Good news for a Carmel centenarian, weird news for Salinas.

The Weekly brought you the story of 100-year-old Sydney Henderson a few weeks ago. Here’s a fast recap: In 1998, Henderson took out a reverse mortgage with Wells Fargo on her tiny condo at Hacienda Carmel, a senior living community. As part of it, Henderson believed she was enrolled in a program in which senior citizens can roll their tax payments into their mortgages.

That turned out not to be the case, and Wells Fargo being Wells Fargo, they moved to foreclose on the property and boot Henderson out onto the street over the $24,000 in back taxes owed. Her attorney, Jim Lauderdale, filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy for Henderson earlier this year. That staved off the immediate foreclosure, but Henderson was facing a January court date, at which point, had Wells and Henderson not reached an agreement, a judge could discharge the bankruptcy and Wells could foreclose.

Henderson exists on Social Security, half of which goes to pay the Hacienda homeowner’s assessment on her condo. She’s been selling off some of her belongings to help pay for a few hours with a personal care assistant every week. Wells Fargo contacted me after I posted Henderson’s picture and story to social media and suggested she email them to talk about her problem. You know, with the computer she doesn’t own and the email she doesn’t have.

Enter Champion Mortgage, which bought the mortgage from Wells Fargo. Lauderdale tells me they contacted him Nov. 10, the day after the column ran and immediately moved to negotiate.

“We are on our way to a full resolution. I have a written agreement with the attorney for Champion for them to withdraw their objection to Sydney’s bankruptcy,” Lauderdale writes by email. “[It’s] not quite signed, sealed and delivered. That will come when the matter gets approved by the court.”

When I first talked to Henderson, she was 99. She told me all she wanted for her birthday was to be allowed to remain in her home until she dies. She turned 100 on Nov. 18 and her friends threw her a party at the community room of Hacienda with cake and finger sandwiches and flowers. Just maybe, it looks like Henderson will get her birthday wish after all.

~ ~ ~

On to Salinas: When is a 3-3 tie a victory?

When it results in the Salinas Planning Commission declining to certify the environmental impact report of the city’s economic development element, or EDE. Which is the long way of saying, the Planning Commission wouldn’t certify the EIR because half of them found too many problems with the report and the plan to want their names on it.

The commission heard from groups that included LandWatch and LAFCO (the Local Agency Formation Commission), and the county ag commissioner – disparate groups that normally might not agree on much of anything. In this case they agreed that the loss of 500-plus acres of farmland in favor of housing and big-box retail – and all of the problems that come along with paving over that farmland – might not be worth it.

“It’s a victory because a number of us expected a very different outcome,” says Mike DeLapa, executive director of LandWatch.

The vote hinged on Commissioner Matt Huerta, who moved to amend the EIR to include a community benefit concept. He wanted all of the big-box retailers to pay fees to help reduce the impacts resulting from all of the low-wage jobs they create (and the jobs they’d take away). Impacts like housing that workers can’t afford, clogged roads and the loss of farmworker jobs. The commission declined to amend the plan, and Huerta voted no.

DeLapa is a numbers guy – he has an MBA in finance and public management from Stanford and has worked in job creation, leading Silicon Valley startups for much of his career. He’s studied the job-growth numbers attached to the economic development element and isn’t quite sure they add up.

In the end, the tie vote may not mean a lot: The plan will still go to the City Council – there’s a study session on Nov. 28, and then a possible vote on Dec. 5.

But maybe the tie vote means everything, in the name of common sense development.

MARY DUAN writes The Local Spin for the Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com