I bet you feel like I do, thankful that the election is over and that, hopefully, all the political signs that have littered nearly every corner in town are long gone.
I have much respect for candidates who go out election night or the next morning and collect all of their signs. Thank you.
Even more important, as I write this, the voting results are still coming in, but so far Brea City Council incumbent Christine Marick appears to be the highest vote-getter by far and definitely will be re-elected. Congrats to Mayor Marick.
Councilman Marty Simonoff has maintained a lead throughout the counting over his closest contenders Bill Klovstad and Tom Donini. Results will be official after Dec. 3.
During the campaign, Klovstad campaigned on Brea not having Heli-Hydrants like Yorba Linda and La Habra Heights, implying how unprepared Brea is in case of a wildfire.
Aera Energy previously agreed to purchase one and maybe two Heli-Hydrants for Brea as part of its Brea 265 housing project – with 1,100 housing units planned for the former oil fields bordering the Lambert Road and Rose Drive area.
That means Brea gets the approximately $160,000 Heli-Hydrant system at no cost to the city or us taxpayers. According to Jason Killebrew, deputy assistant manager/community development director, “There is no exact date when Brea 265 will start construction.”
But he added that the purchase and installation of a Heli-Hydrant would coincide with the issuance of the project’s first permit.
The Heli-Hydrant consists of a 2,400-gallon water tank, made for fire-fighting helicopters with a large hose that sucks up 2,000 gallons of water in minutes into the helicopter’s storage tank and disperses it into burning areas land crews cannot reach.
If there is a Brea wildfire before the Aera one is installed, no doubt mutual aid will ensure our neighbors’ Heli-Hydrants will be employed. In past fires, the lakes at Birch Hills Golf Course and Carbon Canyon Reginal Park have also been used and likely would again. I really don’t think we have anything to worry about.
Candidate Donini, a Brea planning commissioner, said transitional housing was approved to be constructed across from the junior high school, and that the nearby residents were not properly notified.
The proposed multi-family apartment project is at 323 N. Brea Blvd., about a block from the junior high, and would be permanent, not transitional, low-income housing.
Killebrew said mailed notices to nearby residents were not required for the Development and Lease Agreement. “The DLA was posted on our website throughout the review and was noticed in the newspaper twice,” he noted.
He added that the property was identified in the city’s housing element over the past 10 years as an affordable housing site and in public notices many times in the newspaper and on the city’s website.
Jamboree Housing Corporation now has submitted an actual project application and plans to show it to the community, said Killebrew. Folks in the nearby area will receive information on the project and opportunities to express their questions and concerns.
If you live near the proposed project or are just curious about it, do attend the public meetings. So many people ignore the mailed notices of scoping meetings for proposed projects and then complain that they never heard about it or the city sneaked it in.
And start reading the public notices in the classified ad section of this newspaper. I have a friend who regularly checks out the public notices and learns a lot. Give it a try.
Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at daxoncomm@gmail.com.
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