No magic act tonight - Elk Grove City Council repeats statement of tentative Oak Rose lawsuit settlement, continues hearing for one month

Although confidence was high that the Elk Grove City Council would announce a formal agreement settling the Oak Rose lawsuit during tonight's meeting, there was no such magic act that one well-informed Elk Grove News reader had suggested would happen.

After reconvening from the closed session, where the city council discussed the Oak Rose lawsuit and the related fair housing complaint filed against the city by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen had no report on the lawsuits.

Moments later, however, when the city council approved the evening's agenda, Singh-Allen asked city attorney Jonathan Hobbs to read a statement into the record regarding the lawsuit. Hobbs's statement closely matched the Singh-Allen's during the January 9 meeting announcing a "settlement in principle."

The statement says:

The City has reached a settlement in principle with the applicant for the Oak Rose Project (PLNG22-015), which would involve relocation of the project to an alternative site in the City outside of the Old Town Special Planning Area. The settlement is not final. The details and formal settlement documents still need to be prepared and finalized. In order to provide time for the finalization of the settlement and settlement documents, staff requests that the City Council take no substantive action on the project scheduled for tonight, but rather continue the matter to the regular City Council meeting of February 28, 2024.  

When Singh-Allen read her statement on January 9, the matter was continued to today. 

One of the lead people opposing the Oak Rose supportive housing proposed Old Town-Historic Downtown Elk Grove location had correctly declared before the January 9 meeting that the city had a settlement at hand. Furthermore, it was correctly stated the settlement involved a land swap with the Oak Rose developer, Long Beach, Calif.-based Excelerate Housing. 

Before tonight's meeting, that same person declared in comments on an Elk Grove News story that during tonight's meeting, "watch the magic happen right before your very eyes."

Unfortunately for the group of Old Town opponents who gathered at the meeting, that display of magic failed to appear.    

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