ONTARIO — A 19-acre plot on Walker Lake Road will likely stay undeveloped after Ontario City Council’s decision to reverse a previous rezone at its Wednesday meeting.
Council President Eddie Gallo said a council member requested a motion to rescind the previous decision after it voted 4-2 in November to approve a rezone request for the CJ Donley Corporation’s luxury apartments plans.
“If we can’t develop it, we’ll sit on it or sell it,” said CJ Donley Corporation president Craig Donley.
Gallo noted the Ontario planning commission recommended against the rezone in September, and that he had received concerns from residents in the area.
“I’m speaking on behalf of 700 voices,” Gallo said. “I stopped them short of writing petitions and filling this room tonight, telling them we would consider the motion again.
“I want to be a partner to you in this, but we have to listen to the constituents and their concerns, and the concerns of the city from an infrastructure standpoint.
“I’m not against development and growth, but I want to support responsible growth.”
Council votes 5-1 to rescind rezone
Only at-large councilman Kyle Webb voted to stand by the council’s original decision from Nov. 15. Because Mayor Randy Hutchinson hadn’t signed the ordinance, law director Andrew Medwid said it hadn’t gone into effect yet.
“It didn’t pass the requisite percentage for it to pass as an emergency measure,” Medwid said.
“That effectively makes the timeframe 40 days from when council passed it for it to go into effect.”
Gallo said he was concerned about sewer and sanitary issues in the city’s first ward if the apartment complex project were approved.
“We put the car wash on hold for that very reason,” he said. “I can assure you most of the people of Spring Village Lane have had raw sewage backup into their homes.
“There’s a problem in that area right now that the city has to deal with when it comes to infrastructure and sanitary lines.”
Donley said he would be willing to work with the city on tax increment financing to improve sanitary lines.
“I’m not going to backup sewage onto people’s property, we’ll comply with whatever studies find is needed for that area,” Donley said. “I’ve developed under a TIF before, and would do that again.”
The city’s original R-2 zoning supports development for one- and two-family residences and publicly-owned facilities.
CJ Donley Corporation not threatening legal action, yet
Donley said he has helped bring multiple businesses to Ontario including Menards, Furniture Row, Panera Bread, Caliber Collision and Pep Boys.
Peter Bookman, director of real estate for the CJ Donley Corporation, said he thought an R-3 zone for multifamily building would be appropriate for that area of the city, just east of North Lexington-Springmill Road.
“R-3 provides a transition from business to family zoning,” he said. “This parcel is located adjacent to many commercial zones, which is an ideal location for the R-3 that we requested.”
The CJ Donley Corporation team said at the November meeting that it expected to invest $50 million into the project to build at least 200 luxury apartments.
“We have spent a large amount of money since the positive vote,” Bookman said. “We have a builder and a venture capitalist … For everything the Donley organization has done for Ontario, we were kind of stymied.
“It should be emphasized that we would still have to come to the planning commission for site approval. Granting a rezone is not the end of control that the City of Ontario will have over this development.”
Bookman said the corporation doesn’t plan on initiating litigation currently, but the team is keeping its options open.
“We’re trying to do this amicably,” he said. “We will definitely try to be compensated for money we’ve spent and money we could have made if it can’t be resolved.”
Also in Wednesday’s meeting:
- Council approved 2024 temporary appropriations with an expected $20 million budget, about $1.2 million above this year’s spending plan.
- Council approved salary raises for office personnel beginning in 2024.
- City Council announced a public hearing scheduled for Jan. 17 to discuss an advanced manufacturing and technology overlay district in the city’s zoning code. The planning commission suggested the overlay district to “promote clean, advanced manufacturing … that operate with minimal external impacts.”
- Councilman Josh Bradley said Reveille president Glenn Grisdale reported 250 people have submitted surveys to help the Ontario Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee plan the next 20 years of the city’s growth. He said surveys are still open and the committee would like more feedback.
- Council completed the first reading of an agreement between Johnny Appleseed Baseball Club and the city to improve baseball/ softball fields in Marshall Park.
- The streets committee discusses a pavement analysis the city received identifying some of the most critical pavement issues and suggested ways to address them.