BREA : Groundbreaking for Project Scheduled

Construction of the controversial downtown redevelopment project will begin following a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for the Gateway, a 22-acre shopping center at Imperial Highway and Brea Boulevard.

The shopping center represents the first of three phases in an ambitious and hotly debated effort to revitalize 50 acres of the city core. Nearly 100 single-family homes also are planned for the downtown area, along with the Birch Walk pedestrian mall featuring a movie theater, fountains, public art, shops and restaurants.

Developing the shopping center is Watt/Craig Associates, which reports that 80% of the complex is pre-leased. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of this year, with financing provided by the AFL-CIO.

Anchoring the shopping center will be Pay Less Drug Store, Ralphs Grocery, PetsMart and Cost Plus. Other tenants will include Blockbuster Video, Burger King, Fantastic Sam’s, Starbucks Coffee, Subway Sandwiches and Taco Bell.

Mayor Glenn G. Parker said he is encouraged by the fact that so much of the center has been pre-leased. The city will receive a percentage of the center’s profits, along with 1% of the generated sales tax.

“I’m excited about it,” Parker said of the Gateway. “It’s taken us a lot of work to get to this point.”

But not everyone is happy about the changes that have occurred over the past decade in this fairly affluent city of 34,000 people.

One of the most vocal opponents of how redevelopment has been handled is William Vega, who said he became “outraged” when the city tried to acquire his mother’s property in 1989 through the power of eminent domain.

“Then I became an activist,” said Vega, who unsuccessfully ran for the City Council in 1992 and is a candidate in the November election.

“I think that redevelopment is generally a very positive endeavor,” said Vega, 37, who owns an automotive service company. “But the way it has been abused and misused in Brea is a travesty.” He accuses city officials of misleading the public in order to acquire property needed for the project.

“There is a natural progression of steps to legally fulfill to take the downtown from the state that it was in 1971 to the state it’s in now,” Vega said. “Those steps have not been honestly, ethically fulfilled. People were lied to. Period.”

Assistant City Manager Tim O’Donnell said that acquiring property through eminent domain resulted in “a very valid emotional issue” for some residents. But he emphasized that once the decision was made to proceed with redevelopment, there was “no turning back.”

When the city began acquiring property in 1985, city policy prohibited the use of eminent domain. However, that policy was reversed in 1989, O’Donnell said, because the city was having difficulty obtaining the final pieces of required property.

Redevelopment has taken a heavy emotional and financial toll on some residents, and City Hall has taken a pounding as well. Elected officials are routinely harangued at twice-monthly council meetings, and Carrey J. Nelson is the only councilman left in office who served during the time when property was being acquired.

A report by the state Fair Political Practices Commission says that Nelson, along with former Mayors Ronald E. Isles and Wayne D. Wedin, escaped conflict-of-interest charges partly because the statute of limitations had run its course. Nelson now abstains from voting on redevelopment matters.

In addition, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the FBI are investigating whether federal laws were violated in the redevelopment process.