company a few months ago and Mr. Schwab answered that was the company Mr. Koontz works for now. Doesn't sound like it's all above board and honest. Just more of the same old same old. Once again Mr. Wall does his typical research.( Whatever the City says I will print and ask no questions unless it's from the reporter from the Blue Mountain who also works for Terra Loma Reality) He is why we no longer subscribe to the Sun. He is the sock puppet for the City. We miss Paul LaRocco from the P.E.
From the Emil InBox:

The "gadflies", "advocates", "anti growth groups", "save Grand Terrace people", “Environmental Terrorists” and all the other less nice names the city staff and officials and the press have called Citizens who have dared to question the development plans of the Redevelopment Agency of Grand Terrace were with out merit. Yet they raised the concerns that the Plan did not look like it was a benefit to the tax base of the community. When the figures provided by the Developer and Mr. Schwab were questioned those questions went un answered until the last moment when the Feasability Study was done and resulted in a negative declaration by the “Grand Terrace Partners”. Add to this lack of Merit of the Citizens who brought the matter to court, the flawed Environmental Impact Mitigations including Traffic and Road Impact. Do we not see a pattern of incompetence or worse emanating from the Halls of City Management?

120 Ac of Land to be developed under the Expertise and Management of Mr. Tom Schwab and his Staff. This should by now not be a heart warming prospect. Perhaps this New City Council can figure out how to Remove the Repeat of Errors from this point on.

Some of this RDA owned land was aquired under the burden of zoning that precluded its use for development other than OAC, and other means of questionable deal making tactics. If it were a New Jersey Swamp it couldn’t smell worse.

Let us hope that the DO OVER DEAL and PLAN is done RIGHT this TIME. Part of that Doing it RIGHT includes knowing how the freeway and off ramps will be designed so that can be incorporated into the design requirements, environmental mitigations, and a real assessment of possible uses of that particular bit of property.

If the City Redevelopment Agency didn’t go into Debt, the City have been able to learn to live within its revenue resources. More is not always better.