GridStor and Upland Reliability Project Holdings, LLC this week abruptly abandoned their long-in-the-making plan to establish the 120-megawatt standalone battery energy storage Upland Reliability Project in the Sycamore Hills district in North Upland.
Unclear is what factors, precisely, led to the two interrelated companies deciding to scrap the effort to establish the facility, which was intended to augment the state power grid with electricity collected from the local area’s rooftop solar panels and assist in the State of California in making a conversion from its dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. It does appear, however, that Upland Mayor Bill Velto’s testy relationship with California Governor Gavin Newsom may have given GridStor corporate officials pause, resulting in their decision to seek to place the project in some other location outside Upland.
While the project’s proponents, city officials, local residents and state officials all seem to agree that the project and the technology it embodies would represent a valuable addition to the community and is worth pursuing, there is concern that it would be ill-placed in its intended location proximate to an upscale residential neighborhood and that a bruising battle on that issue might trigger unwanted scrutiny of similar land use incompatibility issues in the city’s less affluent residential districts where for generations Upland officials had no qualms about locating hazardous, polluting and sometimes life-threatening industrial operations next to homes occupied by the city’s impoverished families and less well-off individual residents. Moreover, corporate officials with GridStor and Upland Reliability Project Holdings, LLC, who have consistently sought to cultivate positive relationships with the state’s institutional employees within those divisions such as the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission and the state’s elected officials, only recently learned about the bad blood between Upland’s mayor and California’s governor that has rendered the City of Gracious Living into a municipium non grata with Sacramento.
For any one, or perhaps a combination, of those reasons, Gridstor is not going ahead with the project.
Without any fanfare, GridStor, a Portland, Oregon-based company focusing exclusively on large-scale, standalone battery energy storage projects, last year began on its end preparations to construct what was initially to be a 120-megawatt capacity facility in Upland. A few of its corporate officers had one of its agents establish a Delaware Corporation, Upland Reliability Project Holdings, LLC, on September 15, 2022, based in an office in La Jolla, which then moved to tie up some property in Upland. It settled on available acreage in the Sycamore Hills district in northwest Upland, at a location relatively proximate to an existing power line corridor.
Somewhat stealthily, GridStor began the application process with the City of Upland, which accommodated the secretiveness of the project sponsor, as the company’s executives were hoping to eventually unveil the project and run it through the official approval process involving the Upland Planning Commission and ultimate approval by the city council in a compressed timeframe. Upland, for the most part, was able to accommodate this because the city’s community development director, Robert Dahlquest, and Upland Mayor Bill Velto go way back, more than 45 years, to when they attended Upland High together and were members of the Highlanders football team.
The project proposal was kept on the down low for close to a year. Last month, however, somewhat prior to when GridStor officials had hoped the planned project might become public knowledge, residents of the Sycamore Hills district, many of whom had paid in excess of $800,000 for their homes, learned that an electricity storage facility was being contemplated in their neck of the woods. This followed by some four months the revelation that the Upland Tesla dealership, which is located in the city’s northeast quadrant at 1018 East 20th Street, just west of the confluence of the 210 Freeway and Campus Avenue along the northern periphery of the Colonies Crossroads commercial subdivision, was contemplating and indeed had already begun grading 2.07 acres of city-owned property in the Sycamore Hills District, where it began constructing an open-air parking storage facility for its vehicles. This was done with the collusion of city officials and without any public disclosure, involving a lease agreement with the city that had not been ratified by the city council. Involving the city council in approving the lease, which should have taken place but did not, would have made the leasing documents available for inspection, cluing residents into what was about to occur. The land in question, comprising a 300-foot by 300-foot square approximately 80 feet east of Park View Promenade and set back from the residential dwellings to the south by approximately 145 feet and within the vicinity of other residential dwellings to the west, was zoned as open space. Sycamore Hills residents, concerned that the unannounced project which had not yet been given formal official approval by the city but nevertheless involved city officials in what appeared to be a bootleg operation presaged the transformation of the open area around their homes into a semi-industrialized/semi-commercialized zone, considered Tesla’s parking facility to be incompatible with their neighborhood. The contretemps that ensued resulted in the city canceling the lease with Tesla and making arrangements with the company to lease acreage at its corporate yard to store the cars there.
Late last month and early this month, as Sycamore Hills residents learned of the Upland Reliability Project and began inquiries into exactly what it was to entail, they again grew concerned that the city on the sly was seeking to infuse into their neighborhood industrial level uses that were incompatible, dangerous and potential sources of pollution. In short order, they learned of two incidents relating to high-density electrical energy standalone battery systems, one in Surprise, Arizona on April 19, 2019 involving a facility storing energy for Arizona Public Service Company and another in Chandler, Arizona on April 21, 2022 where electricity was being held in reserve for the Arizona Power Grid. Those incidents involved explosions and fires which narrowly avoided turning into catastrophic events.
The facilities in Surprise and Chandlers, ones with the approximate capacity to store four hours of electricity with an output of 10 megawatts of power, enough to power 2,500 homes, were less than one-tenth the size of the facility to be constructed in the Sycamore Hills.
Safety issues with the current design of standalone battery energy storage facilities are manifold. The three primary concerns are explosiveness, excessive heat resulting in fire and consequent soil and groundwater contamination that can occur when the ingredients of the lithium-ion batteries pour out and onto the concrete floors and either migrate through the concrete or wash out of facilities and onto bare land or ground when they are propelled by massive amounts of water used to douse fires.
Residents in the north of Upland were already having difficulties obtaining, or otherwise having to go to great expense to secure, fire insurance for their homes. An incipient movement to at least question the wisdom of allowing the Upland Reliability Project to be built that close to homes if not outright prevent it from proceeding until issues with the design of such facilities were redressed to eliminate potential hazards was under way earlier this month.
Intense scrutiny of the decision-making process at City Hall and the tendency of officials there toward keeping under wraps undertakings that will have an impact on those living within their shadow resulted in an informational campaign that did not end at the periphery of the Sycamore Hills neighborhoods or the Upland City Limits. GridStor corporate officials and state officials were included in the loop, which shattered the culture of concealment that was previously the watchword when it comes to development in the City of Gracious Living.
Last year, in exchange for some hefty political contributions or promises thereof, Upland Mayor Velto had signed on to be a primary sponsor of the effort to have San Bernardino County withdraw itself and its 20,105-square miles from the State of California. Many considered that move to be a deft political ploy, which would not only provide Velto with the financial wherewithal for his upcoming 2024 mayoral reelection campaign but appeal to local Republican voters who take a rather dim view of the Democrat-dominated state government.
That, however, involved a political trade-off Velto may or may not have completely thought through. While he doubtless will benefit in some fashion from his goading of state officials and Democrat state officials in particular, his effort to push his city and county into seceding from the state entails a steep downside. One of those downsides is that Velto is regarded by Governor Gavin Newsom in roughly the same esteem that Abraham Lincoln reserved in 1861 for then-Tennessee Governor Isham Green Harris. Similarly, virtually every Democrat in both the upper and lower houses of the California Legislature – the State Senate and the Assembly – not to mention the holders of statewide office such as lieutenant governor, state attorney general, controller, insurance commissioner, secretary of state and superintendent of schools found personally offensive and outright insulting the proposal to have the county’s largest geographical county comprising more than 5 percent of the state’s population disengage from their oversight. A substantial number of people – ones fond of muttering the phrase, “California: Love it or leave it!” – consider Velto an out-and-out insurrectionist whose state citizenship should be revoked. It is unknown, exactly, what price Upland and its residents are being forced to pay during the 2023-24 budgetary cycle in terms of state funding that would have otherwise come the city’s way had it not been for the mayor’s show of disrespect and disdain for the Golden State.
Within the last two weeks, the prime movers with GridStor – its CEO, Chris Taylor; its vice president of finance, Anna Astretsova; its project development manager, Corey Barnes; its executive assistant and office manager, Maylin Brennan; its vice president for policy and strategy, Jason Burwen; its senior manager for procurement and contracts, Nicole Carrigan; it controller, Steve Caspell; its manager of finance Joshua Chandy; its project finance associate Michaela Copenhaver; its engineering, procurement, construction and technical operations manager, Daniel Dedrick; its vice president for business operations, Anne Emig; its program development manager, Matrell Everett; its transmission and interconnections manager, Ayesha Fareedi; its senior financial planning and analysis manager, Nathan Fjeldahl; it director of development, Matthew Gilliland; its engineering, procurement and construction project manager, Adam Horvath; its director of analytics, Will Jolley; its solutions architect, Alex Krall; its general counsel and chief compliance officer, Ben Lackey; its project development manager, Jarred McGhee, its vice president of development, Kathryn Meyer, its vice president of mergers and acquisitions, Jack Murray; its senior manager of market analytics, Brett Rudder; its vice president of transmission and interconnection, Esteban Santos; its project engineering manager, Kaushik Seshadri; its vice president of marketing, Jacob Steubing; its vice president for human resources, Patricia Wortham; its senior associate for commercial and business operations, Tony Ye; its vice president for asset management, Paul Zovesoff; and its director of market operations Zhechong Zhao – have come to learn that Velto, with whom their company had been coordinating to make its next major stride in facilitating California’s goal to meet 50 percent of its energy needs with clean power by 2025 and 60 percent by 2030 before reaching the goal of 100 percent of the state’s energy coming from renewable, non-fossil fuel sources by 2045, is on the outs with the state’s major political figures. In the same timeframe, they learned that their company was about to be associated with the City of Upland’s reputation for repeatedly saddling unsuspecting residents living within residentially zoned areas with incompatible nearby industrial uses effectuated by variances, zone changes and general plan amendments. Sensing a public relations Donnybrook it could not likely sustain, GridStor withdrew from the project.
Upland City Councilwoman Shannan Maust, in whose 1^st District the Sycamore Hills District is located, on the Upland Nextdoor application posted on Wednesday, “On October 25, 2023, GridStor submitted a written request to withdraw their application for a battery storage system project in the City of Upland. The request to close their project application was received and approved by city officials.”

By Mark Gutglueck
It appears that in relatively short order Colton Councilmen David Toro and John Echevarria along with Councilwoman Kelly Chastain are going to politically outmuscle Mayor Frank Navarro and Councilman Luis Gonzalez to allow CR&R to perpetuate the trash hauling franchise in the 16-square mile city of 54,911 population it and its corporate predecessors have had sewn up for thirty years ending in 2026. That extension will run the hold the succession of companies has had on the city another decade, until 2036.
Toro, Echevarria and Chastain have given indication they are purposed to roll the franchise contract over to CR&R once more despite widespread discontent with the level of service among the company’s residential and business customers in Colton, regardless of cost comparisons showing the company’s trash hauling industry competitors offer their customer’s lower across-the-board rates and contrary to the advice of Colton City Manager Bill Smith, who has recommended that the franchise contract be put out to bid.
Colton Mayor Frank Navarro and Councilman Luis Gonzalez are advocating that the city carry out a competitive bid process, which independent industry analysts have indicated would save Colton’s residents and businesses anywhere from $20 million to $25 million in 2023 dollars over the ten-year course of the 2026-to-2036 life of the upcoming franchise contract. That savings would be realized through either lower service rates to be charged by whichever of the competing trash haulers that manages to obtain the contract through the bidding process or by reductions in the service charges that CR&R would be obliged to make in order to maintain the franchise. Continue reading →

The Apple Valley Town Council has put off until November 14 a decision on whether it will accede to Mark Maida’s proposal to convert 120 acres of property currently zoned under the town’s residential agriculture designation by which the property cannot be subdivided into anything smaller than two-and-a-half acre lots to estate residential zoning to allow him to construct 99 homes on the property.
Because Councilman Curt Emick was not present at its Tuesday, October 24 meeting, his colleagues opted to wait until he can participate in the land use decision, which will require, if Maida’s proposal is to fly, the granting of not only a zone change but a general plan amendment and another amendment to the town’s development code.
Apple Valley is famously known for insisting on half-acre minimum lots for its single-family residences, a policy which has prevented it from being caught up in the development frenzy that has beset many other county cities in the 35 years since Apple Valley incorporated in 1988.
At present, Apple Valley stands at 73.5 square miles, making it San Bernardino County’s second largest municipality geographically, two-tenths of a square mile smaller than Victorville, at 73.7 square miles the county’s largest city, and three-tenths of a square mile larger than Hesperia, at 73.2 square miles the county’s third largest city. Population-wise, however, Victorville with its 138,399 residents and Hesperia with 102,531 living within its confines, are significantly more densely packed with people than Apple Valley, which has a head count of 76,817. Continue reading →

Mayor Acquanetta Warren and her colleagues on the the Fontana City Council on Tuesday, October 24 were met with a firestorm of protest over their consideration and eventual vote to confirm an ordinance initially approved at the October 10 city council meeting imposing regulations on street vendors. That demonstration of discontent and disdain spilled over from the council chamber and the grounds of the Fontana Civic Center to the street upon which Mayor Acquanetta Warren lives, resulting in the arrest of the protest’s organizer and his bodyguard by the Fontana Police.
On October 10, relying upon the sidewalk vending authority municipalities are granted under them by Senate Bill 946, including Government Code section 51038, the Fontana City Council gave first reading of an ordinance which augmented the city’s previously-adopted Fontana Municipal Code chapter 15, article XVII, entitled “Sidewalk Vending,” to regulate sidewalk vending within the city by adding sections 1-14, relating to obstruction enforcement consequences and 15-829, pertaining to impoundment. The new ordinance gave code compliance officers or inspectors, police officers, firefighters, fire prevention specialists or examiners authority to impound a sidewalk vendor’s vending cart, equipment, food and/or merchandise if a vendor selling food does not have or display a valid health permit or if a seller of merchandise does not possess a valid applicable sidewalk vending permit and a city business license. Food or merchandise can also, under the ordinance, be confiscated if the vendor, the vendor’s cart, goods or equipment obstruct private or public property, if the goods or merchandise are left unattended for more than 30 minutes, if the merchandise and cart prevent there from being a minimum of forty-eight inches of accessible path of travel on the sidewalk or if the items being sold create an imminent and substantial danger to the public. The ordinance confers upon the city “disposal authorization,” allowing officials to immediately dispose of impounded items that are perishable and/or cannot be safely stored. The ordinance authorizes the city to “dispose of any seized items held by the city for not less than 30 days from the date of impoundment.” Continue reading →

The sentencing of former Assistant Fontana Police Chief Alan Hostetter has been postponed, pending the outcome of the rescheduled trial of four of his co-defendants.
Following a bench trial by Federal Judge Royce Lamberth, Hostetter was convicted on July 13 of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of, and aiding and abetting in the obstruction of, an official proceeding; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon, all of which related to his actions during the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
According to evidence presented by the U.S. Attorney’s Office at trial, in the weeks leading up to the January 6th Insurrection, Hostetter coordinated with Russell Taylor, Erik Scott Warner, Ronald Mele, Felipe Antonio Martinez and Derek Kinnison to arrange travel from California to Washington, D.C. and attend the Stop the Steal rally and protest as part of a conspiracy to prevent Congress’ certification of the Electoral College outcome in the 2022 presidential election.
Taylor pleaded guilty in April to a conspiracy charge and then testified as a government witness against Hostetter at his trial before Judge Lamberth. Continue reading →

The Needles City Council has elevated Patrick Martinez to the position of city manager, making him, at the age of 39, the youngest top municipal administrator in San Bernardino County currently.
Martinez was sworn in to replace his predecessor, Rick Daniels, earlier this month.
Martinez initially went to work with the City of Needles in 2017 as the director of development services. He advanced to the post of assistant city manager in 2021.
Martinez gravitated toward becoming a government employee at the age 25 in 2010, when he took a position as an intern analyst with the office of management consulting and training at the National Governors Association in Washington. D.C.
He attended Mt. San Antonio College and subsequently enrolled at the University of Southern California. Upon his graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in public policy and real estate development in 2013, he found a paying position as an executive board member for the University of Southern California Trojan Real Estate Association, involving himself primarily in real estate development and urban planning. In 2014 he became a senior housing development consultant for the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, and held a similar post with the Perkins Design Corporation in 2015 to 2016. He was also the acquisitions manager for Mojoco Real Estate from August 2014 until June 2015. In 2016, he co-founded SP Global Realty. In 2017, just as he went to work in Needles, he was installed into an executive board position with the University of Southern California Alumni Real Estate Network and in 2019 accepted election to a one-year term as the chairman of that board. He remained on the board until he took on the assignment of assistant city manager in Needles.
Martinez has a California real estate broker license and boasts memberships with the Urban Land Institute, the California City Management Foundation and the California Association for Local Economic Development.
In addition to his public policy and real estate degrees, Martinez earned a master’s degree in urban planning from USC in 2015.
A registered Republican, Martinez is married.