As a follow on update regarding the action that the city council took on November 8th to declare L-7 as surplus land here are some additional thoughts.
Great displeasure was expressed by homeowners who live along the Quail Gardens Drive corridor with how the council vote went down. Council member Kellie Hinze brought forward an argument to the council members to convert the property from its original use as Quail Gardens Park to a 100% affordable housing development site based on some undefined and unknown legislation that was supposedly coming from Sacramento that would go into effect on January 1, 2024. However, it is worth noting that all legislation for 2023 was closed on September 14, and all new laws had to be on the as of October 14 for the governor’s review. This L-7 vote was subsequent to both dates and there were no new laws pending that required a rush vote. It is disturbing that the majority of the council members, the city attorney, and the city manager failed to correct council member Hinze and none of them bothered to speak up and say that there would be no new laws potentially affecting L-7 or 100% affordable housing before next January 1st in 2025. While this argument was not solely the reason for the majority of the council to vote to declare L-7 as surplus land it speaks to how misinformation is used to advance a political agenda.
If you have an opinion or want to learn more on this issue then we recommend that you watch the video of the council (link to video is below) and write the city council and city manager voicing your concerns.
Start at 1:07 in the video