GLENDALE TURNS DOWN $20,000; HUD MONEY OFFERED TO HELP APPRAISE OAKMONT.Byline: Lee Condon Staff Writer City officials said Wednesday they have declined an offer from Rep. James Rogan, D-Pasadena, to use $20,000 in federal housing and urban development funds to ``free up'' city money to pay for an appraisal of the Oakmont View V property. Oakmont V is a proposed 572-home hillside development that many local residents hope can be stopped by getting the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1979 and dedicated to the acquisition of land in the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, north and west of Los Angeles, for preservation as open to buy the property out from under the developers. Rogan has been attempting to secure federal funds Federal Funds Funds deposited to regional Federal Reserve Banks by commercial banks, including funds in excess of reserve requirements. Notes: These non-interest bearing deposits are lent out at the Fed funds rate to other banks unable to meet overnight reserve to help the city pay for an appraisal to determine the value of the site. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a statement released Wednesday by Glendale City Manager Jim Starbird, Rogan recently informed the city that legislation awaiting President Clinton's signature contains funding for the city that could ultimately be used to pay for the cost of an appraisal of the Oakmont V property. ``The funding, $20,000, would be in the form of a Housing and Urban Development grant to be used for the purpose identified in the legislation. The money itself could not be used to fund the appraisal,'' according to Starbird's statement. ``Rogan's staff proposed that the additional funding be used by the city to free up other city resources, which would then be used for the appraisal.'' City officials declined the offer, noting that Gregg Development has applied for approval of its project and that accepting the money might compromise the city's position on the application. ``In light of the pending development application, and given the history of litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. on the matter, the city has acted to maintain its neutrality in the debate about the property,'' read the statement from Starbird's office. Dan Revetto, an aide to Rogan, said the congressman was shocked by the city's decision to decline the money. ``The core issue is how much is this land worth. We've been working on this issue, and suddenly people don't want the money'' Revetto said. Revetto said there was nothing inappropriate about proposing the use of a HUD Hud (h  d), a pre-Qur'anic prophet of Islam. Hud unsuccessfully exhorted his South Arabian people, the Ad, to worship the One God. infrastructure grant to free up money for the appraisal.
The congressman was unable to get federal money directly for the appraisal because the Oakmont property does not include and is not adjacent to federal land. ``It's the only way it could have been done,'' Revetto said. ``This was an opportunity and option the city would use to augment its infrastructure budget to free up dollars for the appraisals.'' David Silverstein, deputy chief of Rogan's staff, said the city would have had wide latitude latitude, angular distance of any point on the surface of the earth north or south of the equator. The equator is latitude 0°, and the North Pole and South Pole are latitudes 90°N and 90°S, respectively. in how to spend the infrastructure funds. ``They could use the money for anything they want to free up money for Oakmont,'' Silverstein said. ``Glendale could use it for any pending needs of city infrastructure development.'' Gregg Development officials have said they don't want to sell and will only do so if they are paid fair market value for their property. Glendale Mayor Ginger Bremberg said the council took up the issue in a closed session earlier this week. Bremberg said she and Councilman Sheldon Baker voted to accept the Rogan money, but her three other colleagues disagreed. ``They said it was just a political ploy ploy n. An action calculated to frustrate an opponent or gain an advantage indirectly or deviously; a maneuver: "A typical ploy is to feign illness, procure medicine, then sell it on the black market" ,'' Bremberg said. ``Any $20,000 will help a lot with infrastructure improvements and we could free up money for an appraisal.'' But Councilman Gus Gomez, who voted against accepting the money, said he did not want to spend federal grant money earmarked for infrastructure improvements on a land appraisal. In addition he noted that Sen. Adam Schiff
Adam B. Schiff (born June 20 1960) is an American politician. He first served in the California State Senate. , D-Pasadena, secured $5 million in state funds to go toward a potential purchase of the property by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Gomez noted that the $5 million state appropriation The designation by the government or an individual of the use to which a fund of money is to be applied. The selection and setting apart of privately owned land by the government for public use, such as a military reservation or public building. includes money for an appraisal. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what (Rogan's) motivation is for getting an appraisal,'' Gomez said. Both Rogan and Schiff have been active on the Oakmont issue. Killing the project is a top priority of hillside dwellers in Glendale, who want to see the land preserved as open space. Schiff is running against Rogan in the 27th Congressional District Noun 1. congressional district - a territorial division of a state; entitled to elect one member to the United States House of Representatives district, territorial dominion, territory, dominion - a region marked off for administrative or other purposes in the 2000 elections. |
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