City of Lancaster Ca. Revitalization of Yucca Neighborhood

Yucca Neighborhood Revitalization The geographical area located between Sierra Highway and Division Street and between Avenue I and Avenue K, shall be referred to as the Yucca Neighborhood Vision Plan. This name was selected because of the important early role Yucca Avenue played in the development of the area within the urban core of the City, and because it is a recognized feature common throughout the entire vision plan area. The Yucca Neighborhood Vision Plan area is broken up into a number of land use districts composed of residential, commercial, industrial and transportation related uses. It is from the strength of these previously established uses that the vision plan will focus on promoting quality redevelopment in some of the older areas, while promoting compatible new development and growth on land suitable for infill projects yet to be developed. The primary objectives for the Yucca Neighborhood Vision Plan are: 1) to eliminate or reduce the number of deteriorating and unmaintained properties; 2) redevelop areas involving inconsistent patterns and densities of multi-family residential uses; 3) to mitigate the conflict between some of the uses (e.g. mostly commercial to residential uses); 4) to develop programs and establish street patterns for the redevelopment and rehabilitation of older commercial and residential properties; 5) to enhance circulation and access, wherever possible; 6) to ensure and facilitate the construction of new infrastructure to support neighborhood growth and future investment; and 7) to create implementation tools and comply with environmental standards in order to realize the potential benefits from the resultant vision plan. The City of Lancaster has been planning since at least September of last year to revitalize the area east of Sierra Hwy and between Ave I and Ave K. There have been community meetings with participation from residents in the area. The funding has been secured from Los Angeles County revitalization projects with an update of zoning code for the areas to the east and south of the Lancaster Metrolink Station since September 2012 with a grant from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the City has retained a team of consultants. This planning grant from the Southern California Association of Governments, the City of Lancaster has retained Sargent Town Planning to help create a Vision Plan for the Southeast Transit Village Plan Area (STVPA). The STVPA is approximately 90 acres located east and southeast of the existing Metrolink Station, from Lancaster Boulevard to Avenue J and between Sierra Highway and Division Street. The Plan builds on Downtown’s recent civic and economic revitalization to: 1. Extend the success of Lancaster Boulevard to the east side of the railroad tracks 2. Rethink the Metrolink station as an urban, pedestrian-oriented, multi-modal transit facility 3. Establish better pedestrian, bicycle, and bus connections to the Lancaster Metrolink Station from both sides of the railroad tracks, while still accommodating access via vehicles 4. Introduce mixed-use development to provide housing, offices, and retail uses that complement Downtown Several recent meetings have been cancelled, but with funding in place the prospects of a rejuvenated area between Division and Sierra Hwy and Lancaster Blvd and Ave J look good. Most of this area is industrial type property and development, but the zoning is Mixed Use neighborhood allowing apartments with retail at street level and housing above. The cost per acre for this land may seem high, but the likelihood of this area being filled with new development seems very high. The area here has lots of development and the open space is mainly infill. It looks to be a great area to invest for a short term gain. The area has need a boost for some time, and maybe now is that time with the funding in place and the area is surrounded by development. It will become a large transit zone with access to hospitals and all city services. It may even become a location for retired people because of the accessibility.

The Rich are Buying Land Why not You

As the wealthy get wealthier, they're putting more of it into land. America's 100 largest individual landowners added 700,000 acres to their landholdings last year, according to the Land Report 100, which is created by Land Report and Fay Ranches a brokerage firm and reported by CNBC. Those 100 individuals or families now control more than 30 million acres, or 2 percent of America's entire land mass. What are they buying? Looks like Ranches and Farmland, timberland which they lease out to farmers and loggers. Some of the recent holdings are by John Malone a Cable Titan who bought 120 acres in Florida, and Ted Turner (CNN) who bought 2 million acres, Jeff Bezos of Amazon who bought 290,000 acres, the Koch family with 239,000 acres and hedge fund titan Louis Moore. Why is this important for Antelope Valley Titans, well duplicating what the rich do can also influence your pocket book for one. You don’t have to buy hundreds of thousands of high desert land in the Valley. But these large land buyers don’t by thousands of acres just to hold. They investigate before they buy and they assess value with risk. They invest for the future, although some may donate this land for conservation purposes and develop elsewhere. But for investors looking longer term so when others get in on the low end of the market then it is a positive sign that low priced land may also be available for you in places like Antelope Valley, We have a number of low priced industrial land for sale on our website www.vacantlanddeals.com

Lancaster City Council Approve Three New Solar Sites.

City Council Meeting and AV Press Reports that the City Council in a unanimous vote Tuesday night Sept 9, 2013 gave final approval to three solar energy projects proposed for roughly 93 acres of open desert area on the east side of the Lancaster National Soccer Center. The City Council vote makes necessary changes to the zoning and land-use designations in an area generally bounded by avenues K-8 and L, and 20th and 30th streets east. The council's approval also validates a conditional-use permit the Planning Commission approved Aug. 19, allowing the projects to move forward as planned. The solar projects will be each owned by separate companies PsomasFMG, U.S. Topco and Morgan Solar. The PsomasFMG facility is on roughly 35 acres between avenues K-8 and K-12 west of 25th Street East, with a generating capacity of 3.8 megawatts. The project will consist of rows of photovoltaic panels on single-axis trackers. The panels will be between 6 and 8 feet tall, depending on their tilt. The U.S. Topco project is on roughly 38 acres between avenues K-12 and L west of 25th Street East with the capability to generate 8 megawatts of energy. Rows of fixed solar panels will be roughly 6 feet tall on the site. Morgan Solar's facility is on roughly 20 acres on the east side of 25th Street East. It will generate 1.5 megawatts of energy sitting on dual-axis trackers. The panels will be about 8 feet tall. All projects will connect to the power grid through underground wiring, a city report states.

Obama Renewable Energy Plan Targets LA, San Bernardino and Kern Counties

The White House has pushed for approval of an additional 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy production on public lands (BLM Bureau of Land Management). The Obama administration says the 25 utility-scale solar facilities, nine wind farms, and 11 geothermal plants it has approved on federal lands so far will provide enough juice to power 4.4 million homes. According to the National Geographic magazine, The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) so far has issued permits or is conducting environmental reviews for solar, wind, and geothermal projects covering about 310,000 acres (125,450 hectares) an area about the size of Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. Many projects require that electric transmission lines be built over miles of open space to connect the remote renewable generating plants to the grid that serves population centers. There have been recent lawsuits against the plan to use so much public land and land that has delicate environmental ecosystems. Also, Federal and State Funds for these projects come with strict deadlines to break ground, a rush to buy land with an abundance of endangered plants and animals like E-Solar did in Antelope Valley. There are also regulations from County governments. This all created speculative investments, lawsuits, canceled projects, and other complications. The Solar Millennium project in Death Valley was abandoned by its bankrupt developer, Other projects have been cut back in size and some like Beautiful Earth in Del Sur in Antelope Valley have asked for extensions to complete their plan. Separately, birds have been found dead including three brown pelicans who may have thought the solar panels were a water source from several hundred feet. We have also reported Bright Source Energy’s issue with relocating desert tortoise found living on their Ivanpah Solar site. This site takes up 3500 acres. News reports indicate that the company paid up to $22 million to relocate the tortoise and they will have to spend $34 million in mitigation costs to offset their project. It is likely that projects approved just a few years ago would not have been approved today because of the environmental impact. Solar projects are the biggest targets for BLM land as they produce more megawatts than wind or geothermal and they use less land. The debate is not over and with all the legal challenges we expect more back and forth as these projects proceed or don’t. Some investors can benefit as speculative investment land and mitigation land will be targets for these environmental projects.

California’s Bullet Train Or Elon Musk’s Hyperloop?

How about “L.A. to S.F. in 30 minutes?”, which was the front page of the Los Angeles Times this week. At the same time Elon Mush of Tesla is proposing a Hyperloop, the conceptual superfast, solar-powered, tubular transit system. This news came after another L.A. Times piece about the potential Cal High Speed Rail experiencing delays again. The much delayed, and over budget, fast train is already in the works and beyond conception mode like the Hyperloop. The State of California has budgeted $68 Billion and years of planning on the CalHighSpeedRail plan. The LA Times reports that Musk deliberately hopes his Hyperloop will disrupt current plans for the railroad. “I don’t think we should do the high-speed rail thing,” Musk told reporters. “It’s basically going to be California’s Amtrak,” he said. He didn’t mean that as a compliment.(LA Times). The California High Speed Rail Authority Chairman Dan said Musk greatly underestimates the costs of the Hyperloop, not to mention how hard it is to secure funding for mass transit and convince neighbors and environmentalists that such a system won’t be harmful. “While we have a lot of respect for his inventiveness, I think we could tell him a few things about the realities of building in California,” Richard said. Hyperloop is just on the drawing board and has potentially many hurdles. It is speculated to only cost $6 Billion just 10% of the cost of the HighSpeed Rail? That too maybe farfetched as the Railroad plan started at $100 Billion for the entire project, and now it’s $68 Billion for a portion of the overall plan. Californians approved about $10 billion in bonds for the project back in 2008. The LA Times also reports the costs have multiplied since then, and the state hasn’t secured all of the additional funds needed. The train is also behind schedule because of delays in engineering the project and acquiring land along the route, and because of all the environmental and legal challenges. Although, the clock’s ticking on federal stimulus grants, which are set to expire in 2017. The Hyperloop certainly sounds better, it projected to be cheaper, solar powered and take less time to go from San Francisco to LA (30 minutes). You could easily link up with a rental car, taxi, Metro or Muni at either destination city. It also looks like you only need 4 to 6 people in order to fill a transport capsule, while the train would be 6 to 10 rail cars. There are engineering issues with the Hyperloop in that it would generation lots of heat, so a proposal to surround the tube with water but that could mean lots of water. Maybe a combination of the two plans could fit, but we don’t see the Hyperloop operating through the Central Valley or Antelope Valley. It could kill the train in Palmdale, Ca. The other option is the Hyperloop is not for California as they have made their bet with the train. It may fit better between Dallas and Houston, or New York and D. C., or even New York to L. A. so the liberals can zoom past those Red States as fast as possible to get to another liberal haven.

Hwy Corridor Progressing with Alternatives

News from the Victor Valley Daily Press indicates progress for the Hwy Corridor. There was a recent meeting in late July with The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority and Caltrans regarding the proposed route connecting the Victor and Antelope Valleys. They are proposing an eight-lane High Desert Corridor that will stretch over 60 miles between the two cities of Palmdale and Victorville. They have almost completed their environmental studies. They are still a good bit away from reality though. They project to begin construction by 2016, but they will need new funds to consummate that plan. One of the options is to have a public and private sector funding of the project. A number of alternatives have come into play. The original plan was to build a freeway between Hwy 15 in Victorville to Hwy 14 in Antelope Valley. Now they are conceiving to add a high speed rail and a toll road or both. Or do nothing at all. The main reason the Hwy Corridor was planned was based on future population growth, and commerce between the two major cities in the High Desert. Currently the access is via Hwy 138 which runs East of Palmdale along the southern parts of the valley to Phelan, Pinon Hills and then to Victorville. We cannot locate full detailed public maps of the exact route the Hwy Corridor would precede. It is roughly projected to run East to West from Hwy 15 through Adelanto south of El Mirage by Krey Field Airport to Palmdale Blvd. (Q8) in Eastern Antelope Valley and proceed south of Lake Los Angeles via Palmdale Blvd and then up to Ave P-8 and connect to Hwy 14. Most (over 95%) of this route is vacant unused land. 10th East to 90th East in Palmdale is undeveloped land and P-8 in not a paved road. Palmdale Blvd is paved from Hwy 14 Eastward to 240th street East, but is certainly not wide enough for a hwy. There are proposed alternative bypass routes along the path. There looks to be speculative investment opportunities along the route and if the project is approved then profits can be made. We will keep you posted here with the progress as an eight lane hwy along Antelope Valley’s east side will make significant changes in those areas.

How to Get a Land Loan, Buying Land Over Time on Terms

We have numerous inquiries from land investors who are interested in land banking, but they don’t have the funds currently to buy property. They can’t get a loan from banks, private lenders or even personal loans from families. Some sellers will finance the purchase of their property with an (OWC) owner will carry usually with interest over time. But most sellers want cash. Yet buying land now as an investment is ideal as prices are much lower than they were just a few years ago. We at Vacantlanddeals.com have helped Antelope Valley Investors buy land with terms over time. We have mainly sold land to cash buyers, but we have help finance our own land and other sellers land. If you are looking to buy a parcel primarily in the Antelope Valley, but can’t currently pay cash for the property, we can buy the parcel in advance for you and provide it to you. You will be the title holder on the property after escrow and then make monthly payments from two to five years, whichever works best. If we can help you finance and buy land for you for a custom home, or longer term investment let us know.