SEDC is playing games with public land and developers

SEDC president Carolyn Smith seems to think she doesn't need to think about the "little people" she fraudulently eliminated from a project. She is being sued by a family whose business she harmed by trickery.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/02/19/government/589immunity021808.txt

The land is owned by the Southeastern Economic Development Corp., the city of San Diego's redevelopment arm for some of its poorest neighborhoods. In 2001, SEDC handed the development rights for Valencia Business Park to a local businessman, James H. Smith, who...contracted with the Petrarcas to sell them one of those warehouses.

But four years later, James Smith’s deal with SEDC fell apart... SEDC President Carolyn Y. Smith offered a settlement agreement promising the Petrarcas a warehouse in Valencia Business Park...

So when SEDC’s attorneys called on the Petrarcas to remove their claim on the land, the couple obliged, freeing the way, they thought, for their warehouse to finally be built...

Instead, PDP changed its plans for the land and designed the Petrarcas out of the deal altogether with Carolyn Smith and SEDC's consent...