$1 billion master planned development in California clears key hurdle

Plans for a new section of the proposed $1 billion La Entrada master-planned community in Coachella, Calif., moved ahead after the developer and city council agreed that the plan would include 500 affordable housing units.

The 981-acre development in the Palm Springs area will include thousands of homes, schools, public parks, retail and office space, and maybe an athletic stadium.

The massive multi-use project is expected spur rapid growth in the city over the next two decades. Las Vegas-based New West Development expects to break ground in 2015.

Residents and officials had feared that the project would exclude low-income residents. The city council voted 5-0 in favor the proposed number of affordable housing units, though some community leaders said more of these residences should be earmarked for low-income residents given the city’s demographics.

In total, the plan calls for about 7,800 houses, condos and apartments, and a new highway interchange. The development will generate $1.1 billion in labor wages over 20 years, $3.4 billion in taxable sales revenue over 20 years, and 21,000 in jobs, according to the developer.

(http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/local/2014/06/12/coachella-city-council-la-entrada-housing-development/10360299/)

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.