San Bernardino County Development And Redevelopment

Nearly two decades ago, Placentia resident Frances M. Klug, motivated by what she described as a vision from God, acquired a 440-acre tract of land in the rugged Chino Hills upon which she planned to construct a religious-medical complex in His name. The land sprawled across the confluence of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties and was christened St. Joseph's Hill of Hope as part of Klug's plan to build a basilica, chapels, hospital, monastery, convent and retreat house.

In a region known more for high pollution than highfalutin, Redlands is home to the Fortnightly Club, a century-old literary group that debates everything from affirmative action to the cultural contributions of Van Gogh's sister-in-law. In a sea of adolescent communities starving for jobs, growth and money, Redlands is an island of blue-blood stability. While the Inland Empire's population has ballooned, it is a tidy 63,000, fighting the sprawl consuming the region.

Catellus Development Corp. said it paid $16 million for the 588-acre property in San Bernardino County that it will develop into a giant industrial park and truck plaza. A subsidiary of the real estate development firm will eventually construct 6 million square feet of industrial space at the Kaiser Commerce Center in the Fontana area. The property, which is located near the intersection of Interstates 10 and 15, was purchased from Kaiser Ventures Inc.

Catellus Development Corp. said it paid $16 million for the 588-acre property in San Bernardino County that it will develop into a giant industrial park and truck plaza. A subsidiary of the real estate development firm will eventually construct 6 million square feet of industrial space at the Kaiser Commerce Center in the Fontana area. The property, which is located near the intersection of Interstates 10 and 15, was purchased from Kaiser Ventures Inc.

The little patch of desert didn't look like much, unless you were Richard and Lily Perkins. To them, the dusty bit of creosote and chaparral looked like five acres of blissful, homespun retreat after a lifetime in the smoggy suburbs of Los Angeles. "We had planned on using it for our retirement home," said Lily Perkins, a 51-year-old clerk. "Of course, that was before we found out.

Drive down Coke Oven Road and you'll be on the back straightaway of the about-to-be-built California Speedway's two-mile tri-oval. Before construction can start, however, the sign that says "DANGER--Molten Slag Being Carried" must be removed. The front of the tri-oval is harder to define.

Inside the Capitol, state legislators are getting a bellyful of a "doughnut hole." This "doughnut hole" is not a pastry but about 1,000 acres of aging orange groves and mostly vacant land--surrounded by the city of Redlands--that its owners see as prime commercial land. In the final days of the 1999 legislative session, this San Bernardino County real estate has become the target of an intense lobbying campaign as legislators scramble to wrap up their work.

California Gets a New Plant: Broken Hill Proprietary Co. of Australia said it will build a $60-million plant in Rancho Cucamonga to coat sheet steel with Zincalume, a zinc and aluminum product that resists rust. The plant will have a capacity of 550,000 tons a year and will be the only such installation in the western United States.

County officials Tuesday kept alive a controversial proposal by a financially beleaguered developer to construct a swank residential neighborhood and private golf course on ecologically sensitive land at the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest. At stake is an attempt by Landmark Land Co., which is under the conservatorship of the federal Resolution Trust Corp., to substantially increase the value of the property before the government sells it at auction.

At first glance, the proposal to put 620 expensive homes and an 18-hole golf course on a large parcel of foothill land looks like a loser. The 762 acres on the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest are in a flood plain and brush-fire zone at the confluence of three reverse-thrust faults similar to the one that caused January's Northridge earthquake.

Redlands officials have fired the latest salvo in a long-running dispute over a controversial "doughnut hole," suing the state and calling into question campaign contributions made to Gov. Gray Davis. The "hole" at issue consists of about 1,000 acres of aging orange groves and vacant land, surrounded by the city of Redlands, in San Bernardino County. Although it is in an unincorporated area, it falls under the city's sphere of influence.

After a quarter century of talk and delays, Orange County is moving forward with plans to buy all of the property that lies in the expanded Prado Dam flood plain. Buying the land will allow the dam, a familiar sight off the Riverside Freeway and Corona Expressway, to be raised by nearly 30 feet--greatly reducing the threat of flooding of the Santa Ana River in urbanized Orange County, but increasing the potential area of flooding behind it into less-populated parts of San Bernardino County.

Betting that strong demand for industrial buildings will continue in and around the transportation hub of Ontario, national real estate services firm Trammell Crow Co. will launch construction this month on nearly 2 million square feet of speculative developments on behalf of its capital partners.

Developer Western Realco of Newport Beach plans to build what it believes will be the largest speculative industrial building ever undertaken in California, an 817,750-square-foot $24-million warehouse center in Fontana. The company plans to break ground in December and to finish construction in August, said Gary Edwards, a Western Realco vice president.

Inside the Capitol, state legislators are getting a bellyful of a "doughnut hole." This "doughnut hole" is not a pastry but about 1,000 acres of aging orange groves and mostly vacant land--surrounded by the city of Redlands--that its owners see as prime commercial land. In the final days of the 1999 legislative session, this San Bernardino County real estate has become the target of an intense lobbying campaign as legislators scramble to wrap up their work.

Construction of the largest reservoir in Southern California is approaching two-thirds completion in a onetime farming valley near Hemet. The $2-billion Metropolitan Water District project is intended to hold a six-month supply of water for customers from San Diego to Santa Monica should a catastrophic earthquake along the San Andreas Fault sever the canals that deliver water from Northern California and the Colorado River, or to store water to help supply the region during droughts.

The transition of Norton Air Force Base to a commercial, mixed-use airport--a development that local boosters say will lead to the economic revival of the region--moved a step closer Wednesday with the signing of an interim lease by the Air Force Base Disposal Agency, giving the base to local authorities.

In San Bernardino County, environmentalists and developers, who have been at each other's throats elsewhere, have agreed on a countywide growth management plan that could lead to developer fees of $5,000 to $10,000 for each new housing unit. The president of the local chapter of the Building Industry Assn.

The Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly, which spends nearly all of its short life buried under a few sand dunes in San Bernardino County, may emerge this week as the snail darter of the 1990s. The once obscure and now federally protected fly is at the center of a major legal battle over the reach of federal environmental laws.

By the time Kaiser Steel Corp. staggered into bankruptcy in 1987, the once-mighty manufacturer's only products were lawsuits, debts and bitterness. The company founded by Henry Kaiser in 1941 to churn out steel for World War II warships was felled by a devastating combination of market forces and financial opportunism. But in the decade since the demise of San Bernardino County's largest industrial employer, Kaiser Ventures Inc.