Developer Disclosure of Future Roads Asked

Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth has proposed a state law that would require developers to notify new home buyers of any major public roads planned for nearby areas.

Roth said he wants to cut down on community opposition to road projects and believes that the legislation probably would save the county money it might spend on changing its plans or litigating disputes. It might also preserve a good relationship between the county and the community, he said.

“I’m heading off future battles that will certainly come up when people look out their windows and see somebody grading an eight-lane freeway,” Roth said. “It sounds like logic to me.”

Roth said that when he was mayor of Anaheim the city was forced to change the course of a major street it already had approved because of opposition from new homeowners who were unaware of longstanding plans to build the artery. His proposal is based in part, he said, on concern over community awareness of county plans for three new transportation corridors.

The county Environmental Management Agency reviewed Roth’s proposal and agreed that it should be proposed as a state law. The agency will present the idea to the county’s Legislative Planning Committee, possibly this week, where officials will decide whether to include it in the county’s package of recommended state legislation.

In fact, the Environmental Management Agency wanted to expand Roth’s proposal to include all major public facilities, such as jails and landfills.

“Why not?” said agency Director Ernie Schneider. “If you’re going to notify people of what’s going on, put it in there.”

But the proposal was scaled back to include only roads after the county’s Sacramento lobbyist suggested that the addition of projects like jails and landfills could make it more difficult to pass in the Legislature.

Roth, a former real estate agent, agreed. “The more items you add, the more opposition you’re going to get,” he said.

Expands Existing Law

Roth’s proposal would expand an existing state law that requires developers to give new home buyers a report outlining a variety of facilities and conditions in the areas where they are buying. The list includes locations of schools and shopping centers, flood zones and fees to sewer or lighting districts.

The disclosure, which is prepared by developers under penalty of perjury, is called a “white report,” and it must be signed by a new home buyer during the purchase process.

The plan has not been formally presented to the Orange County business community, but it already has received some response.

Irvine Co. Vice President Carol Hoffman said her company has long been an advocate of buyer notification. She said the company, the largest landowner in Orange County, already provides all of its buyers with notification of such things as highway projects and helicopter overflights.

Stanley Bunker, real estate representative for the Orange County Business and Industry Assn., said the proposal presents a sticky issue.

“For things that are proposed and not funded to appear in a public report is probably not to the advantage of either the developer or the homeowner,” Bunker said. “I don’t know--is it going to curb the developer’s sales . . . and is it going to scare away somebody’s interest to buy when there might never be a freeway?”

Schneider said Orange County already has a law that requires developers to reveal all proposed major public facilities, including roads, jails and landfills, in the model homes for their developments.

But Schneider said the county’s enforcement is not substantial and the law does not require that the buyer see the disclosures in the model homes before purchase.

DISCLOSURE RULES Here are some disclosures to prospective new home buyers already required by state law:

Locations of nearby schools.

Transportation available.

History of flooding.

Nearby shopping locations.

Utility companies.

Fees payable to all special districts.

Source: Orange County Business and Industry Assn.