City offers 50-year lease to legion

June Casagrande

BALBOA PENINSULA -- American Legion Post members are taking a long

look at a city offer to give them a 50-year lease.

A draft lease, about 35 pages long, was delivered to American Legion

representatives late last month. It offers terms of a half-century’s

security on the city-owned site, as well as provisions for maintenance

and upkeep of the property, which is next to Marinapark.

“We’re taking a close look, holding meetings with our members and

having our lawyers do the deciphering,” said J.T. Tarwater, commander of

the legion post. “It’s too soon to say what position we’ll take on it.”

City officials who worked on the proposed lease, though, said they’re

confident their efforts to give the legionnaires a good deal will be well

received.

“We’re doing the right thing,” said Councilman Steve Bromberg, who was

on the committee that created the lease. “They’ve been there a long time.

They’re a veterans organization. They’re a service organization. They

deserve a favorable long-term lease.”

Further details of the lease were not disclosed, but will become

public in the coming weeks or months when the City Council considers

putting its final seal of approval on the deal.

The legion post has been on the site adjacent to Marinapark and Las

Arenas park without a long-term lease since 1949. They pay $300 a month,

plus 100% of revenues from their 26-space parking lot, 40% of marina slip

rentals and 50% of revenues from storage space and locker rentals. In

2000, that amounted to about $105,000 in revenue to the city.

When developer Sutherland Talla proposed last year to build a luxury

resort where the legion hall now stands, building a new facility for

legionnaires at the other end of the property, American Legion

representatives asked the city for a long-term lease. Though Sutherland

Talla later revised its plans, deciding to leave the post where it is,

legionnaires and city officials agreed that a new lease was still a good

idea.

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .