Animal shelter further delayed by design controversy

By: AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer
Northern California-based architect has until March 28 to sign over plans | Monday, March 17, 2008 11:07 PM PDT ∞

MURRIETA -- A regional animal shelter will be built in Wildomar with or without the involvement of the architect who designed the building, a coalition of municipal and county officials decided Monday.

The coalition, a joint powers authority with representatives from Canyon Lake, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore and Temecula as well as County Supervisor Bob Buster, agreed to set a March 28 deadline for architect George Miers, of Moraga, to sign over ownership of the plans to the authority.

The authority was formed in 2005 to build a new multimillion dollar regional animal shelter with the nonprofit Animal Friends of the Valleys.

The delay in obtaining the architectural plans is the latest glitch in a project that has been put off for years. The Animal Friends, which tried to raise funding to build the project on its own, has paid the architect more than $600,000 to design the new shelter.

Greater urgency in moving forward with the project comes in the wake of a deadly fire that ripped through a trailer at the Animal Friends' shelter in Lake Elsinore two weeks ago, killing 24 puppies and dogs and 15 Himalayan cats.

Past delays in proceeding with the new shelter to be built at Mission Trail and Corydon Street have been attributed to concerns about cost-sharing among the jurisdictions the shelter would serve and worries about the effect construction might have on burrowing owls.

Buster said another contributing factor is the inherent complexity involved with converting a project that was going to be built by a nonprofit organization into a public project involving tax dollars.

In the latest hang-up, the authority's legal counsel contends the agency cannot move forward with construction until the architect releases his legal interest in the plans. That release is part of an agreement the authority brokered with the Animal Friends.

Miers, who was not at Monday's meeting, contends in a letter to the county's legal counsel that ownership of the plans will be transferred to the authority after the project is complete.

While the impasse may sound complex, board members said a solution was simple.

"We can't have the (authority) held hostage by some disagreement with a consultant," said authority board member and Temecula Councilwoman Maryann Edwards.

Edwards called on the board to set a firm date so the authority could either move forward with the consultant or pursue a different option, including using plans the county has approved for an animal shelter in San Jacinto.

"This cannot go on," she said, garnering a burst of applause from the audience, gathered in Murrieta's old city hall chambers. "The Animal Friends deserve a decent facility to serve every animal loving member of these communities."

The other members of the board also were firm in their resolve to see the project move forward as quickly as possible.

Canyon Lake councilwoman and board member Mary Craton said the county's staff could help smooth out any problems with the architect by arranging a face-to-face meeting.

For the past few months, the architect and county planning department administrators along with legal counsel have been exchanging multiple e-mails and unanswered phone calls, according to Animal Friends officials and county staff members.

At some point, the exchange turned "contentious" and the county's staff told the board that working with the architect in the future might be difficult.

Authority board Chairman Thomas Buckley, a Lake Elsinore councilman, said the relationship with the architect probably will improve when he signs over the plans and works directly with the authority instead of dealing with multiple agencies.

In anticipation of Miers wanting to meet with the staff, Buckley appointed a subcommittee of Edwards and Craton to meet with the architect and the staff to work out any nagging kinks.

Following the unanimous vote to set the deadline, Murrieta Councilman Doug McAllister said, "Let's build this thing."

-- Contact staff writer Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.

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