Trump sues Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump haters trumpet
I’m indifferent on Donald Trump, although I find his claiming to be a golf course architect to be humorous. He recently filed a $100 million lawsuit against Rancho Palos Verdes over various problems his blames on the city at his redo of the former Ocean Trails Golf Course.
It’s allowed a number of those who dislike Trump to come out of the woodwork.
Is Trump arrogant? Of course. But so what? So is the average retail consumer – if you’ve ever had the pleasure of working retail, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Most people dislike Donald Trump because he’s rich – not because he’s a bully. People can only be a bully if they’re empowered to be a bully – usually by people who want his money. An excellent example are the citizens and politicians of Rancho Palos Verdes.
The fact of the matter is that nearly every developer has dreamed of suing communities they work in for any number of perceived (and sometimes even real…) ridiculous regulations. Trump is suing for a number of reasons – he wasn’t allowed to plant a screen of ficus trees, wasn’t allowed to build a terrace on the clubhouse and wasn’t allowed to rename a street. Now, as ridiculous as a $100 million lawsuit is, so are regulations that don’t allow you to plant a screen of ficus trees, build a terrace, build a flagpole or rename a street.
People say that Trump doesn’t like to play by the rules – because he’s Donald Trump. That may or may not be the case – but I do know that most everybody doesn’t like to play by the rules in some aspect of their life. However, we all love rules when they don’t apply to us and really love rules when they apply to some “evil, rich developer”.
Some rules are, in fact, ridiculous.
So, while I expect this case to be settled long before it reaches court, I’m actually looking forward to the seeing the merits of the case and the city’s defense of its regulations. That is what is at the heart of this lawsuit. Not Donald Trump, $100 million, ficus trees or egos. But a defense of regulations that don’t allow a person to plant a screen, build a terrace or rename a street on their property.
Just so you know the street Trump wants renamed is a public street, not “on his property.” The screen of trees he wanted to plant violated the conditional use permit that existed on the property when he bought it. And as for the geological reviews he agreed to them and agreed that a review panel would decide any disputes with the city and that there would be no lawsuits. He has the geologic approvals he sought and has entitlements to build the clubhouse terrace (he is just unhappy about how much time and money it took under the procedures he agreed to in writing).
And no, the citizens of Rancho Palos Verdes and its politicians don’t need Mr. Trump’s money. His golf course provides the city less than $300,000 per year in taxes (not even 2% of the city budget0.
Tom Long
Councilmember, Rancho Palos Verdes, California
This is the thing with Trump….he has so much money that he will do to Rancho Palos Verdes what he did to Palm Beach County (which has WAY more money in their annual budget than Rancho could dream of, that’s where he got the property to build the Trump International Golf Club). He will drag the lawsuit out sooooo long that Rancho will eventually submit because they won’t be able to afford the attorney fees that are eating chunks out of their annual budget…….and Trump knows this game well….even if he could stand a chance to loose he knows that most cities do not have that kind of funding to manage the expense of such a lucrative and expensive lawsuit. So know we wait and see……..