Developer Will Build over Diamond Jim's Dairy

will likely be gone by year's end.

The Diamond Bar City Council cast a unanimous vote Tuesday night to extend a building permit for a nine-condominium complex where the drive-thru convenience store currently stands.

The site was first eyed for a new condo complex over three years ago and permits have been in place for construction since 2007. However, Diamond Jim's has been in limbo since that time, as construction was held up by a drainage permitting snag.

Now, the developer said, an alternative drainage plan has been defined and mapping and planning of the development is ready to begin.

The applicant for the building extension, Joseph Kwok of South Pasadena, said the original plan required cooperation from a neighboring apartment complex, but the board of that apartment complex was unresponsive for two years.

"We have not been able to get the board to even have a meeting to bring that up to all of the homeowners," Kwok said at a Jan. 11 meeting of the city's planning commission, "but we have an alternative proposal."

The alternative plan will require sewage from the property, which is on a slope above the adjacent apartments, to be pumped out from the site, which would not require an easement or cooperation from the neighboring apartment complex.

The city's community development director, Greg Gubman, said the alternative drainage plan has approval "in concept" from the public works department and that Kwok plans on completing drainage improvements by the end of March.

The extension approved Tuesday will allow until November of this year for construction to begin.

"We'll miss Diamond Jim's Dairy," Mayor Steve Tye said to Kwok Tuesday, "but we're glad that you were able to work it out with the neighboring apartments."

The current operator of Diamond Jim's did not wish to comment on the decision.