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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLettersLake Elsinore City Council Meeting Greetings: Mayor & City Counsel June 26`h, 2012 I Rob MacRae could not attend this meeting tonight because of my work as a Sheriff Investigator, I cover the whole county of Riverside and could not make it in time. As a Deputy Sheriff, I worked patrol in the city and county area of Lake Elsinore for seventeen years before I was promoted to Investigator. I was also, a School Resource Officer's for the Lake Elsinore Unified School District for a number of years during this time. On behalf of the Devaney Family, I wanted to share this short story: I was currently going through the testing process for the Sheriff's Department in the beginning of 1989. 1 was a civilian, driving home from work at about 11:30 P.M. and arrived into my town that is known for its lack of street lighting. As I exited the freeway and approached the intersection beginning my lane changes to turn left into my neighborhood, I observed ahead just past the intersection a pedestrian beginning to jaywalk southbound across the street. This pedestrian was wearing from head to foot all black clothing. A convenience store on the South /East corner shined the only light in this area from its interior lighting and dimly lit the face of this pedestrian. I observed a Sheriff Patrol Unit pass me on my right; east -bound through the intersection at the time the pedestrian was centered between the two east -bound lanes. The pedestrian looked right to notice the oncoming patrol unit and turned straddling the painted division lines of these two lanes. I can see the pedestrian shift to his left foot and to his right foot unsure which way to go to avoid collision. I observed the patrol unit brake lights come on and I heard the loud screech of the brakes. I heard the collision, and the pedestrian disappeared from view into the darkness. I turned right and pulled into the east -bound lanes, past the intersection, past the patrol unit and parked alongside the curb about fifty feet east of where the patrol unit stopped after the collision, along the south curb and I exited my vehicle. The Deputy asked if I had witnessed the collision and I told him "I did." The deputy then requested that I remain on scene and I then checked the pedestrian for signs of life without success. I could swear that I actually observed the pedestrian's life exit from his body. The deputy was busy calling for assistance and medical aid and he asked me the status of the pedestrian, I just shook my head to the gesture understood as "No." I then observed sadness ... the spirit exit from the deputy. This collision could have been avoided by proper street lighting. This intersection is now well lit at night. Page 11 Lake Elsinore City Council Meeting June 26th, 2012 As a School Resource Officer, I had a Marine Corps desk calendar with a famous quote written at the top each month. A quote I shared with many students was from Confucius the Chinese Philosopher: "A wise man learns from his mistakes, but a wiser man learns from other peoples mistakes." Please put in a street light in the area of concern as it will be, not only the right thing to do, but it will be a beacon of comfort for all who were involved, that tragic night not so long ago. Thank you Page 12 June 25, 2012 Dear Lake Elsinore City Council Members, My name is Jerry Winant. I have been a teacher and administrator in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District (LEUSD) for the past 30 years. My current position is the Drivers Education teacher for the LEUSD. I am writing to you as I have become aware of a section of Lake Elsinore that has seen some terrible car accidents recently. One of them involved a former student of mine, Anthony Devaney, who was our school's Student of the Year. Anthony was killed in an accident on Lake St., not far from the 15 fwy. I undei stand that this area has spawned several accidents recently. I would hope that the city council members review this area and perhaps lower the speed limit and/or install some traffic lights and/or stop signs to slow traffic down and make this area safer for all. I thank you for your time reading this and for considering options to make this area of Lake Elsinore safer for all drivers and pedestrians. Thank you! ycl"16 0,,�V- Jerry Winant Honorable Mayor Tisdale and Council Members, My name is Monica Hernandez; my husband and I live at 4111 Ballantree St., Lake Elsinore since 2006. We moved into our house as soon as Phase 1 was finished in September, if I'm not mistaken we were the first family that moved on this street once it was completed. One of the reason that we moved here was because of all of the promises that Castle and Cook made, i.e. 1900 + homes in our community, a shopping center on the west side of Lake Street which included a supermarket, an elementary school, new roads with sidewalks, pool, Boys and Girls Club, out of all of these promises only 2 have been completed. I guess C & C feel that their commitment was filled and they can now move on. We have been patient throughout all of the changes that have taken place and taking into consideration that the economy was much better when we purchased than it has been since. I'm now outraged that Castle and Cook is going to be building on another site and will not be finishing what they started specially since it affects me personally, on the street behind me and above my house there has been 8 empty dirt lots that we were told many times were going to have new homes built, the last time was June of 2011, these dirt lots cause additional dirt and weeds that come unto my property and is creating health and financial problems as we are unable to open windows without getting a layer of dirt every day. One of the stipulations of purchasing our home here was that we had to make sure that we completed our landscaping in our back yards in a year or we would start accumulating fines, in some cases we were given short extensions. My point is; if we had to complete our yards by a certain date, why is it that C & C doesn't have to complete the constructions of the homes that they told us would be built in our community? I was also under the impression that C & C couldn't build in the city anymore and am surprised that the City of Lake Elsinore would entertain the new proposal of building a new community with so many unhappy Alberhill Ranch residents and with issues that are still unresolved such as; clearing up whether or not the lands were our properties are located were ever reclaimed legally. In addition, what guarantees does the city have that C & C will complete their new project; is the city and C & C depending on the Mcll- o-roos from the sale of new homes in the new project? I also recently learned that we are paying an additional 10% Mell -o -roos every year because of the foreclosures in our area; this doesn't seem right since we as residents are trying our best to take care of our properties and should not be penalized because of the foreclosures. I feel that if the bank (one of the being C & Q has possession of the homes and are expected to care for the property, they should have to pay all of the additional Mell -o -roos that we are being charged. The bank not only has possession of the house and can re -sell it but, they have collected in most cases the PMI which pays the loan off. I urge the city that as we as residents of Alberhill had to adhere to the rules that the community set forth, C & C should under no circumstance be able to start another project until they finish ours. We love our community and have made many friends here; we hate to see more leave because the property values continue to go down instead of going up. Thank you! Monica and Alex Hernandez Honorable Mayor Tisdale and council members, My name is Teresa Kirpluk and I recently attended a meeting that consisted of Mayor Brian Tisdale and the interim city manager, Tom Evans, along with several of my fellow neighbors and residents in the Alberhill Ranch community. The meeting was in regards to concerns that the residents have with Castle & Cooke and the structural progress or lack thereof in the Alberhill Ranch Neighborhood. Though many issues were addressed, there were other issues that I am presenting to you today as suggested, as they are the responsibility of the city. Castle & Cooke has recently announced to us residents that due to the economy and financial issues that they will no longer be building in our neighborhood as proposed to us when we purchased our homes. They have also replaced some of the upper scale homes with much smaller and lower scale homes with their last phase over a year ago which was not part of the original plans. There were to be some 1900 homes and a school - they have stopped at less than 300 homes, no school. The problem the residents have with this is that we pay not only double the mell -o -roos tax, but nearly double the time length than any other neighborhood in Lake Elsinore and we will see nothing in return for it for as long as we are living here. We were told that if we purchased a home here, we would be investing into a beautiful planned community. Instead, we have been left with an abandoned, incomplete neighborhood. To lessen the blow, Castle & Cooke has stated that they will try to sell the remaining lots off to other potential developers. In this economy, it will most likely not happen during the many years that I will be stuck here. We are well aware that Castle & Cooke has proposed to begin a new residential Project (The Villages) as well as a University on the other side of the freeway. I personally am all for improving the community, but I, as well as many of the Alberhill Ranch residents would like Castle & Cooke to finish our project before beginning a new one. We have come to the realization that our mell -o -roos, which for some was drastically under assessed, will not be going towards our own neighborhood for which it was intended. We have suffered many foreclosures and short sales due to the fact that our taxes are too high and the incomplete neighborhood has devalued our homes. We also believe that due to predatory lending by the developer, we have had to pay an additional 10% increase in our mell -o -roos since 2009 which was approved by the city council due to foreclosures in Alberhill Ranch. This has taken its toll on the residents as well. We are tapped out. We have no more money left to give you. I would also like to add that not only do we pay a higher price to live here but we are the ultimate support for the city of Lake Elsinore. We are your citizens, the ones that keep this community going by shopping here, entertaining here and spending our hard earned money locally. I am surprised that the city of Lake Elsinore would even entertain this new proposal considering the fact that we still have not been shown legal documents that the land under the Alberhill Ranch residents homes have actually ever been legally reclaimed. If they can't finish our homes with the highest mell -o -roos and taxes in Lake Elsinore, what makes you think they will finish this new project when the bond money runs out? And why should the residents of Alberhill Ranch continue paying their debt? This is an insult to us. We have been promised many things by C &C, but their record has shown very little action. We urge the city to look pass the dollar signs and recognize and consider the people of this community that are stuck paying this bill with nothing in return as promised. We are requesting that the city lower our taxes drastically as we feel that it is a huge injustice to charge us so much in these hard economic times and with the fear of losing our devalued homes in this incomplete neighborhood. We also urge the city to force Castle & Cooke to finish the Alberhill Ranch Project before approving Mother new projects. If Castle & Cooke does not want to finish and fulfill their end of the contractual agreement, then we feel that we should not be obligated to pay the mell -o -roos per that same contractual agreement. If a petition is necessary, please advise. We will consider any means necessary to resolve this issue. We came to you tonight in hopes that you will take our concerns seriously and the residents of Alberhill Ranch have given our support to Paulie and Sharon who have been fighting in our behalf and for our rights. Unfortunately, most of us have not been able to participate as much as we would like because of these hard financial struggles. We are thankful that we have Paulie and Sharon to speak for us in our absence. We are prepared to retain legal representation for our rights as taxpayers and the misrepresentation and /or other flaws in our contractual agreement if this issue is not resolved in a timely manner. I believe that any judge in their right mind would see this for what it really is - pure greed, and that the people of this community who have paid the price, have been victimized by theft, fraudulence and predatory lending. Thank you for your time. Teresa.