Hearthstone improvements aim to settle concerns

CALEXICO — Despite a series of infrastructure improvements that are underway within the Hearthstone community facilities district, residents here continue to fault city officials for their perceived failure to completely address the residents’ extensive concerns.

Some of that frustration was evident at the City Council’s regular meeting on July 19, where several residents spoke out about incomplete infrastructure improvements and the continual levying of community facilities district (CFD) taxes.

Residents are also vowing to attend the next scheduled council meeting to again express their frustrations, said resident Jose Hinojosa.

“How can the city ask for public funds and not finish up the project or not be responsive to its own residents,” Hinojosa said.

Yet, the $1.5 million in infrastructure improvements that the city is currently undertaking within the CFD are a direct result of city officials being responsive to residents’ concerns, and were prioritized with the residents’ input, said City Manager Armando Villa.

Those infrastructure improvements have included repairs to streets and sidewalks, storm water drainage and street lighting, as well as landscaping.

“It looks like a new neighborhood,” Villa said.

Although Hearthstone residents had sought to have additional repairs and infrastructure upgrades made, the city’s expenditures were limited to a $1 million settlement it had extracted from the development’s surety bond company, as well as about $500,000 of the city’s own funds, Villa said.

The Hearthstone infrastructure improvements came largely as a result of its residents having expressed longstanding frustrations during a City Council meeting in the fall of 2016, prompting the creation of an ad hoc committee that included residents.

City officials have also openly admitted their inability to address the full extent of the residents’ concerns, which include demands for the construction of a recreation center as well as guaranteed enrollment of their respective children in a nearby public school, instead of another school located farther away from the CFD.

Another point of contention appears to be residents’ calls for the completion of La Jolla Palms Boulevard, which would provide a secondary entrance and exit for the CFD that currently only has one, and which Villa referred to as a misplaced priority.

“What good is it to have a real nice entrance when the rest of the tract is broken up,” Villa said.

The ongoing controversy is the direct result of the CFD’s developer having filed for bankruptcy during the Great Recession before the housing development could be fully completed, leaving its promised infrastructure lacking in many respects and a smaller number of homeowners responsible for the repayment of CFD bonds.

“At the end of the day, what (residents) wanted the city to do is actually do away with the CFD,” Villa said.

The city cannot stop making payments on the CFD bonds without facing dire legal and financial consequences, officials said.

Since its inception in 2005, the CFD tax has gone toward the repayment of a bond that the developer created as a funding mechanism to help pay for a wide variety of infrastructure within the subdivision.

At a minimum, subdivision residents pay about $1,849 — and up to $3,019 — a year in assessed fees, depending on a home’s square footage.

Residents’ complaints date back about 10 years, and more recently resulted in about 90 written complaints to the Imperial County Grand Jury, which investigated the matter for its recently released 20162017 report.

The report faulted previous city officials for their failure to make timely repairs to the Hearthstone CFD over the years.

“They admit that years ago when they had money for the district they lost track of it,” the report stated. “The city also is aware that they made a ‘punch list’ of things needed to be done in March 2010 but did not do the work.”

The report also gives credit to the city’s current elected and appointed officials for pledging to use the $1 million settlement money and its own funds to help address some of the residents’ concerns.

“The city might not be financially secure enough to do all that is requested or even needed, but if they go through with the bids to do at least what was said they would do this time, it could go a long way to improve the safety of the streets and sidewalks in the Hearthstone Community,” the report stated.

That same report was something of a disappointment for Hinojosa, who said it did not address much of the complaints that Hearthstone residents had brought to the grand jury’s attention, including questions about why millions in CFD bond proceeds were allocated to the Calexico Unified School District without residents receiving anything tangible to show for it.

“Who’s liable for that,” he said.