CITY OKS HIDDEN CREEK PLAN; DEVELOPER PREPARES TO SEEK ANNEXATION OF 4,300 ACRES.Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer The City Council has approved the development agreement for the 3,200-home Hidden Creek Ranch ranch, large farm devoted chiefly to raising and breeding cattle, horses, sheep, and goats. The cattle ranch was introduced from Latin America to Texas and the plains of the W United States and Canada. - the largest project ever proposed in the city. Although Messenger Investment Co. officials already are looking ahead to their next challenge, hearings by the Local Agency Formation Commission to annex an·nex tr.v. an·nexed, an·nex·ing, an·nex·es 1. To append or attach, especially to a larger or more significant thing. 2. the 4,300 acres to the city, they savored the city's approval Wednesday night of the agreement. ``We're very, very pleased that after 8-1/2 years of hard work, we've received these approvals,'' Gary Austin Gary Austin is the founder and was the original director of the Los Angeles theatre company, "The Groundlings". Austin earned a B.A. in theater from San Francisco State University, and holds workshops on both the east and west coasts of the United States. , vice president of the Irvine-based company, said Thursday. He estimated construction would not begin on the project until at least sometime in the year 2000. LAFCO LAFCO Local Agency Formation Commission LAFCO Los Angeles Filmmakers Cooperative officials said they received Messenger's application last week and expect to put it on the agenda sometime in September. Austin said he is confident LAFCO will vote in the company's favor to amend the city's sphere of influence to include the project. On the other hand, he wouldn't venture a guess at the project's chances with regard to the annexation annexation, in international law, formal act by which a state asserts its sovereignty over a territory previously outside its jurisdiction. Many kinds of territory have been subject to annexation, chief among them those inhabited by settlers of the annexing power, . ``We have no idea what other issues may come up,'' he said. ``We haven't had the benefit of discussions with LAFCO because we've been focusing all our time with the city.'' The project would bring 10,000 new residents to the city. Proponents of the development agreement said the project also will bring a much-needed bypass for Highway 118. ``We are literally looking at an agreement tonight that's going to take 4,000 trucks a day off L.A. Avenue,'' said Councilman Chris Evans, one of three councilmen to approve the agreement at the meeting Wednesday night. ``That, to me, makes it a good deal for the city.'' Mayor Patrick Hunter Patrick Edward Hunter (born October 24, 1964 in San Francisco, California) is a former American football cornerback who played 10 seasons for the Seattle Seahawks and the Arizona Cardinals from 1986 to 1995. , who voted against approving the project's specific plan two weeks ago, was out of town and not available for the vote. Councilwoman Debbie Rodgers Teasely abstained from the vote, citing a possible conflict of interest. Longtime long·time adj. Having existed or persisted for a long time: a longtime friend; a longtime resident of Detroit. longtime Adjective opponents of the development said they were concerned about the lack of a formal agreement to build schools, about which agency would be given the project's open space dedication, and about the amount of grading allowed during construction. ``We figured this is what they'd do, but that doesn't make it right,'' Roseann Mikos, a longtime opponent of the project said of the vote. ``But it's still all conditional, nothing is in effect yet.'' The ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been approving the development agreement is expected to face a second reading on Aug. 19 before it is finalized See finalization. . The agreement provides an unprecedented $16,000 per unit to the city, approximately $12 million of which would go toward building a Highway 118 bypass. It also requires that the developer plan and design the bypass before the development is built out. City officials said that although the Hidden Creek Ranch fee agreement would not cover all expenses for the bypass, it sets a precedent for other development agreements to include similar fees to help build it. |
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