We received a response to yesterday's post about affordable housing:
Dear Insider,
I suggest that you obtain (from City Clerk) the Task Force's summary of recommendations to the City Council - some interesting info to be found. Also note that the Task Force used 7 criteria for evaluating potential sites:
- Proximity to transit center
- On bus route
- Proximity and access routes to elementary schools
- Proximity to grocery stores
- Proximity to parks
- Whether site would result in dispersal of affordable housing
- If within 500 feet of a freeway
If this kind of analysis was used in the first place, there is no way (in good faith) the Baseline site would have qualified. So it is interesting that even in view of these criteria, the committee is still keeping the site on the list - Why? In fact one of the committee members had (in a written comment in the draft Task Force recommendations) correctly argued:After hearing the comments of city residents regarding Site #14 (the Baseline site), plus identifying several other sites more suitable for immediate development of affordable housing, I would recommend that site #14 be removed from the Housing Element inventory list. Furthermore, I believe that the property should now be sold, with the funds used for their original intended purpose, that of providing affordable housing. Too many years have already been spent trying to develop this property. Lack of available funding, air quality research findings and an overall disapproval of this site as acceptable for residential dwelling, will only continue to contribute to a distraction of efforts by the City Council to develop affordable housing alternatives in Claremont. The remaining 5 sites still provide 19.3 acres for possible development of low and very low income housing.
Unfortunately the member who wrote this ended up voting with the majority, present, (4:1 and 2 absent) to keep the Baseline site on the list. One wonders what happened between the time he wrote this and the time of voting on the recommend list - Any Guesses?
No, no idea. Possibly just going along to get along. The idea of selling off the land to finance a development somewhere else may not be a bad one. Since the Police Commission has seen fit to eliminate the Base Line Rd. site as a possibility for the new police station, we might as well cash out and put the money to better use somewhere else.
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