Los Angeles Orders Quake Retrofit for Many Older Buildings

Recent Associated Press Article This is not necessarily regarding land, but it projects that capital in Los Angeles County will focus on developed Real Estate. Thousands of older wood and concrete apartment buildings vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake would get costly upgrades under sweeping retrofitting rules passed Friday by the Los Angeles City Council. The mandate would affect as many as 13,500 so-called soft-first-story buildings, which are typically wood-frame structures with large spaces such as parking lots on the ground floor. As many as 1,500 brittle concrete buildings would also require upgrades. The measure passed on a 12-0 vote. "There's no question that we're going to have an earthquake. The question is, when?" Councilman Gil Cedillo said. "In here we've laid out the groundwork for the seismic retrofitting that needs to be done." Before the vote, representatives for residential landlords and commercial building owners signaled their approval of the plan — while expressing concerns about potential costs. City leaders will now have to agree on how the estimated $5,000-per-unit retrofitting would be split between tenants and landlords. The law currently allows owners to increase rents up to $75 per month to pay for a required earthquake retrofit, but both sides say such a hike is too steep. One proposal is to divide the costs 50-50 and cap possible monthly rent increases at $38. To help pay for the upgrades, apartment groups are looking for certain financial support, such as breaks on property and state income taxes and business license and building permit fees for owners who retrofit. The proposed quake retrofitting mandate is part of an effort by Mayor Eric Garcetti to make the city resilient to major earthquakes. His plan released in December focuses on rapidly identifying and retrofitting at-risk residential and commercial buildings, fortifying major water systems that would be severed by a huge quake and keeping telecommunications systems operating. The goal of the mayor's broad plan is to keep the region sufficiently functional to avoid a long-term economic collapse despite what seismologists say is an inevitable jolt on the order of a magnitude-7.8 quake caused by a 200-mile-long rupture of the mighty San Andreas Fault. Wood apartments will be given seven years to complete construction once an owner is ordered by the Department of Building and Safety to retrofit the building. Owners of brittle concrete buildings will have 25 years to do the work. Estimates for upgrades for soft-first-story structures range from $60,000 to $130,000 per apartment building. Taller concrete buildings can cost millions of dollars to strengthen. Studies estimate that a massive earthquake in the Los Angeles area could kill up to 18,000 people and cause some $250 billion in damage. Sixteen people were killed in the collapse of a soft-first-story building during the Jan. 17, 1994, Northridge earthquake. The magnitude-6.7 jolt was the last significant seismic disaster in the Los Angeles region. U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones, the mayor's earthquake science adviser who was a consultant for the council, was on hand for the vote. She pushed for passage of the plan, saying lives would be saved. "It's not every day we have the opportunity to save lives," Council President Herb Wesson said after the vote. "Today we had that opportunity."

California is Committed to get 50% of its Power from Renewable Energy by 2030

In part from an AP article in LOS ANGELES Gov. Jerry Brown has committed the state to use renewable energy for half its electricity and to upgrade current buildings to double their efficiency by 2030. The Governor even tried to get the state to drop petroleum use by 50% by 2030, but that was rebuffed. It looks like most cars will be electric in the next 15 years. But some critics say this will be costly to the consumer. Oil is easily accessible and abundant and in use throughout the world. Moving over to renewable energy may take time and cost more for each consumer and businesses. The cost to produce food, energy, and transport it with half of that energy coming from renewable will make product cost more. It appears politicians and environmentalists with the implication that climate change will kill us all don’t think things through. Novel ideas are not always workable ideas. According to the associated press article the details of this plan will be up to the state's Air Resources Board, Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission. These boards are led mostly by gubernatorial appointees and have broad influence over economic life. California is primarily a natural gas state. Most of the energy that produces electricity in California comes from natural gas with additional from nuclear energy, hydroelectric, and a little coal. The cost to transition to solar, wind and biomass will have to be passed onto the consumers. This will affect the least able to afford it as well. This law will also push for energy efficient buildings and require and expansion of charging stations. It will mean more support for renewable energy facilities in Antelope Valley. These solar farms are expanding now, but more and more will like get approval. The solar farms are expanding in the city limits but up until now Los Angeles County land has not given the green light to install new solar. There is a lot of solar on LA County land, but the permit process is much slower than solar on city land. Maybe this will change LA County land owners prospects as the Gov and Legislators approve it.

XpressWest High Speed Rail which was called DesertXpress is Beginning to Take Shape

The plan is a brainchild of Marnell Corrao Associates a privately held company and it is backed and proposed by private funds. The initial plan is to connect from Victorville in San Bernadino County to Las Vegas with a connection to Los Angeles in Palmdale, Ca. It has further proposal to connect to Phoenix Arizona, Salt Lake City, and Denver Colorado According to reports the cost of the Victorville to Las Vegas section will cost $7 billion with $1.4 Billion coming from the Federal Railroad administration. The 50 mile connection between Victorville to Palmdale is part of an agreement with the LA County Metro Transportation Authority to explore a connection to Metorlink and potentially the Cal High Speed Rail. This looks to be a parallel construction. The initial proposed route between Victorville to Las Vegas looks to run along Hwy 15.This route is largely uninhabited desert land. Most of this land is owned by the Bureau of Land Management (Federal Government) and National Park Service. The uniqueness about the initial route is that there are no proposed stops between the two cities, so it looks to be a straight shot to Vegas. Further reports indicate that the investor group has applied for a loan as of Oct 2011 for a $4.9 billion through the federal Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing program. The loan and funding are far from approval as Senate and House leaders has indicated the project is a taxpayer risk. As recent as July 2013 news report indicated the loan was suspended. This essentially means denial of the loan, but the developer indicated they are proceeding without firm funding in place. The most recent report is interest from Chinese firms, but that is to build and operate the train, with no indication of Chinese funding. Thus it looks like a project under development costing billions with no firm plan in mind to accomplish it. It will most likely be part of the Presidential nomination cycle as Nevada is early on the primary list. Don’t rush to buy the land just yet.

BYD Increases Bus Sales In Washington State

AVPress LANCASTER - BYD's electric bus factory got a boost with Washington state transportation officials' selection of BYD for 10 of 12 types of electric buses expected to be ordered by Washington transit agencies and other entities. The selection does not constitute orders for bus production, but it sets price agreements for buses that Washington transit agencies, colleges, cities, Indian nations and nonprofit organizations can order over the next five years, Washington officials said. "It's huge news, huge news," Mayor R. Rex Parris said. "We've always been very confident the world was going to wake up, that this is the new form of bus transportation. There's not any serious competition anywhere in the world." The Washington State Department of Transportation Heavy Duty Bus Request for Proposal is intended to allow agencies to buy new buses without having to perform their own solicitation, analysis and awards, said David Chenaur, a business analyst with the department's public transportation division. In all, the department approved 26 categories of buses of varying lengths and engines - clean diesel, hybrid, compressed natural gas, plug-in electric and on-route charging electric - for a potential total purchase of 800 buses, Chenaur said. Link Transit in Wenatchee, Washington, has already ordered five BYD buses, he said. "These orders put us into a great position for expansion," said Micheal Austin, BYD America vice president.The company employs more than 300 people at the Lancaster plant and elsewhere in Southern California, he said. BYD's buses were the only ones with wireless on-routing charging approved by Washington officials, the company said."Electric buses are no longer a science fair project. With BYD now producing a long-range bus in nearly every category we have proven the technology is here to stay," Macy Meshati, BYD Coach & Bus vice president of sales, said in the company's announcement. BYD has a contract with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for up to 25 buses, and a 10-bus contract with Long Beach Transit. The first five Metro buses were delivered in May.The Antelope Valley Transit Authority also plans to buy 29 electric buses beyond the two BYD buses it already has. BYD officials in May 2013 dedicated the Lancaster plant, which is the first Chinese-owned vehicle plant in the United States. BYD officials are talking with city officials about doubling the plant's size, not only to accommodate increased bus production but to build electric delivery trucks as well, Parris said. More expansion could follow that, he said. Parris said the firm's local employment is expected to reach 700 in two years. "BYD is going to be bigger than aircraft (employment) has ever been," Parris said. In January, GO-Biz, the state's economic development office, allocated $3 million in tax credits to BYD. The credits will be given provided the company meets certain employment and investment milestones. Under the tax credit agreement, BYD must ramp up its workforce to at least 243 workers in 2016, to 388 in 2017 and to 625 in 2018. BYD must pay a minimum annual salary of $27,040 and an average annual salary of $44,110 by 2018, under the agreement, and is required to make investments of $51 million by 2018.

China firms sign deal for high-speed Las Vegas-Los Angeles rail link ahead of Xi's U.S. visit

Press Release regarding High Speed Rail from Las Vegas to Los Angeles BEIJING | BY BRENDA GOH A unit of China's CRRC Corp, the world's biggest train maker by revenue, on Thursday joined a group of its domestic peers in agreeing a deal to help build a high-speed link from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, underlining the rail giant's lofty overseas ambitions. Announced in a joint statement by the Chinese firms and U.S. partner XpressWest at a government forum in Beijing, the deal is the latest in a series of deeper Sino-American business ties to be unveiled before President Xi Jinping visits the United States next week. Computer maker Dell Inc said it will invest $125 billion in China, and new bilateral investment treaty offers have been exchanged. CRRC, formed from a state-driven merger of China's two largest train makers, is among a large group of the country's rail firms that has inked an accord for the project with XpressWest, a venture set up by Las Vegas-based hotel and casino developer Marnell Companies. Investment terms weren't disclosed. Gary Wong, a Hong Kong-based analyst at brokerage Guotai Junan, estimated that the project could be worth $5 billion. He said that although it would likely offer the many Chinese firms involved little financial benefit, it was significant for their long-term goals. "If this opens up the U.S. market for them, opportunities for future expansion will increase. And if (their technology) is used in the United States, it will be easier for them to sell to other countries," he said. CRRC is leading China's aggressive pursuit of overseas high-speed rail deals in competition with traditional suppliers such as Germany's Siemens AG and France's Alstom SA. Beijing recently clinched contracts in Russia, although it has faced hurdles in Mexicoand Indonesia due to bureaucratic flip-flops in those countries. US POTENTIAL The United States is a key target for China's rail industry, even though policymakers have been split over the need for high-speed rail and some have taken a dim view of Chinese involvement in potentially strategic deals. Most of a dozen or so U.S. projects lined up have struggled to gain traction, leaving the country far behind Europe and Asia in this area. XpressWest won the green light for the 230-mile high-speed line linking Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2011 and applied for a federal loan in 2010, according to the company's website. It did not say whether its loan application had been successful. The U.S. company didn't respond to calls or emails seeking comment on the project after the partnership deal with the Chinese firms - grouped in a Nevada-based venture called China Railway International U.S.A. - was announced. XpressWest and the Chinese firms said in their statement that the accord would help accelerate the project without disclosing details of how it would achieve that. Additional regulatory approvals will be required before the construction begins, expected early as September 2016. "The United States market is huge because the fact is that their railway tracks and facilities are aging and need upgrading," Cao Gangcai, CRRC's vice chief economist, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, before the XpressWest deal was announced. The company plans to grow its share of revenue from work overseas to 30 percent within the next five years, he said. Having completed its merger in May, it booked first-half revenue of 91.8 billion yuan ($14.42 billion), only 12 percent of which was booked overseas. "We want to attain the position we deserve in the global market...There is no other company on earth that is able to simultaneously research and produce high-speed trains, electric multiple units, subways," he said.

Housing Tentative Tract Maps Denied and One Requesting Extension

The city of Lancaster is looking into an one year extension of a tentative tract map for zoned R-7000 at 60th West at J-8. It is a 12.6 acre lot and the proposal is to build 49 homes on the site. The tentative tract map applicant Royal Investors Group is requesting a one year extension. This group is not a home builder but a map builder, so it is not likely that any homes will be on this site anytime soon. United Engineering groups tentative tract map at 30th East at Ave K was approved to deny the request for a one year extension based on lack of findings in the staff report. This subdivision was set to be on 26 acres with a proposal to build 45 single family homes on the site. It is currently zoned R-10,000 or one house per 10,000 square feet. So no money or interest in building new homes hear. This is on top of the report today that the National Association of Home Builders index rose 1 point to 61, its highest level since November 2005. The builders or the map builders have been planning for housing development in Lancaster, but not anytime soon or at least for these two mappers. We have reported housing development about a year ago, but it looks to be still over the horizon for some builders.

Large Solar Power Facilities Underway on the West Side

This will take up 1191 gross acres bounded by Ave K, 80th Street West and 105th Street West down to the aqueduct. The first phase will be 104 acres from Ave K to Ave K-8 and between 90th Street West and 100th Street West. Then there will be another 600 acres from 95th Street West between K and L generally. They will follow up with another 322 acres between 80th and 90th West from Ave L to Quarry Ridge Road. The last phase is 95 acres from 80th to 85th West between L and L-8. This plan is being undertaken by sPower or Sustainable Power Group according to the City of Lancaster records. The city is changing the zoning from Specific plan and other zonings to RR 2.5. This will allow a 150 megawatt facility in the RR 2.5 zone. The Conditional Use Permits were adopted and approve in late July. There has been some building out there already, but large area encompasses a great deal of land and takes up a lot of APN 3248. It appears that the solar company has secured a great deal of this land already and applied for the permits with the City of Lancaster. So the adage buy land and wait has paid off for these long and even short term investors as a developer has come and is developing at the current extreme city limits of Lancaster. If your not familiar with the city of Lancaster then you have missed the solar gold rush. But the city of Lancaster and Palmdale (Antelope Valley) are situated in the most norther part of Los Angles County. This developing facility is about 8 to 10 miles west of Hwy 14 and just north of the aqueduct that runs via the the southern portion of Antelope Valley. Some of the solar panels are visible via google maps or aerial mapping. Stay tuned here for more news.