RE:Just a thoughtThere are a few scenarios I can think of:
1. The judge vacates the EIR thereby not allowing the permits to be issued for any construction.
This to me would be why nobody would be foolish enough to proceed with signing any financing until the suit is cleared. They have already utilized $250,000 to $400,000 in legal fees for the financing and then there would be VOYA's bonuses on top of that. If the project stalls VOYA could just dump those 3M warrants before the company ever generates any revenue.
2. The Water Assessment Analysis has to be redone followed by the EIR having to be completed.
This shouldn't take nearly as long as it did the first time but I would suspect the remainder of the year, likely.
3. Obviously the assessment needs to prove the water source is available for the size of Sage Ranch. I bet if they had maintained the original Tower Investments sizing for the development there may have been less overall issue and the District would only be arguing the fourth claim, being the City has an ongoing practice of not completing adequate water analysis in general. Sage Ranch would not have been the main focus of the Water District.
4. There is now a lot of animosity between the City and the Water District so things are not going to be straight forward anymore. With both sides requesting emails and meeting minutes I don't think this is over yet. Even after the judge has made his decisions.
5. Sage Ranch needs to come up with a possible "alternate" water source. The only thing I can come up with is if the City goes ahead with designing, engineering and constructing a tertiary waste water treatment plant. If the current waste water were treatmented to a potable water level, be allowed to percolate down into the basin and recovered in the future with perhaps a 5% or so evaporation rate, then this could be deemed an additional source of water. This water could all be metered and accountable. The problem for Sage Ranch is this process may take upwards of ten years to complete to a point of water recovery. If the judge sides against so called "paper water" this may be a hard case to say that water will indeed be available in the future.
6. Both Sage Ranch and Cordero Ranch are not so called "recession proof" developments. Sage Ranch was originally developed by Tower Investments which Jeff said invested $20M and sold for $1M. GRB has invested over $7M and has nothing of value yet. The same goes for Tommy Sullivan's property that was purchased in 2002, they tried to develop it and it has been sitting vacant for 22 years. No indication of how much shareholders are going to be paying Tommy for the property but if Sage is not well up and generating revenue then Cordero will be sitting longer. Why is every future development potential listed in the exact same districts as where Western Wind and GRB had assets or possible future renewable energy projects. Just coincidence I guess.
Keep in mind that GRB is supposed to start paying PWR back the $5.6M or so in monthly installments, starting in two months. Add to that all the money being spent currently on consulting fees, professional fees, and a lot of legal fees. There is also Stuart Nacht's lawsuit coming up in the near future. They need that loan arrangement to happen ASAP.
In my opinion today's possible verdict (or further delay) we don't know which will be very telling as to any direction the company may have.