County Officials Tiptoe Into Redevelopment, Plan Work in 14 Areas

After watching angry protests in Anaheim and Huntington Beach over neighborhood redevelopment plans, Orange County officials are cautiously moving forward with a plan of their own that they hope will avoid the same pitfalls.

Fourteen locations throughout the county--mostly unincorporated islands of property in the midst of urban areas--have been chosen for redevelopment efforts aimed at improving public facilities, such as streets and sidewalks, and repairing old or run-down housing.

The project will generate more than $350 million in improvements for the areas over the next 30 years, according to a county study. But county officials insist that, unlike recent controversial redevelopment proposals in some Orange County cities, the plan will not raise existing residents’ taxes or result in any property being taken under eminent domain laws.

‘Asking What They Want’

“Instead of going in and telling people what they need, we are going in and asking people what they want,” said Dhongchai Pusavat, general manager of the county’s housing and community development office.

This is the second redevelopment project for Orange County since it established a Development Agency in 1982. The first project, approved last year, is in Santa Ana Heights, just south of the John Wayne Airport.

That project is mainly intended to help the community resolve noise problems resulting from its proximity to the airport. Businesses are planned for some residential areas, and money will be provided to put sound insulation in about 450 homes and apartments.

The second redevelopment plan is aimed at improvements for deteriorating neighborhoods. Redevelopment is a financing tool passed by the Legislature that allows local governments to put tax revenues back into the community to pay for physical improvements.

Tiny Residential Pockets

Most of the 14 new redevelopment areas are tiny residential pockets, smaller than a square mile, that are unincorporated and surrounded by cities. They include the neighborhoods of Midway City next to Westminster; Colonia Independencia near Stanton; El Modena near Orange, and Costa Mesa Highlands. There are other spots adjacent to Garden Grove, Anaheim, Cypress and La Palma.

The largest site includes Silverado and Trabuco canyons and covers about five square miles.

County officials said they have not yet calculated the total population of the areas. Some of the areas might be shrunk or eliminated if there is any community opposition to the redevelopment plan.

Largely because it often has involved the use of eminent domain laws, redevelopment has become a controversial subject in Orange County, one that has set neighborhoods ablaze with anger over the possibility that homes might be seized and torn down, and the land sold to developers for new construction.

In Anaheim recently, neighborhood opposition to the Katella Redevelopment Project was so strong that the City Council eventually dropped the plan, and some of its members are now facing a possible recall movement.

More than 12,500 homes were within the area covered by the project, which was designed to provide improvements to such facilities as streets and sewers. Opponents said they feared their homes could be seized under eminent domain laws and that some of the city’s biggest hotels would be the primary beneficiaries of the project.

In Huntington Beach earlier this year, more than 350 residents shouted down the City Council’s plans for redeveloping a stretch of Beach Boulevard. The residents objected to the city’s plans to condemn about 100 acres of privately owned land and charged that the redevelopment was unnecessary.

Last Wednesday, Santa Ana officials were peppered with questions at a meeting about a redevelopment proposal for more than 900 acres along Bristol Street.

Different Kind of Project

So it is no wonder that, when county officials discuss their own version of redevelopment, they qualify almost every comment by explaining how different it will be from the cities’ plans.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time in the community,” said Peter M. Conlon of the county administrative office. “We’re going to point out to them how different this project is from the ones they’ve been reading about.”

And Pusavat, of the housing and community development office, told the Orange County Planning Commission last Tuesday, “We know that if you are doing what Anaheim is doing and what Huntington Beach is doing, you’re going to get burned.”

The county’s plan still is in its early stages. In July, the Development Agency approved the 14 proposed areas for further study, and the Planning Commission is to vote Sept. 29.

Then, for the next several months, Urban Futures Inc. of Fullerton will examine the 14 areas to determine whether they qualify as blighted areas under the state law authorizing redevelopment projects. After a series of public hearings, the plan is scheduled for a final vote by the Board of Supervisors in June, 1988.

50 Community Meetings

Orange County officials already have held more than 50 community meetings on the project, Conlon said. And they have created a citizens’ coalition made up of representatives from each area that will be called upon to spread the word as plans progress.

Said Ann Quintana of El Modena, who is head of the coalition: “When we brought the community together, we made people aware that this would not be like an Anaheim or a Huntington Beach, where they crammed the plans down people’s throats. Here, the communities will come and say, ‘This is what we want.’ ”

Christie Cochran, a Trabuco Canyon resident who attended a meeting on the project in July, said: “I really feel it is a real good plan. All of the people who were there--and there was a broad cross-section--were very positive about it.”

Part of the reason county officials are hopeful about prospects for winning residents’ support for redevelopment is the housing and community development office’s longstanding relationship with the communities. Pusavat has been with the office since it opened 13 years ago. His office walls are covered with plaques, trophies and even a poem for his efforts to spearhead public works improvements in troubled neighborhoods.

Jack Segal, vice president for Urban Futures, said: “It’s a very cooperative relationship that has been established over many years. The project will build on that relationship rather than disturb it.”

Block Grant Targets

The county’s redevelopment areas were selected several years ago by the housing and community development office as places for spending federal and state block grants that the county received for urban improvements.

Through the block grants, Pusavat has overseen the same kinds of neighborhood improvements that will be accomplished with redevelopment funds--such as paving roads, repairing sidewalks and constructing sewers.

But less block grant money is available now. The housing and community development office once had more than $7 million a year to spend on unincorporated areas and parts of some small Orange County cities, but that figure is now down to about $4 million, Pusavat said.

A preliminary report on the redevelopment plan said, “Generally, the project area is characterized by public facilities which require substantial upgrading as a result of overdevelopment, increasing age and usage.” It also said that the housing was old and that sidewalks and streets were in disrepair.

Loans for Repairs

The redevelopment project would provide low-interest or deferred-payment loans to homeowners so they could repair buildings that are lowering property values in the community.

There are senior citizens on fixed incomes whose homes are deteriorating and who cannot afford repairs, Pusavat said. With a deferred-payment loan, the county would pay for a new roof, for example, and the loan would not be repaid until the property changed hands.

Conlon said the redevelopment plan might also provide money for community centers, senior centers, recreational areas, street lighting, sidewalks, paving and partial funding for fire stations and schools.

The funding mechanism for the project also is designed to avoid controversy.

Instead of raising taxes in the target area, the county Development Agency will get its money from normal, future tax increases.

In other words, the county general fund will not receive any more tax money from the 14 target areas than it is receiving now, unless property is reassessed.

PROPOSED REDEVELOPMENT AREAS The Orange County Planning Commission is considering a redevelopment plan to upgrade public facilities, such as streets and sidewalks, in 14 pockets of unincorporated territory throughout the county. Most are tiny residential areas, less than a square mile in size. The largest is a five-square-mile area in Silverado and Trabuco canyons. 1. West of Brookhurst Street near intersection with Ball Road. 2. North of Katella Avenue and south of railroad tracks, between Gilbert and Jean streets. 3. North of Katella Avenue near intersection with Magnolia Street. 4. North of La Palma Avenue near intersection with Denni Street. 5. Southwest of railroad tracks near intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Moody Street. 6. North of Chapman Avenue, south of Orangewood Avenue and west of Dale Street. 7. North of Lampson Avenue, south of Chapman Avenue and east of Dale Street. 8. Midway City. 9. Newport Heights/Costa Mesa Highlands. 10. Area along El Toro Road between Interstate 5 and Trabuco Road. 11. North of Lincoln Avenue, south of Bixby Avenue, east of railroad tracks. 12. Area along Hewes Street between Bond and Walnut avenues. 13. North of Chapman Avenue, south of Silverleaf Avenue, along Earlham Street, Hewes Street and Rancho Santiago Boulevard. 14. East of Santiago Canyon Road and north of Trabuco Canyon Road.