City council to discuss property sales

The city council will meet tonight for its first of 2 April meetings. To begin the meeting, the council has a closed session hearing on negotiations with the city employee unions.

During the open session beginning at 6:30 p.m., the council will be asked to approved the sale of Redevelopment Agency-owned land at Base Line Road and Towne Avenue. The 2.66 acres of land was purchased back in 2005/06 to build an affordable housing project.

If the sale goes through, the agency will be losing money on the property to the tune of $210,000. It was purchased for $1.96 million and the proposed sale prices is $1.75 million.

The proposed buyer is City Ventures, a residential developer based in Los Angeles.

Another item on the agenda centers around the sale of land at the Bernard Field Station after an appeal was filed on the approval of parcel maps there.

On March 2, the Planning Commission approved the creation of 4 parcel maps on 11.45 acres of the property. Owner Harvey Mudd College plans to sell half of the property to Claremont Graduate University.

Michael Keenan filed the appeal on the premise that the zoning and land use designations are inconsistent and inappropriate.

Harvey Mudd has announced in the past their intention to build a parking lot on the property, however the staff report states that neither HMC or CGU "has any development plans at this time."

The meeting takes place at the city council chambers at city hall. Residents can also watch the meetings live here.

College pays off

The New York Times ran an interesting piece a few days back about which colleges produce the highest wage earners. Claremont's Harvey Mudd College was third on the list, just behind Dartmouth College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

According to data pulled from Payscale, the median mid-career salary (at least 10 years out of school) for Harvey Mudd alumns is $125,000 per year. Further down the list was Claremont McKenna College at $102,000 and Pomona College at $97,500.

Just down the 10 Freeway, Loma Linda University came in first on the list for median starting salaries (5 years or less out of college) at $71,400 per year.

Click here for a full list of schools and salaries.