Glendora Roundly Rejects Requested Land Swap

After the votes were tallied in Glendora, one thing was absolutely clear: There wasn’t going to be a land swap that would clear the way for more than 300 new homes at what is now a country club.

Glendora voters rejected the measure by a 10 to 1 ratio Tuesday, causing developer Kim Scott to speculate that he might try to sell his property to the city or another developer.

“The vote was clear,” said Scott, whose firm, NJD, owns the parcel. “The citizens of Glendora did not like our plan.”

NJD has been trying to develop 400 acres of mountain land that straddles Glendora and San Dimas for six years. But its efforts to build as many as 145 homes has been repeatedly rejected, and the project has been the subject of several legal skirmishes.

Under the measure on Tuesday’s ballot, NJD would have swapped its land for about 107 acres owned by the private Glendora Country Club. Then NJD would have built a new golf course on its 400 acres and erected 338 homes on the country club property.

The measure was opposed by the entire Glendora City Council, which described it as a “last gasp effort to change the rules” that govern land-use planning in the city.

City Manager Eric Ziegler likened the vote to the recent failed efforts of Wal-Mart to move into Inglewood.

“An outside entity came in and said we don’t like your development rules so we’re going to change them,” he said. “These guys had a take-no-prisoners mentality. They spent well over a million dollars on this election alone.”

The final unofficial tally was 11,260 against the measure and 1,171 in favor. Ziegler said the developer spent about $1,300 for each vote in favor of the project.

“I would say that if I had to do it over again I probably wouldn’t do it,” Scott said. “But the money was well spent because we thought it was the right thing to do and we put our money where our mouth is.”

Scott said he is now faced with three options: sell the land to the city, sell it to another developer or submit a development plan to both Glendora and San Dimas and build on the property.

“It’s our property, our private property, and it is zoned residential,” he said. “We just need to know what path to take. We really thought this was a win for everybody.”

michael.kennedy@latimes.com