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Commission's packet: there is nowhere else in the City where the City has the <br />opportunity to simultaneously meet several really important objectives that are outlined <br />in the General Plan — sustainability, environmental objectives, economic objectives, and <br />place- making objectives. He noted that all of those things happen in Hacienda in a way <br />that cannot happen elsewhere. <br />Mr. Paxson stated that the third really important thing is kind of an offshoot of the <br />second. He noted that nowhere else in the City has it already been paid for and is <br />continuing to be paid for other than in Hacienda. He indicated that the Park was <br />bonded to the tune of about $5.50 per square foot of indebtedness to build all of the <br />improvements that are there now and beyond. He noted that Hacienda had built way <br />more than the Park and, as staff has pointed out, the capacity built in the Park was for <br />something much larger than what it is permitted to build today; in addition, Hacienda will <br />maintain that until 2039. He noted that, for example and to give an idea, just in straight <br />year -by -year dollars, Hacienda has already put close to $60 million dollars in <br />maintenance and other types of things that are not available anywhere else in the City, <br />and that agreement is going to be going on for several more years. He reiterated that <br />being able to accommodate the additional residential in Hacienda, plus being able to <br />simultaneously meet all these objectives, is an opportunity that is not available <br />anywhere else in the City. <br />With respect to Commissioner Allen's questions, Mr. Paxson stated that he was not at <br />the table when the ordinances were adopted and added that he would like to believe <br />that if he were there, he would have said this was a really bad idea and should not be <br />done. He indicated that the fact is that everything with regard to a lot of those changes <br />had to do with negotiating with the Councils that were in place at that time and figuring <br />out how to move things forward. He noted that 1993, in particular, was an incredibly <br />difficult period, and the economy was just coming off the last really awful downturn from <br />the S &L debacle which hurt Hacienda considerably. He indicated that at that point, <br />Hacienda had to look creatively at what it was going to do to keep the Park moving <br />forward. He stated that he was not the table then and did not know what the content of <br />the specific points of the discussions were, so he does not have a really good answer. <br />He indicated, however, that anecdotally, given the things that have happened over that <br />time and what people say, he thinks those were fairly good suppositions of what that <br />conversation was like. <br />Martin Inderbitzen, representing California Center, stated that Mr. Dolan did a good job <br />at summarizing the right level of what the issues were about and explaining where <br />California Center fits in that process. He reiterated that they are kind of between a rock <br />and a hard spot, being put in a position where the City asked them if they were willing to <br />entertain residential, and they were certainly willing to entertain and think it was a great <br />opportunity, being the highest ranked site in the whole Housing Element update <br />process, but they would have to trade Hacienda's cap for residential. He continued that <br />they thought the Hacienda owners would not allow it and did not, and they were told that <br />they would not be allowed to go forward. <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, August 28, 2013 Page 8 of 16 <br />