Residents peeved over vanished developer, unfinished parks
| Monday, May 25 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Monday, May 25 2009 12:00 PM
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Michael Fagans / The Californian Rob Mosher stands in what should be a pool of water with a waterfall behind him at what is supposed to be a park in the City in the Hills development on the northeast side of Bakersfield.
Michael Fagans / The Californian A warning sign stands in front of what should be a waterfall running into a lake system in what is supposed to be a park in the City in the Hills development on the northeast side of Bakersfield.
Michael Fagans / The Californian A brochure from the Lordon Management Company details a "paradise found" park for the City in the Hills development that highlights a nine-acre landscaped Mediterranean park, spring lake with bridges and waterfalls, pedestrian stradas lined with mature olive trees, Italianate amphitheatre, arboretum-style native plant grove and 2,200 square foot community center.
Michael Fagans / The Californian Rob Mosher walks across what should be a pool of water with a waterfall at what is supposed to be a park in the City in the Hills development on the northeast side of Bakersfield.
No waterfall, no lake, no ducks.
Some homeowners at City in the Hills are miffed.
They're paying fees for upkeep of promised amenities that aren't only late -- they'll probably never be built.
A mostly finished waterfall, for example, is more likely to be yanked out than completed.
The former master developer of the northeast Bakersfield community has slipped away like a puff of smoke, leaving unfinished obligations to remaining homebuilders and the city.
Bakersfield officials are currently negotiating with the three remaining builders to update plans for two large parks and streetscaping. But the revised versions will be simpler than what was originally promised -- and still being touted -- in advertisement.
"It's extremely frustrating," said homeowner Ron Killmer, whose family bought its house on Sentori Court in early 2007 partly because a lush park was promised by the end of the year.
Instead, the nine-acre, gently sloped spot on City Hills Drive is tinted dead-grass gold these days and punctuated by a terraced, bone-dry waterfall.
Boulders and concrete ponds went in about 18 months ago, Killmer said, but have sat untouched since. Neighborhood kids now ride bikes in the empty bowls and play on the rocks.
A second 10-acre park farther east is undeveloped, although lakes, falls and gliding families of ducks and swans were never planned there.
NOW WHAT?
Slow going at the roughly 1,600-home subdivision northeast of Highway 178 and Vineland Road isn't unique.
But the city's assumption of certain developer obligations is.
The city council reluctantly voted April 1 to finish work on Masterson Street, the square-mile development's eastern boundary and a key secondary access route for emergency responders. The developer had left Masterson a torn-up, impassable stretch of rutted dirt. That work is now under way.
The city also took charge of other improvements specified in a 2005 deal under which city-issued bonds totaling more than $13 million were to pay for walls, sidewalks, sewer and other items, including some park construction.
The city wasn't required to step in after the master developer skipped out. Nor was it on the hook financially for the improvement bonds. But since the bonds were issued in the city's name, Bakersfield's credit rating could have been dinged if trouble arose.
Sufficient money remains in the bond fund to pay for the projects, city officials say. Bonds are being repaid by an assessment-district tax on City in the Hills homeowners that runs roughly $700 to $800 a year in most tracts.
Some fancier items promised by the former master developer, including water features at one of two parks eventually to be turned over to the city, are likely to be axed.
Plans originally called for the city to maintain the basic park site while the homeowners' association would tend to water features, said Dianne Hoover, director of Bakersfield's Recreation and Parks Department.
The cost of water, operation and liability could well put the kibbosh on the waterfall and an unbuilt lake at its base.
The former master developer, Mountain View Bravo LLC, a Los Angeles-area limited liability company, added the water features -- far and away beyond city standards -- voluntarily.
Now that Mountain View Bravo has shriveled into financial oblivion, the remaining homebuilders -- D.R. Horton, K. Hovnanian and the Los Angeles-area company that took over MVB's defaulted holdings, Global Investment & Development LLC -- are working with the city to design less ambitious parks.
City Manager Alan Tandy said that probably means removal of the waterfall and abandonment of the lake idea.
"The city has no means of forcing in elements that are beyond our normal control," Tandy said in an e-mail.
Details and a timeline are estimated to be done by late June.
City Councilmember Ken Weir, whose ward includes City in the Hills, will host a community meeting with homeowners and builders after details are hammered out.
WHY AM I PAYING?
Robert Mosher moved into his Menton Lane home last fall, paying extra for a lot across from the park.
Mosher wonders why he's paying $46 a month in homeowners association fees to maintain advertised amenities that don't exist.
"It's already there," he said of the waterfall. "Why can't they just fill it with water and turn it on?"
