Interesting little discussion at Tuesday's San Juan Capistrano City Council meeing:
Whispering Hills LLC wanted to assign its development rights to a new LLC, Rancho San Juan. Institutional Housing Partners wanted to make the change, after which Woodbridge Homes would be added as a managing partner (replacing Dennis Gage).
But IHP folks couldn't really explain why they had to create a new LLC, and reassign the development rights, rather than just switch Woodbridge in for Gage.
Councilman Mark Nielsen led the questioning, and Councilman Lon Uso agreed. Councilmember Tom Hribar said this sort of thing happens all of the time and he was ready to approve the change. But Sam Allevato was absent and, with Neilsen and Uso in agreement, any move to approve would have failed 2-2.
IHP said they'd consider the request for more information, or just leave things the way they are, and sub Woodbridge for Gage.
The council cannot "unreasonably" delay the change, but "reasonable" is one of those words lawyers argue about to define.
It wasn't discussed, but some of the subtext could be concerns about whether the original LLC received any school district money it shouldn't have for work on San Juan Hills High. Some Capo parents complained to the state Attorney General that millions of public money were improperly spent to benefit the 155-home Whispering Hills project.
The school district has a forensic audit under way.
I'm personally thankful that our two councilmen decided to take a more detailed look at this request. I've offered a few reasons why in my blog, at http://nzj1hn215k.blogspot.com/ .
Posted by: Jim Reardon | November 19, 2008 at 02:33 PM