Strawberry Fields Forever....

In Rancho Cucamonga politics, it is never wise to assume that just because the city council approves a project, that it will ever be built.....I have seen that many times before....It wasn't to long ago that right here at the Pines Mobile Home Park signs were posted in the vacant field adjacent to the park that indicated that over 385 Condos were going to be built....I and several other chairman's got together and killed that deal.....Seems someone forgot that you cant build anything on Foothill that is more than two stories high in a residential area.....We reminded the city council of that.

A few months ago, the city council voted to approve a large project on the corner of Foothill and Grove, on a patch of land that has been owned by the San Antonio Hospital since time immortal....it was always thought that a medical center of some sort would be built on the corner, but year after year, the field remained a large strawberry field.....after all, most residents always assumed that something would be built there, just not what was approved by the city council.

What was approved by the Cucamonga City council was a plan to build 23 single family homes, 75 town houses and a 12,600 office building, all on the 10 acre strawberry farm which has been leased by the Nicholson Farms from San Antonio for the past 40 years.

But residents who live on Redhill convinced at least one City Councilman, Rex Gutierrez, to appeal the project as to crowded, an eyesore and a traffic nightmare.....The city agreed to hold special hearings on the project next Wednesday so that residents who have a concern over the 10 acre parcel can have there say.

Gutierrez said his appeal does not mean that he has decided to vote against the project.....He said he made the appeal on behalf of the residents so they wouldn't have to pay the $2,000-plus fee needed if opponents wanted to appeal the project without a council member's support.

The councilman admitted however that the density of the project concerned him, and he would support plans to build just an office building and single-family homes......In talking to Rex I learned that he still has concerns over the traffic situation of Foothill....."We haven't solved the traffic problem on Red Hill yet," Gutierrez said......"It would be premature to decide what to do on that project until we do something about the traffic on Red Hill."

Congestion in this part of the city at the Upland border has been an overarching concern for the nearby residents......The city recognizes this problem and has instigated several neighborhood meetings to get to the root of the problem.....As a result, some stop signs are in the process of being installed on the residential streets of Red Hill and some speed humps may be on the way.

Next year, the city will begin a Foothill Boulevard widening project east of Grove Avenue that will widen the thoroughfare from the current four lanes to six.....This also includes the building of arches and other special projects as part of the Route 66 Historical Project....When this project is finished, it is hoped that the traffic situation and concerns will be a moot issue.

One person left out of this debate is Red Hill resident and Councilman Dennis Michael, who will not participate in the crucial vote Wednesday based on advice given by the city attorney......Michael has membership to the member-owned Red Hill Country Club, which is directly north of the proposed project.....As the value of the country club could be affected by the outcome of the project, Michael said he will recuse himself from the vote.

Another project that will affect traffic on Foothill is the just approved Sycamore Villas, a project that will put 206 condominiums on a hillside site north of Foothill Boulevard, around and behind the Sycamore Inn....Many residents are not to happy with that situation and some have taken to the streets passing out flyers to try to get that project stopped as well.

As one resident has put it...We knew that it would not be a Strawberry Patch forever, but we always figured it would be a medical building, since the property is owned by the afor mentioned San Antonio Hospital....But this, this mixed mess of single homes and condos is just to much, even for a Strawberry Patch.

Gary Hall, the ghostpainter