SAN BERNARDINO - The effort to reinvent the "19th and Sunrise area" moves on.
Recent project-related events includes news that the nonprofit hired to rehabilitate 25 four-plexes has closed escrow on two apartment buildings. The City Council has also approved contracts with two firms to assist in the project.
"To do this in this manner allows us to do it with great dispatch," Mayor Pat Morris said.
The 19th and Sunrise project takes its name from 19th Street and Sunrise Lane. Redevelopment work is slated to happen along those streets where they intersect Arden and Guthrie avenues.
On a sunny Tuesday, the neighborhood was the scene of both laughing children who played on the streets and sidewalks and the boarded-up windows of empty apartments.
Plans call for 100 apartment units to be rehabilitated for low-income tenants. Another 144 units are to be torn down to make way for 40 to 55 homes and senior housing.
The project is slated to be partially financed with San Bernardino's $8.4 million share of federal Neighborhood Stabilization funds, which are intended to help local governments fight against foreclosures. The total cost of the project is estimated to reach $12.6 million.
The 19th and Sunrise project was one of the most energetically debated issues during this year's political campaigns and on the City Council dais.
Morris and like-minded officials said work will improve housing and reduce the overall number of rental units in a crime-prone area.
Those opposed said San Bernardino is too full of low-income housing and that despite planned safeguards, parolees will eventually sneak in.
City politics have cooled since the election. There was debate over technicalities when the council discussed contracts during its Nov. 16 meeting, but passions did not rise to extreme levels.
Councilwoman Wendy McCammack - who opposed the project - raised questions during that meeting, but her remarks also indicated she accepted the reality that the project is on San Bernardino's to-do list.
"The council spoke, there's no doubt about that. I'm not trying to overturn anything here, but I'm trying to prevent this city and this council from being sued," McCammack said.
McCammack's concerns related to the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency's contract with Mary Ericson Community Housing, a San Clemente-based nonprofit.
San Bernardino officials hired Mary Ericson Community Housing to rehabilitate 100 apartment units. The nonprofit also has right of first opportunity to develop the planned homes or senior complex.
McCammack maintained a decision to bring in a pair of new firms could violate San Bernardino's deal with the Mary Ericson group.
Susan McDevitt, executive director of Mary Ericson Community Housing, said she does not object to the other firms.
"I don't know to what extent we'll be involved in the future development," McDevitt said.
Morris said the day after the council's vote that Mary Ericson still has the right to develop homes and senior housing.
Mary Ericson Community Housing has closed deals to buy two four-plexes in the 19th and Sunrise area, said McDevitt, adding that work to improve the buildings could begin in about one month.
One of the new contracts brings in Los Angeles-based Shober Consulting to take on property management services and to help the EDA assist current tenants, who need relocation assistance since the project will require them to move.
Shober's contract pays the firm more than $344,000 to craft a relocation plan plus a $3,500 per month property management fee. The full costs of relocation and demolition are not yet known.
The second contractor is Inglewood-based Del Richardson and Associates, hired to purchase properties within the redevelopment area. The cost of this work is not expected to be more than $108,500.
The 19th and Sunrise project has also been a source of uncertainty for people who live in the area, since plans require them to find new homes.
California law requires San Bernardino officials to provide financial assistance to displaced residents, but that has not settled doubts among those who wonder where they will live next.
"If this is going to be rebuilt, that's a good thing, but just tearing down the neighborhood and making us move, I don't think that's good," tenant Rashida Williams, 30, said outside the door of her apartment Tuesday.
During summer, some residents took to the streets and filled the audience chambers at a City Council meeting to speak out against the project.
Another tenant, Martha Emmitt, 53, said Tuesday she accepts having to eventually move, but is concerned that her children will have to switch to a new school.
Those involved with the project have said that some people who relocate may be able to return to the area after construction.
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