City News

CITY OFFICES WILL CLOSE FOR HOLIDAY

City of Claremont municipal government offices will be closed Thursday and Friday for the holiday.


CITY POSTS INITIAL STUDIES ONLINE

City Hall has started posting the Planning Department's initial studies for projects on the city's website. You can view them here.

The first two that have been posted are the Claremont Graduate University Zone General Plan and the initial study for the city's cell tower code. These two were both posted on November 19th. The public comment period for both will last until December 8th. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Older initial studies are available through the city's online archives. You have to use the search engine to find the particular document you are looking for - better bone up on your Boolean logic or you'll have to wade through pages of hits to find the thing you seek.


CITY COUNCIL MEETING

The Claremont City Council meets at 6:30pm tonight in the City Council chambers at 225 W. 2nd St. in the Claremont Village. The City has the meeting agenda posted. You can also watch the meeting live online here.

On tap for tonight:

• The second reading of the city's ordinance dealing with abandoned properties.
  
  
• A proposed $176,345 contract for restoring the pergola at the Padua Hills Theatre.
  
  
• An advance of $1.5 million from the City's General Fund to the Claremont Redevelopment Agency, the board of which consists of the City Council and the City Manager, to purchase the old Claremont Courier property at 111 S. College Ave. This is intended for affordable housing in the future.
  
  The terms are for 15 years with interest-only payments for the first five years. Once again, the city borrows from one pot to pay for something else. More Three-card Monty-style fiscal shuffling.
  
  You just have to be willing to keep your eye on the card for the next 15 years. You'll see plenty more of these money games once Bridget Healy is on the Council next March.
  
  
• Approval for extending the Claremont Villas Senior Apartment subsidy program another five years to 2013.
  
  
• Approval of a settlement agreement between the City and Caltrans regarding four parcels of land along the 210 Freeway that Caltrans did not use for the freeway construction.
  
  Under the agreement, three of the four parcels (Live Oak & Base Line Rd., Sumner Ave., and Monte Vista) will be rezoned from "open space" to "residential use." The City will purchase the fourth parcel, on Williams Ave., from Caltrans for $15,400.
  
  The Council is also being asked to approve budgeting $25,000 for planning a park on the Williams Ave. site.