I often receive emails from people in the community that agree with my position but have a different way of presenting their argument. All of us have different life experiences which give us a different perspective. Some that I receive are so well written and presented that it would be a shame not to share with everyone. Not everyone is interested in putting themselves out there as a target on the Patch, or they don't have the time or desire to follow what is written on the Patch. Following is one such contribution. This was copied and pasted from an email I received yesterday. I hope you will appreciate it as much as I did.
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Quality of life is everything to us but not everyone will agree with this concept.
They do not understand that there are millions of vacant industrial zoned properties, and that the County is selling us out to change the General Plan and Zoning to suit a speculator--especially when the warehouses aren't going where they are approved in both counties. Changing zones is just a way for a land developer to get profits from changing zoning entitlements on the property--they can sell it for more. We shouldn't even be entertaining this garbage; like I said before, if I wanted to do a simple land split of a 5 acre parcel to 2.5, the County staff would tell me how hard it is, and get rid of me. I would be a nuisance and hardly any fees. They would point out the sanctity of the "Cherry Valley Pass Overlay Plan" They love the big fees they can charge and EIR's they can work on--it pays for county staff, and they can pretend they are just following the laws and 'helping' mitigate problems. Beaumont staff feels the same way.
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Another thing to consider why the existing residents and leaders want warehouses, is they are goalless-when it comes to quality of life. They simply do not understand that Beaumont and the County profit from the high property taxes from our $250k plus homes in the CFD areas and the rural estate ranches. They tell Cherry Valley they will support them, and then change it on a whim if they can be responsible for some jobs and get some bigger fish donating to them.
They seem to conveniently forget that they brought in people to the CFD master planned who can afford these houses, and we have zero voice.
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It doesn't take an economist to see that $250K plus homes along with double taxes in Beaumont's new neighborhoods, require higher paying jobs for the families that moved here in drove lured in by 'master planned residential communities' next to a rural estate/small ranch area like Cherry Valley. The Cherry Valley properties are not cheap to maintain either. The people in Cherry Valley have a lot of expenses to keep up their ranches and larger properties.
If a two-earner family makes minimum wage at a warehouse, they will make $37,440 a year. I figured this at two people making $9.00 an hour minimum wage x 2,080 hours in a work hear for $18,720 x 2 = $37,440. (min wage goes up in July to $9)
Mortgage Loans requires no more than 25% of your income go to housing costs, meaning this typical family of warehouse workers can afford $780 in total for housing. This is mortgage, taxes, HOA--so you can see that they need to rent in the older part of Beaumont, Calimesa, Banning or come from out of the area. They cannot afford to buy or rent in Fairway Canyon, Tournament Hills, Solera, Sundance, etc. Our mortgage, taxes and HOA is $2,300 a month so we have to earn $9,000 a month to qualify for a mortgage here.
The existing people will say we are elitists by even mentioning this. But that is the residential product that the County and City of Beaumont committed to. I guess they don't even consider why we have doctors from Loma Linda, policemen, fireman, business owners, managers, and accountants living on our street?
When you mention this, you will be criticized. I can handle it and make no apologies for wanting success both in quality of life and monetarily. But it is hard to take the criticism as sometimes people are uneducated in finance and how much it really takes to live in a master planned community. Out of our $2,300, $145 is for HOA and $600 is for CFD and property taxes---we could literally buy a house for $100k more in another city than what our house is worth for the extra taxes and HOA. But we moved here because we thought that Beaumont and the County were committed to supporting the master planned communities and the rural Cherry Valley character--not destroying them.
Imagine living in our neighborhood or Cherry Valley, and telling your kids, do good at school, volunteer, stay out of trouble, work hard, go to college, all so they can have a minimum wage job in a warehouse!
Forget college, it really isn't needed. Maybe they can just rent a room from their parents for the rest of their life?
