Surland Companies Files Cross Complaint Against City of Tracy
Contact: Sam Singer
415.336.4949
For Surland Companies
For Immediate Release:
Surland Companies Files Cross Complaint Against City of Tracy to Protect Community’s Design Plans for Aquatics Center
Seeks to Enforce Agreements By City of Tracy to Build Community-Designed Aquatic Center
Tracy, Calif. A respected, longtime Tracy home builder and real estate developer today filed a cross complaint against the City of Tracy for breach of contract and other claims related to the city’s agreements to build the community-designed and long awaited Tracy Aquatics Center at Ellis.
Surland Companies filed its cross complaint in San Joaquin County Superior Court seeking to force the City of Tracy to build the community-designed Aquatics Center on the 16 acres of land it donated to the City of Tracy as part of a development agreement.
Surland’s lawsuit says the land was accepted by the city and recorded through an Irrevocable Offer of Dedication (IOD) for the Aquatic Center which was signed and notarized by Surland.
However, prior to recording this document with the County Recorder’s office and accepting the 16 acres, the city made a significant change to the notarized document by unilaterally changing the IOD agreement after it was signed and notarized by Surland.
In spite of Surland’s protests over the city’s unilateral altering of the agreement, in July of 2023, the city illegally and wrongfully accepted the improperly modified IOD. The city was acting under the advice and guidance of City Attorney Bijal Patel, who at the time was on involuntary inactive status and was ineligible to practice law, according to the State Bar consumer alert.
Surland’s cross complaint is in response to the City of Tracy filing on Feb. 23, a legal action against Surland to get out of city’s contractual obligations and its promises to residents to advance the community-designed Aquatic Center plans. The city’s lawsuit is the latest delay by City to build the center.
Many in the community have serious concerns that the city may be starting over with new designs for the Aquatic Center, ignoring the community’s design plans, and wasting more time and money.
“We didn’t want to file a lawsuit against the city, but we are forced to do so since the city council and city attorney have failed to follow through on their commitments to the residents. The correct and legal IOD must be used for its intended purpose to build the community designed Aquatic Center with the land and money donated by Surland,” said Sam Singer, a representative of Surland.
Surland is seeking to advance the community-designed Aquatic Center and hopes to break the existing stalemate with the council majority which is refusing to advance the Aquatic Center and is attempting to relocate and or abandon it.
The council majority has put the city at legal risk because of its unlawful actions, Singer added.
The Surland cross complaint seeks to force the city to live up to its agreement to build the community-designed Aquatic Center and honor agreements the city has committed to in the past.
Surland Companies has been a decades long benefactor for many community organizations and has designed award winning communities in Tracy such as Laurelbrook, Redbridge, and Ellis by creating a sense of place and community within the designs of their projects and provided the architectural designs for the Tracy City Hall and the Tracy Transit Station at no cost to the city or taxpayers.
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