(March 24) Chino voters last week gave  MBK Homes a special dispensation to construct a 113-unit residential project on 12.75 acres of property zoned as general commercial at the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Francis Avenue.
MBK Homes has covered the $174,000 cost of the special election, which included mail-in ballots as well as ones cast at precinct polling places throughout the 77,983 population city.
Measure V called for amending the land use designation of 12.75 acres of vacant land from general commercial to residential-RD12 zoning.
According to the registrar of voters, with 2,700 or 8.45 percent of the city’s 31,944 voters participating, Measure V passed muster, with  1,538 votes or 57.07 percent in favor and 1,157 votes or 42.93 percent in opposition. Five ballots received showed no preference.
Of 2,700 voters participating, 245 went to the polls on Tuesday March 24, and 2,455 voted by mail.
Measure M, which was put into effect by the Chino City Council in 1988, mandates that a special election must be held whenever non-residential property is rezoned to accommodate its transformation to residential use and thereby increasing Chino’s population density.