awsmom don't forget the proposed Cummings valley housing tracts that may be built in Cummings valley. That to will greatly impact highway 202 along with many other roads in the Tehachapi area.
 

The prison expansion along with 202 is not a county issue its a state issue so it Will be interesting to watch this and to see what develops.

Before either project is considered a highway impact study should be done.

 

 And while I'm at it--I will add my 2 cents worth on city planning ---or lack of it.  Tehachapi could be sitting in a goldmine of resources if they played their cards right.  Developers are interested in Tehachapi as it is ripe for development.  You want to put in a new shopping center or housing tract or a Love's fuel stop--fine--but what can you offer the city?  How about contributing to a fund to help open a Boys/Girls Club?  Make some improvements to the park.  Buy the police dept a mobile command center. Put it out to bid--invite all the developers then see what they will do to improve Tehachapi other than build a shopping center.  Make the developers pay the mitigation fee BEFORE they break ground--or at least put it in their contract that THEY pay to widen the street and add sidewalks in lieu of some of the fee, and not let them open until the work/fees are paid.  Many other communities have parks and community centers courtesy of developers.  If they balk--no problem--they are not really interested in improving Tehachapi--they just want to make a buck and run.  Yep, I'm afraid Tehachapi got the wool pulled over their eyes again by those big city folks by not paying the mitigation fees up front.  Why would they if they could weasel out of it--it lessened their financial risk and put it on the city's infra structure.  Smart business move on their end.  But yep--the city has it all figured out--no need for financial planning--let's fix the problem by giving them no interest loans when they don't even include the city on the list of creditors. I think a little more wool pulling is going on with the country folk by the big city people.

And Que Pasa?  Just what the city needed was another Mexican Restaurant.  Duh--didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out we are over saturated with Mexican and pizza places.  What recruiting/invitations has the City of Tehachapi done to entice business we don't have? Many other restruants would have been nice to have and would have a better chance of surviving than another Mexican one. Does the city have a master plan to figure out what stores to include to meet the cities needs now and in the future?  From what I hear, several years ago Tehachapi paid for a consulting firm to figure out what businesses would be an assest to the community yet no follow up was ever done.   They recommended a Target.  Bakersfield is getting an upscale Target supercenter--did the city ever approach Target and invite them to preview the city for when it was bigger?  Nope--so now we will have a Walmart Supercenter when we could have had a Target.  But I guess Walmart is more in line for us dumb country folk.

Time for bed--I'm getting cranky!  ; )

You guys are keeping me on my toes.  Thanks for the great questions.  First off, no Gube…I didn’t delete your comments.  Why would I delete yours and leave dreamkiller out there?  I didn’t get a chance to even see what eek, Irish1, you and whoever else posted.  It looks like from what remains that you guys might have been speculating on who is who on this blog and TN doesn’t like that.  You know I have created a blog on my Web site ( www.StanBeckham.com ) and nothing there will be deleted.  I am a strict Constitutionalist and freedom of political speech is number one on that list. Heck, you can call me a dirty SOB if you want.  I can take it on the chin. lol

Now, Scott, you had a lot of questions and I’ll do my best to answer those.

Do you know if the infrastructure costs for any of the new housing developments, of which are now "on-hold", were paid for in advance? Is this another situation similar to these commercials properties, where the city picked up the tab and waited for the developer to collect and repay?

Pretty much.  I get a Sewer and Water Connection Fees report each month.  This month there were 3 new housing starts and the builder paid the City $6,780 for water connection and $7,259 for sewer connection for each new home.  These fees are paid when the building permit for each home is issued to the developer and the home is ready to be trenched.  That being said, the offsites, for example the roads, electrical, sewer mains, water mains, etc. are already in place.  I have never seen any report showing that the developer has paid for the underlying infrastructure for the tract development, so from what I can tell, yes the City has already paid for this infrastructure and the developers repay the city when they pull the permits.

A recent article in the Bakersfield Californian stated that, “KB Homes lost $268M, or $3.47 per share for the 3 month period ending 02/29/08.  Jeffrey Metzger, President and CEO, stated, ‘Persistently challenged conduits in the U.S. housing market drove poor 1^st Quarter results.  No anticipated meaningful improvements are expected in the housing market in the near future.’  KB Homes has recently missed some payments to contractors and local tax collectors public records filed with the Kern County Recorder’s office show.”

How much in predicted sales tax on these homes was factored into the city budget planning for the next few years?

From my understanding Jason Caudle cut 25% of the anticipated tax revenues from the budget for this fiscal year.  However, from my calculations our housing starts are down 83%, so we are way off target.  On the Building Permit report for February 2007 there were 21 new home permits pulled and for May 2007 there were 25 new home permits pulled.  Now for some reason, I have no report for March of 2007 so I’m comparing apples to oranges here a bit.  The Building Permit report I just received for March 2008 has only 3 new home permits pulled and consisted of 3 pages of total permits as opposed to the norm of 7 pages received last year.

The City does a mid-year budget review.  Our mid-year is in January.  Normally we would have had the new budget by now, but because of the state cuts and not knowing where those were coming from the mid-year couldn’t be completed until that was clarified.  We have been told that the mid-year is coming out soon and we will have meeting on that budget.  If I feel that we have not made enough cuts, I will push for a 10% cut across the board.

Which new businesses - besides food service - are on the horizon to relocate here?

The large businesses slated are Wal-Mart, Love’s Truck Stop and the new medical building on Valley Blvd.  There are smaller businesses such as the new cleaners to be opening in The Orchard Shopping Center and Radio Shack just opened where the old video store was on Valley Blvd.

NOTE:  There is a meeting at 7:00 p.m. at the Veteran’s Hall on April 14^th for input on the new General Plan, which will guide our future building over the next 20+ years.  I would suggest that all who are interested attend this meeting and put in your two cents.  Your voices can really make a difference.

There seems to be plenty of planning and discussion for new street lights in the town center but I heard the schools don't have enough lockers & books?

Unfortunately what the school gets in revenue has nothing to do with the City.  You are right however that we have spent way too much of our RDA and Grant monies on the ‘Downtown Project’ that seems to be only between Robinson and South Curry (Kohnen’s Bakery).  My pet peeve is that this was not done to encourage tourist trade, and there is no plan in effect to be aggressive in going after tourist trade to support our small downtown businesses and bring in jobs to this town so that so many of our residents don’t have to travel to the desert or down the hill to work.

To me this project seems to have always and only been meant to benefit a select few that own businesses or live in the downtown area.  We do not have the population here to support the businesses and encourage new businesses.  To me this project has always seemed meant to ‘make a nice place for ME to own property, work & live.’  It benefits the few not the many.  For instance, Mayor Hand owns the building where Farmers Insurance, Tehachapi Flower Shop and Johnson’s Printing are located, along with the building where her own music business is housed.  I admire Mrs. Hand’s entrepreneurial spirit, but I still have the nagging feeling that this downtown project was furthered to benefit the few that are in that area and not the whole of the Tehachapi area.  Again, they stopped at the decorating and have no plan to bring in trade.  We are at $3M and climbing on this project.  Monies have been diverted from other projects to balance the books on this one.  A lot of this money is grant money and we have won awards for what has been done, BUT NOW we need a plan to bring in business.  We should have had this all along.

The Depot Renovation is a good example.  After spending God knows how much money to renovate this building, Mr. Garrett has decided to move Main Street Tehachapi in there.  I thought the plan was for this to be a museum, but we have no curator in sight.  If they are going to move anyone in there it should be the Chamber of Commerce for heaven’s sake.  I guess the idea is, “Build it then we’ll figure out what to do with it.”  How about a plan guys?  A short, medium and long-term plan, just like you would plan for your personal future?  How about disclosing these plans to the public?  That would be a first.  This stuff wasn’t included in the charrette process.

Don't forget that $700,000 that Mr. Garrett wanted to give to the low-income housing developer.  While we have been busy on the Downtown Project and putting in a $70,000 clock tower, we seem to have overlooked that the senior center needs a whole new roof, or a new building would be better.  We also have seniors and handicapped individuals that could apply for that money to make their homes accessible.  This is where our City Council has abdicated its' responsibility to the City Manager.  The City Council spends money on wants not needs.  If you did this with your household budget, where would you be financially?

Scott, I hope I have answered your questions.  If not post again and I take another swipe at it.

I don’t mind your being off topic at all awsmom8.  To my knowledge this new CCI facility is still in the planning stages.  Mr. Garrett is attending a meeting to be hosted by CCI on April 14^th at 3:00 p.m. to discuss the prison expansion.  This meeting is to be held at the Stallion Springs Gym.  I have been told that this facility will take four to five years to complete.  The prison was pulled into the Tehachapi City limits years ago.  And, since the city gets state funds based on its’ population, I would think the City (at this point) will be very happy to see an additional 2000+ citizens move in.

I agree with you that CCI needs to pay mitigation fees and if our City Manager does his job right and negotiates properly some sort of fees will be paid to the City to offset the cost of roadway expansion and services.  We are looking at hiring a new City Manager in the near future.  One that I hope will be seasoned, a good fiscal manager and a tough negotiator.  That’s what I will push for anyway.  Let’s hope in the meantime that Mr. Garrett will bring us back a complete and FULL report of his meeting with CCI.  If this thing is handled incorrectly, you are right that we could have some serious problems down the road.

 awsmom8, I don't blame you.  When I think about this stuff too much, I get pretty cranky too.  The only we can do is vote in two new council members in November that have a better understanding of how a business should be run.  And, yes Phil, the City is a business.  With people to take care of mind you, but a business none the less.  It is the peoples' business and you are on the Board of Directors.

 It would appear that Councilman Beckham is the only person in Tehachapi to bring us the NEWS. Even our "NEWS" paper does not report all the news we need to see. They stick to only "goodie two shoes" and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" stories and the hell with whatever else is going on!

For example, the CCI has formally reported that they are seeking a new 110 acre facility, under roof, for expansion and placement of 2200 new beds, and 803 additional employees.

There are some in our City government who can't seem to see beyond their noses and have voiced the opinion that this expansion is only meant to ease the current overcrowded condition at the prison and no new prisoners will be placed there. If that were true, then why do they need an additional 803 employees to care for the EXISTING population? Also, since the current prison has become overcrowded, what will they do when the new one also becomes so? It seems that those who have not learned the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them. We need people in our government who know how to plan ahead for many years to come and not think beyond today. They are stuck in a time warp, but WE are not stuck with THEM!

Jim Richards

 As downtown redevelopment goes, Stan, you're not being fair to Debbie.  She originally ran and was elected on a platform of downtown redevelopment, so its fair to say that downtown redevelopment reflected the will of the people.  Despite, that, she had nothing to do with the specific plan that was developed by the city's contractor, and she was loudly critical of it at the time it was announced.  You could check that out in a back-issue of the News!

Your criticism that they "stopped with the decorating" and have no plans to pull in trade is right on the money, though.  That isn't surprising - David James probably isn't capable of thinking beyond strip malls.

None the less, there have been some trade improvements downtown.  Primos and the new deli have moved in, and downtown even attracted Guido's from the Save Mart center.  How is YOUR plan, to move City Hall and the Hitching Post theater out to Capital Hills going to help downtown?  Downtown has two anchors now - the municipal buildings and the Hitching Post, and apparently all of you are agreed on pulling out, leaving even less there than there is now.  That is exactly the wrong way to go.

Sorry Progresso, I'll be getting back to you, but I've been out of town and will be returning this afternoon for the General Plan Meeting tonight at the Veteran's Hall at 7:00 p.m.  I hope some of you will plan on being there.  The decisions made on this plan will affect you and your families for years to come.

Stan