Why is the PFF Bank building, at the corner of Highways 62 and 247, still vacant? It’s all because of red tape and paperwork that’s required by the state. Back in October 2009, the Yucca Valley Redevelopment Agency bought the building for $1.3 million. The former bank building had been sitting empty at the Town’s busiest intersection since U.S. Bank bought Pomona First Federal Bank and Trust six months earlier and closed the PFF office. The RDA had all kinds of ideas and plans for how to use the building, but none of them came to fruition. When the state of California dissolved the redevelopment agencies in 2012, the RDA could not sell the building—or any other assets owned by the RDA—until the Town Council, acting as the RDA’s “successor agency,” received a property management plan approved by the state. The Town couldn’t even start drafting the property management plan until it received a Certificate of Completion from the state for dissolving the RDA. Yucca Valley was the first agency in San Bernardino County to receive the certificate of completion, and Town Staff are now working on the Property Management Plan, which should be presented to the RDA Successor Agency in August.
