Adelanto jail proposal gets extension Facility would house LA County overflow

Adelanto jail proposal gets extension

Facility would house LA County overflow; Crants says deal could be done in 90 days

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Doctor R. Crants speaks during Wednesday night's Adelanto City Council meeting about his plan to build another prison in the city to help ease inmate overcrowding in Los Angeles County. Jose Huerta, Daily Press
• By Shea JohnsonStaff WriterPosted Jul. 23, 2015 at 4:59 PM 
  
  

  ADELANTO — The developers of a controversial jail plan that would ease Los Angeles County inmate overcrowding and be a financial boon to this city have been given until the end of the year to lock down an agreement with L.A. County or face the possibility the project will die.

  The extension was granted by a 4-1 City Council vote Wednesday night after a June 30 deadline for LCS Holdings, led by Doc Crants and Buck Johns, came and went without a deal with L.A. County in place. Crants is a former for-profit prison executive and Johns is an Orange County-based developer.

  As part of the plan's conditions of approval OK'd by a freshly new-look Council in December, LCS Holdings had 180 days to purchase the property for the site, sitting on 125 acres of land on the northeast corner of Violet and Emerald roads.

  But the purchase is contingent on L.A. County officials agreeing to house more than 3,200 of their overflow inmate population at the proposed facility. So far, no agreement has been reached. The plan promises to bring 1,250 jobs and a $1.2 million annual bed tax to Adelanto's depressed general fund.

  In December, Crants and Johns told the Council they had hoped to gain L.A. County's backing and break ground by April.

  Crants cited factors outside his control Wednesday in explaining the delay and need for an extension, but was met with staunch resistance from Mayor Pro Tem Jermaine Wright, who was also the lone dissenter in granting LCS more time.

  "I misjudged the amount of time it would take," Crants said, adding that he believed he could now get a deal done in 60 to 90 days.

  According to Crants, Proposition 47 has hurt the developers' pitch to L.A. County by decreasing some of the county's inmate population. Passed in November, the retroactive proposition reduced many felonies to misdemeanors.

  Crants also said L.A. County officials had been considering a $2 billion overhaul of their jail system until June 9, when supervisors voted to suspend funding for the plan.

  He said that these fluid circumstances also have altered the pitch to L.A. County, adding that he and Johns were the only businessmen actively pitching an alternative for jail overcrowding to officials there.

  Crants also said that after Men's Central Jail is closed — which he estimated wouldn't happen for at least five years — L.A. County will have hit a 200 percent occupancy rate. That is well above the 137.5 percent previously mandated by the state Supreme Court.

  "I think we're being well received," Crants said. "Needless to say, (L.A. County) would rather handle the problem themselves, but the problem is enormous. And I think Adelanto will come to be a part of their solution."

  Wright, who has not been shy in opposing the plan, grilled Crants for not having met the timetable.

  "You had a city up in arms over this prison and the amount of time," Wright said, "and now you're asking to stretch this out even longer, because you didn't get it done."

  Crants said he had "no intention of quitting" and that he planned to meet with L.A. County Supervisors one-on-one, meetings that had been held off until now while supervisors were engaged in a massive data-gathering process.

  "We're making progress," Crants said.

  A few residents who spoke during Wednesday's public hearing blasted the project amid concerns for safety. Yet Crants assured them that the plan wouldn't have a negative impact. In December, community groups opposed to new jails in the state protested the plan.

  Should Crants or Johns return to the Council on Dec. 31 without a deal in place, the Council has the option to grant another extension. Under the city's standard operating agreements, developers have two years from a project's approval date to begin substantial construction.

  The jail would take approximately two years to construct, officials said.

  Shea Johnson may be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.