Laserfiche WebLink
/}I'%'ALVARADOSMITH <br />March 15, 2016 <br />Page 4 <br />which then allowed the City to create the Project, which, as noted in the City's materials' "is the <br />only specific project proposed by the Redevelopment Plan". The City's Environmental Impact <br />Report for this Project (in both past and current phases) was expressly based upon the <br />Redevelopment Plan. <br />To create the foundation for the prior "blight" finding that is still the basis for the Project, <br />the City's baseline documents note that businesses like the Subject Property are "older" uses that <br />are disjointed and unappealing in character, with little resources to invest as a "local" business <br />serving Hispanic customers who primarily walk to purchase goods and services. The City's <br />documents further note that the Redevelopment Plan and Project will remove older business to <br />attract new private sector development to the area. The stated goal of the Project is to acquire . <br />the remnant parcels from the Subject Property and its neighbors to put new zoning in place to <br />encourage private development. This goal is explicitly illegal, but nonetheless, the City has put <br />forward the Resolution of Necessity for the Subject Property to accomplish the redevelopment <br />goals that spur this Project onward. <br />Therefore, the basis for the Resolution of Necessity is flawed, and the specific necessity <br />findings that must be made in order to adopt the Resolution are entirely lacking. <br />First, the public interest and necessity do not require the Project. Code of Civil <br />Procedure §1240.030(a) The Project is an illegal redevelopment Project, and because the City is <br />acquiring more than the property necessary for the road widening, the Project is not a valid <br />public purpose, and the public interest and necessity do not require it; instead, the economic <br />motivations of the City are driving the acquisition of private property not for a public purpose, <br />but rather to benefit private development, an illegal end. Redevelopment Agency v. Norm's <br />Slauson (1985) 173 Ca1.App, 3d 1121; Santa Cruz Redevelopment Agency v. Izant (1995) 37 <br />Cal.App.4`" 141; City gfStockton v. Marina Towers, LLC (2009) 171 Cal.App.4" 93; San <br />Bernardino County Flood Control v. Grabowski (1988) 205 Cal.App.3d 885 <br />Second, the project is not planned or located in the manner that will be most compatible <br />with the greatest public good and the least private injury. Code of Civil Procedure §1240,030(b), <br />The City's RON lacks any discussion of this element, rendering any potential finding of <br />necessity capricious, lacking evidentiary support and a gross abuse of discretion. The City cannot <br />show that the injury to the Subject Property (from a full take) was considered in any way. <br />The consideration in assessing the injury to the owner of the Subject Property is the very <br />discretion and weighing of facts and evidence that is discussed in. Norm's Slauson, supra, at <br />1127. The public body must acknowledge the impact on the property owner from the Project, <br />' This quotation is taken from the City's Bristol Street Corridor Specific Plan Amendment, which was publicly <br />circulated and on the brink of being considered at a public hearing of the City's Planning Commission until <br />challenged by my firm on behalf of the Bristol Street Coalition. <br />4050975.1 -- N 1475,1 <br />