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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCoachella Valley Mountains Conservancy Land Acquisition CTY COHJNCIL ACTION: APPROVED DENIE] RECEIVED OTHERS B0OnS1 MEETIMG DATE On&A-461 COC� iTIA d-^n � �51 0L0 1` AYES: LNI A t p \V �ji J� u�'��511�, c'rv� 1 \ NOES: �Mo U MEMORANDUM ABSENT: v rJciY� _ ABSTAIN: CITY OF—PALM DESERT VERIFIED BY: 1311 za- L40 Original on File with City Clerk' s Office o: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City Manager Bruce Altman From: Buford A. Crites Councilman Date: January 9, 1993 Re: COACHELLA VALLEY MOUNTAINS CONSERVANCY LAND ACQUISITION Attached is a letter from the staff of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy noting a possible opportunity for the Conservancy to acquire lands via the Riverside County Assessor' s Office for property available through non-payment of taxes. These lands would be acquired from the Conservancy by the Federal Bureau of Land Management, which would net the Conservancy a monetary profit which would be used for staffing and operational purposes. Acquisition from the Conservancy by the BLM may take up to one year, and the Conservancy is requesting a loan of approximately $65, 000. 00 for a period of one year from the City of Palm Desert to facilitate the acquisition and transfer of these lands. The Conservancy is willing to pay what interest the City would receive on the funds from present investment of said dollars. I believe that it would be a good investment to assist the Conservancy in accomplishing their mandate of acquiring mountain land. The action requested is for the Mayor to sign, if appropriate, documents as necessary to accomplish the acquisition. For your information, I have also attached a copy of "Milestones In The Mountains Conservation Effort" . BAC:phs attachments: as noted BUFORD,A. CRITES COUNC LMAN COACHELLA VALLEY MOUNTAINS CONSERVANCY In partnership to protect our mountain heritage Governing Board February 4, 1993 City of Cathedral City City of Coachella City of Desert Hot Springs City of Indian wells TO: Buford City of Indio FROM: Bill City of La Quinta City of Palm Desert City of Palm Springs Could you sign the enclosed and send them out in the mail? City of Rancho Mirage Governor's Appointee I've also enclosed a copy of the Shadowrock letter for your files. State Senate Appointee State Assembly Appointee Riverside CountySupervisor On the tax defaulted parcels,in case I don't get a chance to discuss this on the phone Districtiii with you,there wasn't sufficient authorization given from the Conservancy yesterday Riverside CountySupervisor for me to send the necessary resolution to the Tax Collector,and I didn't want to press District IV Agua Caliente Band the issue given the lack of quorum and the debate over whether it was an emergency of Caituilla Indians item,etc. The back up plan is to have either the Regional Park and Open Space District Statepartment of Parks d Recreation or the Riverside Land Conservancy act on the Conservancy's behalf and include the Bureau of Land Management parcels in their requests to have parcels removed from the public auction sale. The real U.S.Forest Service key is whether we can come up with the money to buy the parcels. BLM will buy two Wildlife ConserDepartment ation Board of the parcels back from us,but they have to wait a year before title is considered clear State Department of Fish and Game on a tax default purchase like this, so what we're looking at is a one year loan from someone of about$66,000. The prime candidate is MRC as Rick Daniels has previously indicated an interest in doing something significant for the Conservancy. I am sending him a letter asking whether MRC might make us the loan. If they will,we • could pay it back after BLM buys the parcels from us,and the Conservancy would still stand to make some money since BLM would pay fair market value based on an appraisal,whereas we would only pay 50% of what the Tax Collector assumes the cash PPS value of the property to be. Ergo,we should at least double our money. The worst case , scenario is that the parcels get redeemed before we can buy them; then we would incur about$400-$500 in incidental costs which we couldn't recover. I'm enclosing information on the parcels in question and the resolution which we did not adopt • yesterday just as background material. Let me know if you have any problems with my pursuing this. P.O. Box 2855 • Palm Desert, CA 92261-2855 • 619-776-5026 I RESOLUTION 93-03 OF THE GOVERNING BOARD OF THE COACHELLA VALLEY MOUNTAINS CONSERVANCY ADOPTED IN REGULAR SESSION FEBRUARY 3, 1993 WHEREAS,the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy was established by the State of California on September 17, 1990, to acquire and hold in open space, mountainous lands surrounding the Coachella Valley,for the protection of natural and cultural resources and the public's enjoyment thereof;and WHEREAS,these mountainous lands,including the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa,and Little San Bernardino Mountains,provide critical habitat for diverse wildlife species,including the peninsular bighorn sheep and numerous other sensitive,rare,threatened,and endangered species;and WHEREAS, Assessor's Parcel Numbers 669270002-4, 686110012-3, and 745330016-9 are located within the Conservancy's boundaries[see attached map],and their purchase for any purpose other than resource conservation could result in adverse impacts to their wildlife,scenic,and cultural resource values; NOW,THEREFORE,be it resolved in regular session of the Governing Board of the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy that the Conservancy objects to the public sale of the parcels identified above and further described in Exhibit A,hereby incorporated by reference;and, FURTHER,the Conservancy hereby offers to purchase said properties through a Chapter 8 Agreement of Sale at the prices shown in Exhibit A,or at any lower cost which might subsequently be determined by the Treasurer-Tax Collector;and FURTHER,the Conservancy hereby agrees to pay the cost of giving notice,and recognizes that this cost is not included in the purchase price identified in Exhibit A;and FURTHER,the Conservancy's purpose in acquiring the land would be to hold it in open space for the protection of its environmental,anthropological,cultural,scientific, educational,recreational,scenic,and wildlife resources in accordance with Division 23.5 (commencing with Section 33500) of the Public Resources Code.