Council Sells City Land at Bargain Price : Pomona: Five acres of freeway frontage are dealt away for 40% below the appraisal.

The Pomona City Council has agreed to sell five acres of freeway-frontage property to the mayor of San Dimas and his partner for $805,000--more than 40% below its appraised value--without seeking bids.

The council, on a 3-2 vote earlier this month, approved the sale without consulting the Parks and Recreation Department, which had planned to put ball fields on the site.

San Dimas Mayor Terry Dipple said he and his partner, Brian Barbuto, intend to develop the property at the San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10) and the Corona Expressway (71 Freeway) as a business park.

Dipple said the purchase will be completed after the council approves a zone change and plans for the project. The property, between Ridgeway Street and the Corona Expressway (south of the San Bernardino Freeway, is used as a community garden.

In agreeing to the sale, the Pomona City Council virtually ignored an appraisal report that placed the value of the property at $6 a square foot, or $1.42 million. The $805,000 sale price is the equivalent of $3.70 a square foot.

Dipple said he and his partner have agreed to spend $155,000 on street work and other improvements off the site, including landscaping and fencing on the east side of Ridgeway, across the street from their property. The fencing would have to be acceptable to homeowners whose back yards line Ridgeway.

Dipple said the $155,000 expenditure, combined with the $805,000 purchase price, has the effect of raising the property’s cost to $4.40 a square foot. But even at that rate, the price is 30% under the value placed on the property by appraiser Albert W. Pattison of Upland, who was hired by the city to estimate the property’s worth.

Mayor Donna Smith, who along with Councilman Tomas Ursua voted against the transaction, said she thinks the city is getting a bad deal.

“I look at it as losing half a million dollars,” said Smith, who joined with Councilman Tomas Ursua in voting against the sale.

Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer, who voted for the sale with Nell Soto and C. L. (Clay) Bryant, said: “It’s a judgment call. . . . I think we got a really good deal.”

Nymeyer noted that the city is making a lot of money considering that it bought the property from the state Department of Transportation in 1974 for $23,000.

Nymeyer said that the city could have solicited other bids, but that there was no indication of any other interest and a delay could have jeopardized the sale to Dipple and Barbuto.

Dipple said: “I paid what I think is a fair market price.” He said if the city had solicited other offers, there might have been a bidding war, the price for the property could have become exorbitant and it would have been impossible for any buyer to develop the property properly and make money.

“I’m within the range (of prices paid for comparable property),” he said, “and I’m trying to upgrade the area.”

Dipple said his plans call for construction of 11 buildings of 6,500 to 9,500 square feet each. The business park should provide the city with 100 jobs, he estimated.

In approving the sale, the City Council had to overcome legal obstacles.

One was whether it could sell the property without seeking bids; another was whether it could sell it at a discounted price.

City Atty. Arnold M. Glasman wrote an opinion saying neither the City Charter nor state law requires a bidding process for the sale of city-owned land.

He said the state Constitution prohibits cities from making gifts of public money. But, he said, the council could overcome any claim of giving away public money by stating that the sale of the property at a below-market price was for a public purpose.

“It would appear that if the council determined the transaction to be for a public purpose, it is not a gift of public funds, even though private persons benefit from the transaction,” Glasman wrote.

The council adopted a resolution declaring that “the sale of this property for private development would serve a public purpose if such development provides new jobs and revenues to the city of Pomona.”

Glasman said in his memo that the city obtained the property from Caltrans in 1974 with the stated intention of using the property for parks. But, Glasman said, he believes that the city is free to sell the property for private development because it was merely expressing its intention and not accepting a condition.

A Caltrans spokesman said the agency doesn’t monitor subsequent uses of land it sells.

Douglas Bridges, director of the city Parks and Recreation Department, said he was “a little surprised” by the city’s decision to sell the property because it could have served as a good site for baseball and soccer fields.

Bridges said his department had refrained from developing the land for playing fields because of a shortage of money and because he was told that the property would eventually be used to improve freeway access.

City Engineer Glen K. Lewis said the city will retain the southern portion of the site for a ramp onto a connector road that takes traffic from the northbound Corona Expressway to the westbound San Bernardino Freeway.

Dipple said those who use the community garden will have time to harvest their summer crops, which include corn, tomatoes and beans, because development of the property will not begin until this fall at the earliest.