On the sand! WOW! Gorgeous South Laguna oceanfront location with your own beach resort! Rare steps from the home to the sand. Large Lot! Main house boasts 5 bedroom/3 Baths with expansive balconies. Detailed stonework throughout, Azul Spanish tilework, 2 fireplaces. Private rear Zen backyard complete with waterfall. Upper seperate unit has 2 bedrooms and 1 baths plus future expanded garage. Both oceanfront home and the upper unit offer tremendous lease income potential, also! Buyer to verify squarefootage.  

$ 7,499,000

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Stunning huge flat view lot located in picturesque and historic San Juan Capistarno. Aprox. 14,000 sq parcel. Affords stunning views of the valleys hillsides and mountains. Located in the prestegious and hidden Aguacate estates area. Preeliminary plans for single level estate included.

$995,000

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Beautiful rare three bedroom three bath two-story condo unit includes new custom interior paint throughout, vaulted ceilings and lots of natural light. It boasts a large master bedroom and bath, all three bedrooms include large mirrored wardrobe closets. It includes indoor laundry room, a backyard patio for barbeques and an oversized attached two car garage with workspace area. This unit is also across the street from the community pool and Jacuzzi for those hot summer days and cool winter nights.

Offered at: $ 365,000

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Charming  vintage 3 bdrm, 1.5 bath cottage home of approximately 1638 sq feet boasts a huge 12000 sq foot lot. Extra room or workshop and half bath in garage. This home has just been remodeled and updated, keeping its original character. Wait til you see this beauty-you will fall in love. Enjoy the huge private large grassy backyard, too-you will see the perfect spot for a spa! Walk to restaura nts and shops in the lovely city of Orange

Offered at $495,000

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Sophisticated and warm ocean view beauty!  Gorgeous and extensive remodel of this stunning contemporary home boasts a full Viking-appliance kitchen, new Kohler fixtures throughout home, new wood flooring, etc. Fantastic views from this approx 3100 sq ft home of 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths!  Huge ocean-view rooftop deck boasts an outdoor kitchen/BBQ area for entertaining. Don’t miss this one!

Offered at $1,780,000

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RARE LARGE FLAT VIEW LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow–is this one a beauty. Huge lot with ocean and valley views in lovely and prestigious gate-guarded Palmilla!!! Don’t wait on this one–this is the huge lot the neighbors have been asking about and the public has been asking about for years!!! To show is to sell this one! Build your custom home!!!!

Directions 5 Freeway exit on Crown Valley Parkway go right towards ocean to Niguel rd turn right to top of hill turn right into Palmilla gate guarded community.

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For the original article posted online by the City of San Juan Capistrano, click here…
For a Quick Reference Fact Sheet on the Upper Chiquita Reservoir, click here…
For an overview w/map for Upper Chiquita Emergency Storage, click here…
For a City Council (SJC) Agenda Report outlining Capacity Rights, click here…

The reservoir is a new emergency water storage facility by the Santa Margarita Water District in partnership with Moulton Niguel Water District, South Coast Water District and the cities of San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. San Juan Capistrano plans to obtain a 10 percent share, along with the other agencies, in the capacity of the facility. The City Council tonight will consider entering into a participation agreement to formally become a partner in the project.

Upon completion in December 2010, the reservoir will provide South County water agencies with up to 244 million gallons of emergency drinking water – enough to supply more than 168,000 local families with 200 gallons of domestic water per day for one week in the event of a regional or statewide water service disruption.

The facility will increase and diversify the City’s emergency storage volume and provide San Juan Capistrano with an additional three days of average demand to manage import water shutdowns.  

The Upper Chiquita Reservoir will provide the region with substantial new water reserves to meet customer demand during disruptions of water deliveries to the district. These interruptions can be unanticipated, like the break of the district’s primary supply pipeline in 1999, or planned, like shutdowns of the Diemer Filtration plant in Yorba Linda.

The reservoir is located on the western slope of Chiquita Canyon, just north of Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita.

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The Board of Directors at the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) appointed Keith Richter as its new fire chief, replacing Chip Prather who is retiring this July. Richter takes the helm on Aug. 1 at one of the largest fire agencies in California with its nearly 850 firefighters at 62 fire stations, according to an OCFA press release.  

“We’re very excited to have Chief Richter at the OCFA,” said Don McCay, Chairman of the OCFA Board of Directors. “We’re confident he has the leadership skills we need to keep OCFA as one of the premier fire service agencies in America.”

Richter was selected by the OCFA Board from a large pool of well-qualified candidates from throughout the nation.

 “This is a very exciting day for me, to be named Chief of the Orange County Fire Authority,” Richter said in the statement Thursday. “OCFA is known to be one of the finest fire departments anywhere, and it is a high honor to be chosen as its next leader.”

Richter comes to the OCFA from Contra Costa County Fire District where he has been chief since 1998. He has more than 30 years experience in the fire service. He started his career with the Tucson Fire Department back in 1977 as a firefighter. Richter holds a Master of Science degree in Fire Administration and is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He is an Executive Board Member of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association.

Richter replaces Chief Chip Prather who has been OCFA’s leader for the last 12 years. Prather is retiring after nearly 38 years in the fire service.

Posted on the OC Register’s online site…
For full article, click here…

Richter takes over as the OCFA, along with departments across California, are facing a financial crunch. A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to borrow from local government to help the cash-strapped state could take $14 million from the OCFA, Prather wrote in a May 29 message to his department.

That is the equivalent of six engines and 18 firefighters, Prather wrote.

The board hired Alliance Resource Consulting, a Long Beach-based firm, to help find its next chief.

But the two-month selection process and a feeling of being largely excluded from the process touched nerves with the OCFA union. Joe Kerr, president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, lashed out in a May 26 letter sent to all city council representatives of the OCFA’s 22 cities and the county.

The letter accuses the board of directors of failing to give reasons why candidates were either rejected or allowed to move forward in the process, failing to allow the union to give a recommendation and/or a veto on the three final candidates and failing to spell out how the union’s members would be included in selecting the next chief.

“It does no make sense that the OCFA takes far more time to recruit a new firefighter than has been put into the testing process for only our third fire chief in three decades,” wrote Kerr.

“The feeling of collaboration and good will which has brought the OCFA much success in recent years has now suffered major damage by the haphazard manner in which the (board) has decided to ‘fast track’ this testing process and marginalize OCFA employees,” Kerr wrote.

OCFA Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion, a spokesman for the department, said he had not seen the letter.

“This fire chief is going to have some serious challenges,” Kerr said in a telephone interview. “One man cannot come in and solve all these problems by himself. Hopefully, he will seek out some help from labor.”

Prather, 56, is officially retiring July 2 but is scheduled to help with the transition through Aug. 7, Concepcion said.

Richter’s first day is Aug. 1.

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For Wednesday’s post, click here…
For the full article we are commenting on today, posted on the WSJ Developements Blog, click here…

An excerpt from the aritcle at hand…

“Sen. Johnny Isakson has reintroduced a bill that would give home buyers a tax credit worth 10% of the purchase price of a home up to $15,000. The Georgia Republican unsuccessfully tried to get the credit inserted into the $787 billion stimulus package that went into law in February. Congress instead opted for extending and boosting an existing credit, worth up to $8,000, for first-time buyers. That credit is set to expire Dec. 1.

The proposed credit wouldn’t have income restrictions, unlike the current one, which phases out for individuals making more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000.

The legislation already has co-sponsors from both parties, including Senate Banking Committee Chair Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. In February, congressional budget estimates figured that the $8,000 credit for first-time buyers would cost between $2 and $3 billion, while the $15,000 credit would cost an additional $35.5 billion.

That’s a big hurdle for the bill. Lawmakers would have to justify a considerably larger subsidy for more affluent homebuyers.”

Response…

The removal of toxic mortgage paper (ie: home sales of distressed homeownship situations and the unloading of recouped property assets) from our banking institutions is THE key to unlocking their liquidity, credit confidence, and greed in the form of slightly looser loan qualifying requirements, which would further accelerate the home purchase necessity.

A little recap here if I may… an $8,000 tax credit projected at a tax revenue cost of 2-3 billion has equated to some, if little improvement to home sales. On the other hand, a $15,000 tax credit with no income cap, made available to all home buyers, not just first-timers, has a projected tax revenue cost of 35.5 billion. The amount of proposed tax credit would basically double to $15,000, and in turn so should the tax revenue cost. But it doesn’t! Congress’s own budget estimate for the new proposal projects home purchases to rise almost 6 times the current rate of consumption with those purchases involving the tax credit!

Here’s the math… $3 billion in tax revenue loss doubled to 6 billion, divided by 35.5 billion in projected tax revenue loss for the proposed bill, equals 5.91 times more use of the new tax credit bill, then the current rate of home purchasing being transacted with the existing tax credit as it sits.  

Yes, this bill would be a big hurdle for a Democratic majority whose sole consideration is funding  for their social programs, as opposed to a real solutions for real economic problems, per their own estimates and projections.

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