Affordable Housing in the Village?

Mayor Ellen Taylor Ready

to Huff and Puff on

American Dream Folks

We got some mail in on the affordable housing issue from a reader who has some reservations about the selection process for the affordable housing committee being assembled by the Claremont City Council.

The screening of committee applicants is being conducted by Councilmembers Ellen Taylor and Sam Pedroza. Taylor has a well-deserved reputation for trying to bully her way through these things, so our condolences go out to Pedroza, who will need the patience of a Girl Scout to deal with Taylor, who will try to load up the affordable housing committee with the same people responsible for pushing the failed Base Line Rd. project.

Our reader commented:

The Courier article regarding the selection of the committee to review, and presumably select, sites for low income housing development seems to suggest that the committee might be "loaded". If past experience is any foresign, the committee will include Sharon Hightower, Karen Vance and [Andrew] Winnick with Sharon appointed as the chair.

Wouldn't it be nice to see a committee appointed with entirely new individuals who may not have biases or prejudices in the matter.

The Courier article (Wednesday, March 19th, page 4) the reader referred to isn't posted online, but it was notable for quoting then-Mayor Peter Yao, who, as usual, managed to mischaracterize his fellow councilmembers positions on the issue. For instance, Yao claimed that Councilmember Corey Calaycay was "not interested in building it anywhere."

Yao's statement is not borne out by Calaycay's public positions on the issue, which seemed more supportive of having the affordable housing spread throughout the community in the spirit of the inclusionary housing ordinance the Claremont Area League of Women Voters spent so much time pursuing a couple years ago.

The March 25th edition of the Courier had another article on affordable housing. That article, Tony Krickl is posted online. Krickl wrote that one possibility for the affordable housing project is the old Courier building on College Ave. near the Metrolink station.

The Courier site is owned by The Olson Co., which had planned on developing it as a mixed-use condo project. However, because of the housing market downturn, Olson has put their plans on hold. In the meantime, the People for the American Dream, the group that had opposed the Base Line Rd. project, has met with Olson representatives, as Krickl reported:

A community group called Citizens for the American Dream feels it can not wait for the city to act anymore. The group strongly opposed the affordable housing project on Baseline Road and worked hard to make sure it was never built.

With the city’s task force on affordable housing yet to be assembled, members of the community group are already trying to make arrangements for a new project.

Recently, 3 members of the Citizens for the American Dream met with executives of the Olson Company, who have plans in place for a development project at 111 S. College Ave., the former location of the Claremont COURIER.

“We told them that we are not representing the city, but that we want to help the city find an appropriate site for the project,” said Linda Kovach, who attended the meeting.

The other 2 group members, Joseph O’Toole and Bruce Mayclin, have both applied to sit on the city’s affordable housing task force.

Ms. Kovach said that after crunching some numbers to study its financial feasibility, Olson company officials responded positively to the idea of creating an affordable housing project at the site.

Claremont's new mayor, however, can be expected to put the kibosh on any plan put forward by the American Dream group, as she has consistently done in the past.