Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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hellihooks
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Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Jeff
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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For those of us who don't do FaceBook....

Interpretation please?

Jeff
hellihooks
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by hellihooks »

Bad news for last pristene stretch of the Mojave..

Terra Verde Group, a real estate investment firm that recapitalizes distressed real estate assets, on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Rancho Las Flores, a 9,850-acre master-planned community in Hesperia.

The property was acquired from R.E. Loans, a private mortgage lender that lent more than $80 million to the project and emerged from bankruptcy in the third quarter of 2012, said Craig Martin, founding partner of Texas-based Terra Verde.

Rancho Las Flores, located in the southernmost region of Victor Valley, is 20 miles north of Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County.

Currently in an unimproved condition, Martin said the rolling terrain with valley plains and mountain views will be designed to support up to 15,500 residential units, an extensive trail system, network of parks and a community center with sports fields and recreational amenities.


LF Ranch last (presumable) stronghold of WPT along the Mojave River, not overrun with RES (although plenty of bullfrogs) and just upstream of the Arroyo Toad habitat I maintain... not sure if they have Arroyos on the ranch, or not... went walking sand bars there today looking for diurnal YOY... but only saw YOY 2-Stripe Garters.
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Fundad
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Put the garter snake in the DB Jim, and anything else you see there.


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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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From the San Bernadino Sentinel

Long Languishing Rancho Las Flores Project In Summit Valley Resurrected
Posted on February 21, 2014 by Venturi
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(February 18) HESPERIA—The defunct Rancho Las Flores project, which was originally projected to result in the construction of 9,100 residential units in Summit Valley, has been resurrected by its current corporate successor as a three-phase 19,396 home development.
Shortly after the city of Hesperia’s 1987 incorporation, the Dana Point-based ARC Las Flores Corporation sought city approval of the 10,000-acre property at the city’s extreme south end that consisted of the 490-acre Las Flores Ranch and several adjacent parcels, including Bureau of Land Management property obtained through a series of land swaps.
Hesperia’s first city manager, Robert Rizzo, convinced members of the city’s maiden city council – Percy Bakker, George Beardsley and Bruce Kitchen, among them – that the project would generate economic development and create neighborhoods to rival those in upscale Orange County. Within two years, under Rizzo’s guidance as well as that of Hesperia Planning Director Rob Zuel, the scope of the project grew and in 1990, the city approved the Rancho Las Flores specific plan, which called for development of 15,540 housing units in eight phases.
The project never got off the drawing boards, however, and suffered setbacks after Zuel left the city in 1991, followed by Rizzo’s demise as city manager in 1992 following revelations about his illicit efforts to filter money from Orange County development interests into the campaign coffers of council member candidates amenable to the aggressive development proposals that would have doubled the city’s population.
The proposal remained active under succeeding city managers and the guidance of community development director Tom Harp and principal planner Dave Reno, but encountered significant challenges that retarded its progression, such as the economic downturn of 1991 and 1992, the listing of three species that inhabited the property – the arroyo toad, the Least Bell’s Vireo and the willow flycatcher – as endangered.
In 1993, the project encountered a significant roadblock when the city of Barstow filed a lawsuit against upstream water users along the Mojave River, resulting in protracted litigation over water rights. The lawsuit led to a stipulated settlement in 2000 among the municipal and other water rights holders within the Mojave River Basin and a water allotment to Hesperia that brought into question whether Hesperia would have access to enough water to allow the project to proceed. The city subsequently sought to secure the project’s viability through the purchase of $30 million in water rights, deemed sufficient for ARC Las Flores’ purposes. The developers also obtained from the federal government clearance to proceed with the project subject to certain habitat protections for the endangered species living upon the property.
That ten year delay, however, resulted in the expiration of the project’s specific plan and its environmental impact report, requiring ARC Las Flores to reformulate those documents, which were not finalized until 2008. By that point, the economic downturn of 2007 inhibited progress on the project and in 2012 ARC Las Flores declared bankruptcy. Texas-based Terra Verde Group last year purchased the 10,000 acres for roughly $45 million.
The company has since rechristened the Rancho Las Flores project as the Tapestry Project, by which it intends to maintain the eight-phase nature of the undertaking.
Last month, Terra Verde’s director of development, John Ohanian, gave indication to the Hesperia City Council his company is now purposed to proceed with the project. Without defining the terms he was using, Ohanian said the density of the residential units would fall in the “low-to-medium” range. The currently applicable specific plan calls for the construction of 11 schools on 207 acres, 372 acres of recreation facilities, two mixed-use town centers on 137 acres, public and civic buildings and a wastewater facility.
The project would retain an element of the historical nature of the property, with a portion of the residential neighborhoods being reserved for equestrian use and a 114-acre trail system built into the overall project as open space.
The massive subdivision would have three major points of access, including Ranchero Road and State Routes 138 and 173, together with four lesser methods of ingress and egress, including the extensions of Summit Valley Road and Maple and Santa Fe avenues.
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by hellihooks »

Thx for the additional info Brian...it will help. Nice of them to save 113 acres as open space, out of the 10,000 acres availible. :roll: I'm gonna get in there and document everything I can... but gotta get a card reader or a camera cord to upload pics... my printer won't even recognize my new memory card, whose capacity is 16 X that of my old card... :? saw 5 yoy 2-stripe garters yesterday. :thumb: jim
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Fundad
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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This really breaks my heart and pisses me off.. 110 Acres? This is our ESA at work? What a joke..

That area is special for a number of reasons.

1. This is where the Coastal Species/Merge with Desert Species, and is a rare and Unique habitat type.
2. Lots of Bio Diversity occurs here..
3. This area is part of an extremely important wildlife corridor during climate changes. The San Gabe and San Berdo Mtns block access to the desert and coastal regions, this area and parts of the Cajon pass are one of the only access points for many species..

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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by hellihooks »

Yup. sad part is we'll probably soon be saying 'was' special, instead of 'is' special. :(

side note... I THINK the glossys from there are Ca Glossys
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by Steve Bledsoe »

"Currently in an unimproved condition, Martin said the rolling terrain with valley plains and mountain views will be designed to support up to 15,500 residential units, an extensive trail system, network of parks .........."

Don't you just love the way developers try to make people believe that they're actually improving the land from a natural point of view by creating lovely trails and parks for the birds and squirrels and nature lovers? They'll end up planting all of the open space with invasive decorative plants and trees and call it "natural".

We're screwed! :x
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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"Currently in an unimproved condition, Martin said the rolling terrain with valley plains and mountain views will be designed to support up to 15,500 residential units, an extensive trail system, network of parks .........."

Don't you just love the way developers try to make people believe that they're actually improving the land from a natural point of view by creating lovely trails and parks for the birds and squirrels and nature lovers? They'll end up planting all of the open space with invasive decorative plants and trees and call it "natural".

We're screwed! :x
This is so true..

And pure BS on their part..

It is so f#*%#*g frustrating.. :x :x :x (pardon the French)
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Kent VanSooy
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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I'm just glad to hear that CA's water supply is robust enough to support a new massive subdivision.... :x
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Kent VanSooy wrote:I'm just glad to hear that CA's water supply is robust enough to support a new massive subdivision.... :x
Right across the street from Lake Silverwood... PLENTY of water... :roll: :( :( BTW... LS is as low as I've ever seen it... (cept of course for when my Dad, who designed it, took me and my brothers up there to show us the big valley where the lake was going to be... ;) )
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by Steve Bledsoe »

That was my first thought too, Kent. With as scarce as water is in southern CA, especially in a place like Hesperia, one would think that water would be a major issue before building 15,000 new homes and a string of parks and common areas that will require lots of water. Of course, reality takes a back seat to money in today's world. You can get anything you want from our politicians if you have enough money and know who to grease.

I hunted quail in that valley as a teenager before they built the dam and created Lake Silverwood. The bottom line for people like us is all we can do is slow down the eventual total destruction of all natural habitat and the plants and animals that share the earth with us. We can't stop human population growth and expansion. Mother nature will have to do that, and she will one day. The human species will eventually perish, just like millions of species before us.
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Average lifespan of a species is like 10 million years... somehow, I don't think we'll make it... Humans--- an outlier data point on the graph of life... :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by hellihooks »

When graphing 'Titillation' scores, impart a skew for a more realistic distribution... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by Kent VanSooy »

Image
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by hellihooks »

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Kent... you were one of the few people I thought would 'get' my graphing joke... I actually demonstrated the concept on the blackboard, in front of my statistics class... :crazyeyes: :lol: :lol: the professor was not amused... :lol: :roll:
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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It's the kurtosis that catches me eye...
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Kent VanSooy wrote:It's the kurtosis that catches me eye...
yeah buddy... :lol: :lol: I had fun in school... sociology prof once asked for an example of a social norm... I said when the fat guy walks into Cheers and everyone yells "NORM!!!!" :roll: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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I don't think the human species will go extinct on this planet as long as there's water, oxygen and sunlight. BUT, it is a fact that the human population on earth will stabilize or reverse at some point in the future. Just how that will come about is pretty much up to us, but I expect it won't be nice. I'm not a fan of the idea that we will survive by colonizing other planets, which I've heard used as an excuse to carry on business as usual.
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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The eruption of Toba, 74,000 years ago, reduced the human population down to 2,000 - 5,000 people... and we came back from that, and I don't believe it's the last time we'll get knocked back to the stone age. I believe the next 'readjustment' will arise from human-caused ecological collapse... hopefully next time around (if there is a next time) we'll have learned to live as part of nature, and not it's master... :?
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Pretty much agreed Jim, but even if we live as part of nature, we retain our innate compulsion to reproduce and serve the greatest advantage to ourselves, and our progeny, as possible. It would indeed be unnatural to assume any other manner.
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

Post by Jacob anderson »

Hopefully that land will be saved from destruction, really awesome habitat back there.
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Re: Kiss the Arroyos/WPT goodbye

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Good to see ya here at Nafha Jacob... now get that data in... :crazyeyes: What have you seen?? 20 boas and 40 specks this year??? :shock: :thumb: jim
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