(December 10)  The city of Chino intends to issue $11 million worth of bonds next year to undertake infrastructure and utility improvements to facilitate further progress on Lewis Operating Corporation’s The Preserve project.
Lewis Operating Company, the successor to Lewis Homes, has an entitlement to build a total of 11,976 residential units within The Preserve Specific Plan area, which consists largely of property that was formerly a part of the Chino Agricultural Preserve. Thus far, the city of Chino has granted occupancies to approximately 1,946 completed units in that subdivision, known as The Preserve.
In anticipation of Lewis Operating Company accelerating toward its developmental goals, the Chino City Council on November 19 voted unanimously to form a sixth improvement area in a community facilities district the city formed in 2004 to assist Lewis in paying for the infrastructure and other improvements needed for residential construction to proceed. The community facilities district lies within the confines of  Kimball, Hellman, and Sultana avenues and Chino-Corona Road.
The council voted to establish a special tax area at the southwest corner of Hellman and Kimball avenues and south of Bickmore Avenue between Rincon Meadows Avenue and Mill Creek Road. The next order of business will be taken care of at a hearing scheduled for January 7, 2014 when the council will entertain issuing the $11 million in bonds to pay for the improvements. Those bonds will be debt serviced by a tax to be levied upon future homeowners within the improvement area.
The overarching district, known as Communities Facilities District 2003-3, has five previously established improvement areas. They have been utilized to issue bonds to defray the cost of constructing streets, a sewer system, curbs, gutters, a community center, a fire station, water and gas lines, street lights, landscaping, medians, parks, parkways and flood control facilities.
The city has agreed to reimburse Lewis $55,000 in out-of-pocket expenses the company bore in applying to form the new improvement area.