By Clarence Cromwell
Building all the improvements planned at the Independent Order of Odd Fellows retirement campus on Fruitvale Avenue would take more capital than the organization expects to raise in the next few years, the order's attorney told the Saratoga Planning Commission on Jan. 24.
Commissioners on Jan. 9 asked the Odd Fellows to incorporate the parts of a two-phase expansion plan into a single, five-year project. The move was suggested by Commissioner Dick Siegfried to prevent the Odd Fellows from changing their plans or deciding to build something else.
Linda Callon, attorney for the Odd Fellows, said the concession would be impossible. She proposed a development agreement that would sustain the Odd Fellows' right to build the project for the next 10 years.
"We have concluded that we can't build it all at once," Callon said. "We will still be asking for a 10-year time frame for the project."
Callon said the Odd Fellows will ask investors for capital to build both phases of the project. Phase two will be impossible unless the Odd Fellows can successfully build phase one, she said.
"Phase one pays for itself, and then you get more financing,"
Callon said.
The commission will discuss Callon's request for a development agreement at its Feb. 14 meeting.
Siegfried still wants to close the matter within five years.
"The neighbors' concern is: 'Whatever you do, assure us that this is the one,' " he said. "I think it's a very legitimate concern that we get closure once and for all."
He suggested that the Odd Fellows build enough of the project to show neighbors it will be finished, such as constructing all the roads first.
Although three of the proposed duplex cottages could be shifted from phase two to the beginning of the project, building complete roads would not be financially feasible, Callon said.
"The extra road is an extra cost for which you get no revenue back," she explained.
City Attorney Michael Riback told the commissioners they cannot legally require the Odd Fellows to finish the project the city approves.
Callon emphasized that the Odd Fellows still intend to build all the improvements they have proposed, but said they need time.
"This is a nonprofit organization," she said. "They have every belief that it will be built and that the market will be strong for it."
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, January 31, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved