Redlands has hooked up a new water meter on the property, through the efforts of Raul Madrid, who owns property, and has developed other property, in Mentone, “It’s a construction meter for now,” Madrid explained, “but it will be replaced with a regular meter when the building is finished and ready to use.” Madrid had spent the past two days completing the plumging to the building. He had shown City officials his photos of a stubbed-off “lateral” pipe from the street right up to the building’s main, as he had been telling Redlands for the past 2-3 years was present there . “The issue is re-hooking up the meter, as opposed to ‘new service’,” he continued.
In order for Perry Karpouzis, the owner/developer, to obtain water, Redlands was demanding “frontage fees” for both Mentone Boulevard and Turqouise and its 2009 estimate of fees was over $650,000,, some of it for a “traffic study” on Mentone Boulevard, State Highway 38. Madrid eventually got the City to come down to $64,000, then $55,000. However, Redlands had removed the previous, similar meter – present but unused for decades after the previous building was there – when Karpzouzis had told the City that the meter was leaking, while he was constructing the building. Now, with the proof of an existing “lateral” it is unclear how much Redlands will charge just to re-install a regular meter, as Karpouzis had requested.
Karpouzis had told locals that it might be next year before he opens the store; however, it now only lacks finishing the interior construction, hiring workers, etc., according to Madrid, who also encouraged Karpouzis to sign the “Pre-“Annexation “Agreement” in February; the “Agreement” was accepted by Redlands City Council in the past couple of weeks. “There is no provision in the law for ‘pre’ annexations,” COMET’s counsel objected. “That’s delineated in the Third Amended Complaint, filed on April 28, and we’re asking the Court to make that finding. Redlands’ and LAFCO’s attorneys have already stated their intention to challenge again the amended causes of action,” she added. MM
Perry K and his agent Madrid agreed to paying all connection and development fees by taking the pre-annexation agreement to Redlands City Council for approval… what kind of strategy is that, guess Raul knows what he’s doing??
Just developers doing what they do: do what they have to do to develop and get out of town. There’s no legal “pre”-annexation: the law says that a property MUST be contiguous at the time of the agreement, so we’re asking the court to find that all “pre”-annexations as well as the annexations are illegal and void.