SB Mayor Unveils Blueprint for City's Future!! (SB Sun 070106) "We've Got to Beleive"

This is a great plan if one thing does not take place!! And that is the Government take over of Private Property Owned by other People. I am talking of Coarse of Imminent Domain. The people of Down Town have purchased their property and paid for it month after month, and to get just the bear minimum and sometimes less then that for the value of their property when the City's or County's decide to take it over using the Imminent Domain Statutes. There are a lot of Bills that have been generated to try and stop this Imminent Domain take over of the property that your family purchased some years ago and passed it down and down, until it was worth some money, but the family was so tied into keeping it that they wanted to, I don't know, Live there!!

Well, the plan will be a good one only if Imminent domain is not part of it!! That is what I have to say!!

BSRancher

MAYOR UNVEILS BLUEPRINT FOR CITY'S FUTURE 'We've got to believe' Megan Blaney, Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO - Like the Lake Shasta-sized aquifer under its streets, the city's resources need to be tapped and channeled, Mayor Pat Morris told a packed audience of businessmen and women Friday morning. • Movie: See and download the presentation "This city holds a keystone," Morris said at the San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce Legislative Breakfast. "It is the anchor of the 90-mile basin." Downtown San Bernardino is identified as one of the demonstration areas in a regional plan to optimize the mobility, prosperity, livability and sustainability of Southland communities. The region is expected to be home to another 5 million-plus people by 2030 about 15 million people live in Southern California now, and the growth could have an adverse impact on traffic congestion, housing affordability, residents' incomes and other quality-of-life issues. The Southern California Association of Governments, the planning agency for growth, transportation, air quality and waste management in a six-county region stretching from Imperial County to Ventura County, advocates the concentration of housing, development and growth along existing transportation corridors and in the downtown areas of cities. Morris warned that if plans such as SCAG's "Compass 2 % Strategy" are not implemented, the area will suffer as a result. He pointed to a slide that showed uncontrolled growth scattered in blue dots across Southern California. "It gives us fair warning that if we don't plan well . . . the quality of our life will be terribly affected," Morris said. "We will literally become an infestation on the landscape of Southern California." San Bernardino has each of the requirements for a successful transformation, Morris said. Those include a metro center, transit stops and corridors, an airport and industrial center, and land that is still developable. Several major residential housing projects are planned downtown. Developments by Watson & Associates and ANR Homes, as well as the planned North Lake Project and plans at Seccombe Lake Park could bring a wealth of new homes downtown. SCAG's Compass project includes $500,000 for projects in downtown San Bernardino. And for additional funding, Morris urged people to "tell your friends" to vote for a $37.3 billion bond measure on the ballot this fall. The money would be used throughout the state for freeway improvements and goods movement, including widening of Interstate 215 and improving Interstate 10. Billions of dollars are also allotted for schools, affordable housing and inter- city renovations. Locally, some of that would be used for the Santa Fe Depot and the downtown Multi-Modal Transit Center. The Transit Center is still being designed and financing is still being sought. When completed, it is slated to include four modes of transportation: a light-rail line between Redlands and San Bernardino, a heavy-gauge Metrolink rail service, a local and regional bus service, and a rapid-transit bus l ine between Cal State San Bernardino and Loma Linda. Morris said the regional planning agency is placing great importance on San Bernardino as a key component of the region's future development. He emphasized the importance of collaboration between different agencies, the private sector and the community. Morris also applauded the initiative taken by chamber members to engage Caltrans in talks to clean up the I-215 off-ramps downtown. Judi Penman, president and CEO of the chamber, said her organization will work with neighborhood associations and local businesses in the cleanup effort. "We'll adopt it and keep it cleaned up," Penman said. "We're just trying to make it pretty. That's the entry to the city." And other major businesses are pitching in to the downtown revitalization effort. Larry Sharp, CEO of Arrowhead Credit Union, has plans to move the credit union's headquarters to E Street. "It's important for us to be downtown," he said. "We want a lot of growth in that area." Sharp believes growth downtown will eventually create a link to bustling Hospitality Lane, which is already nearly built out. To accommodate additional business traffic and the accompanying cargo, San Bernardino International Airport is predicted to experience tremendous growth, Morris said. Toward the end of his speech, Morris addressed the issue of crime in San Bernardino, saying that the city was "driving hard" to beat back the crime wave. But, he said, the future lies in developing San Bernardino as a major transportation hub of the Inland Empire. "We are the future. This city has been cited as the most important municipality" in the region, he said. "But we've got to believe it ourselves."