The Resolutions Just Passed!

At about 9:37 PM in Tuesday June 1, 2010, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council voted unanimously to adopt the two Resolutions necessary to allow Marymount College to go forward with permits to begin The Marymount College Facilities Expansion Project, which will be termed "The Project" throughout the remainder of this post and well into the future.

Naturally, Mr. Don Davis, the Planning and Land Use Attorney for Marymount College angered Council members, CCC/ME, myself and many other residents by pointing out that there is a "flaw" in our city's government and he would not address whether Marymount will go forward with their initiative and now is different that what is now law by the question of residence halls on campus and a prospective municipal code that could restrict city oversight of whatever Marymount now decides to do with The Marymount Plan.

This was the only City Council meeting on the issues relating to Marymount's redevelopment that I did not attend. I watched item number 13 on CATV's Rancho Palos Verdes television channel.

The ten-year period of getting The Project through the necessary planning and study stages is now over. Marymount will soon be able to pull permits to begin demolishing old buildings and begin changing the configuration of its parking lot, but don't expect any of that to begin before November.

On November 2, Marymount wants registered voters to become Planning Commission members, City Council Members, and Rancho Palos Verdes city Staff members by approving The Marymount Plan, which will be referred to as "The Plan" in this post and for the unforseeable future, I am sorry to write.

Mr. Davis called the ten-year process 'flawed' in his opinion and he also took a swipe at Concerned Citizens Coaligion/Marymount Expansion (CCC/ME) in his remarks before the Council.

Councilman Stern made a wonderful series of comments rebuking Mr. Davis and Marymount's initiative process and how Marymount is now looking for voters to approve dorms on campus because just about everything else is now part of a new municipal code.

Councilman Brian Campbell, Mayor Pro Tem Tom Long, and Mayor Stefan Wolwicz echoed Councilman Stern's comments and added a few of their own.

Mayor Wolowicz was quite emotional, it looked like to me, as he chastised Mr. Davis and Marymount over things he felt were unfair and out of character. The Mayor stated to Mr. Davis and others that it wrong to attack municipal processes, especially the processes that have been dealt with by so many residents and staff of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Mayor Pro Tem commented that he and other members of the Council feel none of them got all that they wanted when they voted on the various parts and pieces of The Project, but because there were disagreements among Council members, he and others felt that The Project was provided with the best results possible.

I actually have commented before and I continue to feel strongly that The Project is just about all that I wanted and I am quite pleased with the provisions of The Project Marymount will, most likely, not build, even if their initiative passes.

How many more pieces of evidence do you need to finally realize that it has always been about on campus student housing for Marymount?

Even Mr. Davis would not offer whether Marymount would take the initiative off the ballot if The Project passed because he, Dr. Brophy, Marymount's President, all the members of the City Council, CCC/ME, SOC III, and a good portion of Rancho Palos Verdes residents know perfectly well that Marymount won't pull their initiative, and they telegraphed that just last week.

Marymount has now offered to pick up the tab for the Special Election on November 2. You know, it's the one where I have asserted that tax payers' dollars would have been needed for The Marymount Plan, even though the slick ads and Marymount-speak contended that The Plan would be completed at no expense to the taxpayer.

Well, Marymount blinked so they are picking up one part of what taxpayers will have to fund for either The Project or The Marymount Plan.

There is still the issues of traffic mitigation and whether Marymount will add the concrete center median to The Plan, or not.

Yes, Marymount has offered to pay up to $200,000.00 to help finance the construction of the barrier, but they still are not willing to admit that the at least $85,000.00 required to complete that mitigation must come from the city's General Fund, funded with taxpayer money, or perhaps sell ad space on the barriers, which nobody will do.

The ten-year battle is over and the war is now beginning.

It will be interesting to see what Marymount says and markets next.

Will they continue to state that the city is flawed in some way?

Will they ever admit that whatever the redevelopment is called, it has always been and will always be about on campus student housing?

Will they finally acknowledge that taxpayer funds are required if voters pass The Marymount Plan's initiative or will they continue to state they will fund the election, the traffic mitigation, and even the barrier which is not part of The Plan yet?

Our city's Staff, the various members of the Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission, and the various members of The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council have been dealing with The Project for a decade. We have only had to deal with The Plan for a number of months. How, after all they time and effort by paid employees, consultants and a pretty large number of Rancho Palos Verdes residents/volunteers, does Don Davis, speaking just in front of Dr. Brophy, have the you-know-whats to chastise our City and the neighborhoods organization that has been working so hard to serve and protect all of our residents?

I guess the "Attorney at Law" part of his identity speaks volumes and that should displease many fine residents in our good city.

I know I have taken off the gloves already, but I think I need to let folks know that I was wearing more than one pair. So I guess it is time to go bare knuckles word-wise against the initiative and Marymount's outrageous ideas about what they really think about their neighbors and the rest of the residents of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Perhaps there are more foul 'good neighbors' in other areas, but Marymount is one "good neighbor" I think we should be very cautious about.