RV Dev’s controversial plan to build 360 homes on a golf course in Rowland Heights has received a boost from state Sen. Bob Archuleta.
Archuleta, D-Norwalk, endorsed the proposal by the Irvine-based developer controlled by an LLC run by George Peterson to redevelop the Rowland Heights half of the closed Royal Vista Golf Club at 20055 East Colima Road, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reported.
Peterson is the same well-heeled “sugar daddy” developer who appeared regularly on early seasons of reality TV show “Real Housewives of Orange County.”
Project Dimensions, one of Peterson’s Irvine-based companies, sponsored the original plans for the Royal Vista project in 2021. The revised plans by RV Dev LLC run by the RV Res I LLC that state business records say is run by Peterson call for 360 homes on the east side of the golf course in unincorporated Rowland Heights, officially located in the city of Walnut but actually on L.A. County land.
The Royal Vista Residential Project would redevelop the 61-year-old links into 200 single-family homes, 72 townhomes, 58 duplex homes and 30 triplex homes, divided by recreational trails. Los Angeles County officials must approve the development.
Some 23 percent of the for-sale homes would be set aside for middle-income households.
In 2021, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved a zone change allowing the project to move forward. The 158-acre, 27-hole golf course, split between multiple land owners, closed in February and hasn’t been maintained since.
Pending final approvals, RV Dev could break ground early next year, according to a project website.
Neighbors have long pushed back against the proposed development they say could crowd local schools, cause more traffic and pollution, use more water and destroy open space used by wildlife.
This month, Archuleta weighed in on the side of the developer — and his field deputy caught an earful from residents at a recent community meeting who argued that infrastructure can’t handle a new influx of residents.
Members of the Rowland Heights Community Coordinating Council also opposed the project, saying they felt excluded from the decision-making process. Opponents suggested the defunct golf course should be turned into a park that would “preserve nature,” according to the Tribune.
“[Colima Road is] a two-lane major street that gets us through Rowland Heights,” Council President Yvette Romoshe told the Tribune. “It cannot support the infrastructure of thousands of new drivers on the road.”
“We strongly disagree with that many houses.”
Kile Miller, field deputy for Archuleta, rejected naysayer opinions, saying new developments generally aren’t accepted by communities, but their benefits far outweigh their harms.
He said that infrastructure was already accounted for before Archuleta endorsed the project.
“There’s plenty of traffic studies and impact studies on exactly what the impacts of this development will be,” Miller told the Tribune. “And so, sometimes the developer will need to account for that in order to maybe expand or strengthen or modernize infrastructure in order to meet what the anticipated requirements are.”
He added that a portion of taxes generated by the new development can be directed toward improving Rowland Heights’ streets and more.
— Dana Bartholomew
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