Finance Commission to Vote on Veterans Cemetery Site

  • July 13, 2019, 10:15 am America/Los_Angeles

 

The Finance Commission is meeting on Monday, July 15 at 5:30 pm with only one agenda item: To make a Veterans Cemetery site recommendation to the City Council, between the original ARDA site and the future golf course site.

Both are publicly owned land and are under the oversight of the City Council/Great Park Board.  As noted in the staff report the State is responsible for all costs associated with a State Veterans Cemetery including site acquisition, design, development, construction, equipment, ownership, and operations.

 

Golf Course Site

The Golf Course site is a major design element that FivePoint has a contract to build in the 688 acre Great Park project. FivePoint has a commitment to provide $200M in public benefit amenities in exchange for more homes in the Great Park Neighborhoods. Park design features can be modified with both City and FivePoint consent.

ARDA Site

The ARDA site had both City and State approval in 2014. The State is waiting for the City Council to transfer the ARDA land over.  State funding is available. If the ARDA site isn’t transferred to the State, the City’s development agreement with FivePoint includes a Right of First Negotiation for FivePoint.

Proposed Recommendation from Finance Commission Chair Jim Shute

“The Finance Commission recommends City Council consider the less expensive site – the proposed golf course site, for the State Veterans Cemetery.  The Finance Commission recognizes the golf course site estimate still needs to be refined and is only an estimate.”

Questionable Findings in Staff Report

  1. This staff report reconfigured the “golf course site” to be offered to the State for the Veterans Cemetery.  It is NOT  just the golf course site but, includes acreage from the Cultural Terrace.  This is a totally different reconfigured site than the one looked at by the other Commissions. The Transportation and Planning Commission had different descriptions of the golf course site.
  2. According to the report – “The Golf Site has other advantages including no known public opposition to the location.”
  3.  To read the full report click HERE.

Come to the Finance Commission meeting to learn more and provide public comment.  If you can’t attend please email your comments to the Finance Commission at [email protected] or [email protected]