Pomona Sued in Apartment Deal
A developer has filed suit against the Pomona City Council and its Redevelopment Agency for more than $4 million, accusing them of breach of contract by reneging on a deal for an apartment complex.
The City Council in 1987 approved an agreement for the Redevelopment Agency to sell four acres on Holt Avenue to Urban Ventures Corp. of Los Angeles for $900,000. The agreement called for the company to build 216 apartments in a three-story building atop a parking structure for 415 cars.
The proposed site, formerly occupied by a car dealer, is on the north side of Holt Avenue between Palomares Street and Towne Avenue.
The suit, filed by Urban Ventures Corp. in Pomona Superior Court, says the city subsequently blocked the apartment project and has refused to complete the deal.
City officials denied that the city has stymied the project. City spokeswoman Nancy Weatherton said the Planning Department had been waiting for the developer to file an environmental impact report as the next step.
But Laura Lindgren, attorney for Urban Ventures, maintained it is the Redevelopment Agency’s responsibility to prepare an environmental impact report if one is needed.
“It’s just another roadblock in our way,” Lindgren said.
The sale of the land has never gone through because of city-imposed barriers, the suit charges. The project was first stalled when the council imposed a moratorium on apartment construction during part of 1988. Then, the suit says, the council amended the city General Plan in 1989 to change the land-use designation for the property from high-density mixed use to general commercial and single-family residential.
Lindgren said Urban Ventures Corp. applied last May for an amendment to the General Plan that would have allowed the apartment project to go forward.
But, the suit says, “the application has never been approved or denied.”
“Further, certain members of the City Council, who had approved the project and Disposition and Development Agreement, both as members of the Pomona Redevelopment Agency and the City Council, have indicated that . . . they intend to oppose the project.”
The city’s current attitude toward the proposed development could not immediately be determined. Douglas Dunlap, who heads Pomona’s Redevelopment Agency, declined to comment, referring inquiries to Weatherton. She said the city will have no further comment until the city attorney has a chance to review the lawsuit.
The suit asks the court to force the council and the Redevelopment Agency to sell the land to Urban Ventures Corp., clear the way for the project and pay at least $4 million in damages.
