By A.J. Hazarabedian
Folsom Boulevard and Rancho Cordova are in the news again. This time, landowner/developer Lily Co. is fighting the Rancho Cordova Redevelopment Agency to stop them from acquiring a 9.5 acre property by eminent domain.
The Sacramento Bee published an article this week entitled, “3-way legal snarl stalls redevelopment on Folsom Boulevard,” detailing the “legal battle unfolding in Sacramento Superior Court.”
According to the article, the Lily Co., who owns the 9.5 acre property at La Loma Drive, had been working on an agreement with the Los Rios Community College District in 2007 to sell the property to the District for $8.6 million. However, Samuel Fong, General Partner at the Lily Co., states the District backed out of the agreement and decided to take the land using the power of eminent domain.
It is stated in the article that “representatives for both the Rancho Cordova Redevelopment Agency and the Los Rios Community College District say the Lily allegations are wrong” and that “the college district let the deal lapse” because they could not agree on how they would clean the site which had been contaminated by a dry cleaning business which had once operated on the site.
A judge will have to decide in what has now become two cases: one fighting the eminent domain issue, and the other claiming a breach of a 2007 contract.