GARDEN GROVE : Street Project Calls for Wrecking Homes

Fifty-eight homes along Trask Avenue could soon be leveled to make way for street widening in what city officials hope will be a “friendly condemnation.”

Residents don’t think it will be that pleasant.

The city plans to widen Trask Avenue from Brookhurst to Newhope streets, making it a four-lane divided highway with bicycle lanes and sidewalks. Initial approval has been given to the project, which calls for demolishing up to 58 homes and taking parts of 23 properties on the street.

Property owners, whose homes are targeted for destruction, are outraged over the city’s plans.

Marguerite L. Warne, who has lived on the street since 1953, said she intends to fight to keep her home. She said she believes the city wants to take her property and rezone it for business purposes, cheating her and her neighbors out of their property values.

For months, Warne, 64, has draped a 3-by-15-foot red, white and blue sign from her garage that reads: “Rush Limbaugh Please Help Me Save My Home.” She hasn’t been able to get through to the radio and television personality, however.

“I feel I need somebody’s help to try and save my home,” Warne said. “My home means a lifetime of scrimping and saving to pay it off. I own it free and clear, and (the city) doesn’t give a damn.”

Her neighbors, the Jennings family, said they are angry about losing their home but realize that “nothing can be done.”

City officials “can do whatever they want, I guess,” said Scott Jennings, 20. “My parents and some of the neighbors are upset but fighting is hopeless.”

Karl Hill, a city planner, said the City Council must approve specific plans for the street widening project, pinpointing which homes must go and exactly how construction will occur, in order to begin buying the property. Council members are expected to vote on that matter before March.

If approval is granted, and it is expected, homes in the path of the project will be appraised and acquired at fair-market value in what officials said they hope will turn out to be “friendly condemnation” proceedings.

They said anyone who refuses to give up their property will most likely end up losing it to the city through eminent domain--the power municipalities have to take private property for public use.

Officials say the project is needed to ease traffic bottlenecks just north of the Garden Grove Freeway. Currently, there are two lanes on parts of Trask Avenue while other parts have four lanes, causing dangerous conditions for pedestrians and motorists, they said.

The project is expected to cost between $10 million and $15 million. Money will come from a city redevelopment bond and county and state highway and gas funds, officials said. The project includes installing storm drains and placing utilities underground.

In September, the City Council approved spending $10 million in tax allocation bonds to widen Trask and to make room for an expanded auto mall between Brookhurst and Newhope streets. The auto mall now is located between Brookhurst and Magnolia streets.

City Council members will meet Nov. 23 to establish timetables for the project.