Flaws Fiction and Lies in the CRA Plan 6

Read it from the City's Web Page.
http://www.cityofgrandterrace.org/archives/38/03092010%20Council%20Packet.PDF

The Biggest Flaw in the CRA Plan 6 is that the presentation does not spend an equal time disclosing the alternatives. What will City Government Look Like without a CRA how will the funds be spent. What alternative actions can be taken to deal with blight?

The CRA system requires GT to go into debt. This is kind of like a Discover Card that gives you a "Discount" or "Rebate" for making purchases with the Card then charges you a high interest rate for the unpaid balance.

How much of the City's General Fund is sucked in to the CRA. How much of the State Taxes we all Pay gets paid to Banks and Finance Companies? Even if justifiable on the local level, it is not at the State Budget Level. Some one pays for the interest.

The Fiction is. Grand Terrace is in need of additional Grocery, Drug, and or other retail that does not increase the total income of the economic pool. The reality is we have a Walmart, BigLots,RiteAid and a Department Store all within 1 mile from our boarders. We don't have a shopping deficiency. The Current Stater Brothers market is sufficient. The claim of no Grocery Store is made in places where people have to drive 5 miles or more to get to a Grocery Store. Some neighborhoods in Los Angeles suffer from a shortage of Grocery Stores for example. Grand Terrace Does NOT.

In additon there is not a shortage of nearby better locations for stores in Colton closer to the 215. There is an Empty K Mart, Empty Albertsons, Empty small retail shops just down the hill from us. Retail Space sitting EMPTY.

It is a FICTION that the Town Center was going to include a stand alone public owned Library. To say such is a LIE. The truth is that the Developer and the City Manger planed for the City or County to Lease a space and have the County Move the Library out of City Hall. Problem is that this was not in the County Library's plan or budget. The City is not funded sufficiently to operate a Library on its own. This is and was pink smoke and lies to justify it as a "Public" development.

It is a Fiction that the "High Crime" areas are Crime Ridden like areas in large cities. There may be higher crime but the type and frequency is minimal in contrast to other cities and so this justification should be labeled an exaggeration of facts and a fiction.

It is a new fiction that a Dog Park is in the Plans by the City. The city has had several opportunities to make a Dog Park and has shown zero interest. Even the Jacobsen Park is not designated as a Dog Park.. Blue Mt, is not designated as an off leash area. This is a political bit of smoke to grasp some political support.

It is a LIE that Grand Terrace will be better off with more Drug Stores that sell alcohol. This will increase Crime. It is a Lie that we NEED a New grocery store or that Stater Brothers is dependent upon a Redevelopment Agency to Build its stores. It is fiction that the CRA will increase incomes and thus the purchasing power of the citizens of Grand Terrace. None of the proposed actions will increase the personal disposable income of Grand Terrace Residents.

What will happen is that existing businesses will fail due to new competition. Existing Commercial Buildings will become vacant. Existing housing stocks will have artificially supported prices and will not be sold at a price attractive to the fixer upper market. When things get old the prices should go down and the new buyer either fixes or replaces what needs repair. With this CRA in place the prices are inflated and supported by the need to have them over valued for tax collection purposes. It is an artificial economy designed to pay bankers, financiers, and developers to be vampires of tax money. They act like giant human ticks sucking sustainability right out of a naturally evolving economy and community.

Big Flaw in the plan to protect the Environment... and preserve the nature of the community. If the CRA is thinking of converting the flood plain along the Santa Anna River it is in violation of both of these stated objectives. First of all the SCE power lines over head limit what can be done on most of that land. Second the 10 to 20 year floods make it great pasture and farm land but limits other uses. Building "Flood Control" is not an environmentally sound idea for that area. The water table rises above that point at times. It doesn't take a wild flood to cause problems for that piece of property. That area should be Agriculture Zoned for a use that requires minimal capital improvements on the land. Plan on the area flooding and work around the floods. That would be the best environmental adaptation.

The CRA and City maintain the right to change the Zone Classification of all and any property in the City without regard to the owners intended use. Your "Residential Zoned Property" can be changed to Commercial and then you have lost some of your power and use of your own property. When the City has a Plan and a Designated Developer it limits the competitive market when you sell your property to a single buyer.

The past is a predictor of the future... The CRA has not been used correctly in the past, the CRA has not helped the economy of GT in the Past. In the Past CRA has been used to be a tool against Citizens and Businesses. There is no reason to think that the Past does not predict the Future. It is time to end the CRA and the Economic and Cultural Abuses it has subjected us to.