Glendora Studies Sale of Surplus Parcel

The city is studying a proposal to sell a nine-acre parcel to the owner of the adjacent Azusa Greens Country Club.

On Tuesday, a divided council voted to hire an independent counsel to study the benefits to the city of the proposal to sell the wedge-shaped parcel on the eastern edge of Azusa to developer Johnny Johnson for $1.1 million. The city bought the land in 1964 when it acquired assets of the now defunct Glendora Irrigation Co.

Critics of the deal, including City Councilman David Bodley, say that not only is the city’s asking price far below what neighboring cities are asking for surplus property, but the city also may be proceeding illegally in disposing of the property.

Glendora City Manager Art Cook says that the deal will benefit the city and its water users by far more than just the $126,000-an-acre payment.

Johnson wants to build single-family homes on the property, which is now zoned as a water conservation area. It is an undeveloped tract with a pump house, three wells and a utility buildings.

The property is west of Sunset Avenue, wedged between the 111-acre country club’s golf course and county flood control property.

In addition to the $1.1 million, Johnson has agreed to make improvements in the water facilities, rebuilding the buildings and constructing perimeter walls, and to grant the city an easement across his property. The improvements will be worth about $1 million, said Cook.

“Why is the city so interested in making this marvelous businessman a multimillionaire?” said Barbara Mee, a frequent critic of Glendora land-use and environmental policies. Mee lives in unincorporated county land between Azusa and Glendora.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Mee and Bodley questioned whether the city had adequately notified public agencies, such as school districts and parks departments, that the land was available for possible public use. Such notification is required by state law.

“I’ve seen at least one letter where a government agency claimed that it never received a letter” offering the property for sale, Bodley said.

The Azusa Unified School District, in a letter to Mee, said that it had no record of a “notice of surplus property” from Glendora.

Bodley also questioned the proposed sale price, as spelled out in a 1986 option agreement between Johnson and the city. “I believe that this was not entered into in the best interests of the city,” Bodley said.

Johnson, reached at his Azusa Greens office, said that the property was of low value because it is “landlocked” with no street frontage. The only access to the property now is along a private dirt road, running west of Sunset Avenue.

But Bodley maintained that the city, under the terms of an agreement between Johnson and the defunct water company, may already have an easement, permitting access to the nine acres across Johnson-owned property.

As the city was acquiring the water company in 1964, Johnson bought some land from the water company north of the nine-acre property.

“The water company maintained ingress and egress across that (Johnson-owned property),” Bodley said. He said the same type of access may be available to the city.

Cook said that a principal benefit to the city in the sale of the land will be to make Glendora’s water supply self-sufficient. As part of the agreement, Johnson has agreed to allow the city to install a well on his property east of the current water facilities.

“That will assure us of having a continual supply of water all summer,” Cook said.

The city’s current water pump is at the edge of the San Gabriel Water Basin, Cook said. “What happens is that, come July and August, when the water starts decreasing in the basin, our wells run dry,” Cook said. “When we get a new well, out in the middle of the basin, we’ll be assured of having a continual supply of water all summer.”

He said that the city has been spending between $500,000 and $750,000 a year to buy water from the Metropolitan Water District. That wouldn’t need to be done with a well on Johnson-owned property, Cook said.

Mee questioned whether the Glendora wells actually run dry during the summer. But Bob Berlien, assistant secretary for the Main San Gabriel Basin Water Master, confirmed that it was common knowledge that the Glendora wells were shallow. “Because the water basin is so shallow (under the Glendora wells), the water levels fluctuate rapidly with weather conditions,” Berlien said.

He said that closer to the middle of the basin, underneath the golf course, “the aquifers are much deeper and water levels don’t fluctuate nearly as much.”

The Azusa City Council is scheduled to vote next week on a proposed zone change that would permit Johnson to build homes on the property that is zoned as a water conservation area.