Redevelopment

It seems in this ongoing eminent domain debate, some are either for it or, the majority, against it. Let me be the first to create a new splinter group: "The Conditionals" -- as in a conditional redevelopment. Yes, folks, it's time that common sense rear its ugly head. Here are my points: I say yes to redevelopment -- but with a caveat. Industrial use does need to go (the land here is just too valuable, and it's only going to become more so in the years ahead)

In this week's Community Commentary regarding redevelopment, Ila Johnson makes a most remarkable statement toward the end of her opinion piece. She states: "I am a property rights advocate, but property rights are not absolute and really cease when they begin to interfere with the rights of others' enjoyment of their property ... "What? Can you say convoluted? If she isn't enjoying someone else's property enough, then that property owner's rights should cease?

Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach says he has colleagues' support to finance a $23.7-million list of 10 projects in Santa Ana Heights. In February, Moorlach and his staff put out a timeline to finish projects that have been stuck in the planning stages for years. Now he's coming to the county board of supervisors for the money, which would come out of Santa Ana Heights' $40-million redevelopment fund. Once the projects are done, the redevelopment agency's debts would be paid off and the agency shut down.

I applaud the Daily Pilot for writing about the Santa Ana Heights community center controversy ("Pool divide gets deeper," Tuesday). This is the largest project the Santa Ana Heights Redevelopment Agency and the area's project advisory committee have ever undertaken. It is important to note that at a budget of $18 million, it does not use any city general funds. What your article did not include were most of the facts as to why the 50-meter pool does not work. The YMCA, the project advisory committee for the Santa Ana Heights Redevelopment Agency, city staff members and the architects working on this project have gone on record repeatedly saying that a 50-meter pool does not fit in to this concept.

The Costa Mesa City Redevelopment Agency met the evening of Aug. 10. The City Council, acting as the agency, postponed until October a decision on whether to grant the request of a group of industrial property owners to have their property excluded from the area designated for redevelopment. The industrialists made the move in order to preclude not only the inclusion of their property in the redevelopment area, but also to prevent any move by the City Council to rezone the area residential.

Costa Mesa's director of development services and executive redevelopment has announced she is quitting to take on a new job in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa officials said in a news release issued late Friday. Kim Brandt is leaving Costa Mesa City Hall to become director of Newport Beach's newly-formed Community Development Department, the release said. Her last day on the Costa Mesa job will be May 13. Brandt, a 23-year veteran at City Hall, was in charge of the city's planning, building safety, code enforcements and redevelopment, the release said.

Alicia Robinson Costa Mesa City Councilman Eric Bever says he wants to look into using eminent domain to bring in new ownership for the floundering Triangle Square shopping center, but the plan isn't likely to fly with his colleagues. The beleaguered center has had trouble attracting tenants since opening in 1992, and just this year it shed major retailers Niketown and Virgin Megastore. At the Tuesday City Council meeting, Bever said the council should consider condemning the mall as underperforming, and he ripped the Orange County Register for depicting Triangle Square as "the poster child for failed redevelopment projects."

Bureaucratic delays and soaring construction costs have killed plans for a community center in Santa Ana Heights, so now some residents want the $11.5 million for that project to go elsewhere in the community. Where officials decide to put the money may foretell the future of Santa Ana Heights' $40 million redevelopment agency, a fund to remove blight that one county supervisor has said he wants to close down as soon as possible. The community center was to be a collaboration between the city of Newport Beach and the YMCA.

DOLORES OTTING Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Santa Ana Heights Project Advisory Committee meeting. For background, on July 1, 2003, Santa Ana Heights was annexed and became part of Newport Beach. Boy were we lucky, as they have been our rich cousin ever since. They don't ask for much, and like the Energizer Bunny who keeps going and going, they keep giving and giving to the tune of $27 million. Santa Ana Heights started giving to the city of Newport Beach at the March 9, 2004 City Council meeting when the council voted to take, via eminent domain, the properties necessary to construct a new fire station and training center in Santa Ana Heights.

42, Costa Mesa ... President of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's English Language Advisory Committee ... Also still involved in Measure A oversight committee, for about 10 hours a week ... Has owned El Chinaco restaurant for 14 years ... Not only involved with the school, but with the whole community ... Is on Human Relations Committee for the city of Costa Mesa ... Also on Committee for Redevelopment for...

Costa Mesa officials announced Tuesday that, after unanimous approval from the council, the city will sue to recover millions of dollars taken from its dissolved redevelopment agency. Officials and attorneys could not confirm many details of the lawsuit, including the defendants, since the matter was discussed in a closed session. City Attorney Tom Duarte said Tuesday that nearly $12.5 million associated with Costa Mesa's so-called RDA is at stake. The city's RDA and all others throughout the state were disbanded last year as part of an austerity measure supported by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The coming week is a busy one for Costa Mesa government, with at least seven meetings scheduled, two of which include the City Council going over future goals and objectives with other city groups. The council and Planning Commission are set to discuss planning goals in a joint meeting at 4:30 p.m. in Conference Room 1A on the first floor of City Hall, 77 Fair Drive. The commission in its regular meeting at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers will go over various developments in the Eastside, including a proposed five-unit condominium complex at 2573 Elden Ave. and two homes on an empty 8,250-square-foot lot at 2590 Orange Ave. City staff are recommending that the commission deny the Elden project, partially because the developer is seeking an unjustifiable variance from the city's open-space requirements.

The Costa Mesa City Council agreed at an emergency meeting Thursday to pay the state $1.4 million it has asked for in property tax revenues from the city's dissolved Redevelopment Agency. "It's our belief we don't owe them anything," Finance Director Bobby Young told the council. "It's very unusual. I think it goes to the intent of the state to dissolve redevelopment agencies in the quickest manner possible, to claw back money they see fit. " Every RDA in California was formally dissolved Feb. 1. Costa Mesa's replacement, the Successor Agency — the City Council by another name — kept about $1.5 million in reserves from the RDA. The city will deplete that reserve so it doesn't have to dip into the city's general fund to make the payment, Young said.

Cities statewide saw their redevelopment agencies officially dissolve Wednesday after a Sacramento County judge refused to put a hold on the process during a court hearing last week. Attorneys from the Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker law firm argued Friday that portions of a state law that dissolved the RDAs were unconstitutional and exceeded the governor's powers during a fiscal emergency. They were seeking an emergency stay on the law, which took effect Wednesday. The firm represented a coalition of 10 Southern California cities that did not include Costa Mesa.

In an effort to balance the state budget, the California Supreme Court voted at the end of December to eliminate redevelopment agencies across the state effective Jan. 31. It further struck down a separate law that would have allowed agencies to stay afloat if they paid more than $1 billion to the state. The decision has understandably caused a reverberation of panic from proponents desperate to find an amicable way to salvage redevelopment in some form and stave off the chaos that will surface as a result of dismantling the agencies.

COSTA MESA — Forced to choose between handing to the county the responsibilities for the city's affordable housing or creating a city-run housing agency, the City Council on Tuesday elected to keep the responsibility in-house. The Costa Mesa Housing Authority will now oversee $9 million in affordable-housing accounts. The accounts used to belong to the city's redevelopment agency (RDA) until it was dissolved by Sacramento legislation, which cities challenged but the state Supreme Court upheld in December.

COSTA MESA — The Redevelopment Agency (RDA) approved reporting to the state next week more than $29 million of its unavoidable financial obligations in the wake of legislation that may force the agency to dissolve. The report, called an Enforceable Obligation Payment Schedule (EOPS), shows state officials what Costa Mesa could be on the line for if the city chooses to fold the agency as opposed to paying Sacramento for the agency to remain intact — an option available under two laws passed this summer.

COSTA MESA — The city will have an emergency meeting of the Redevelopment Agency on Friday to cement what mandatory commitments the agency has and can't back out of in case it has to fold. Costa Mesa officials are acting fast on the heels of Sacramento legislation that could dissolve RDAs across the state, a lawsuit challenging the two laws and a state Supreme Court ruling on the lawsuit temporarily blurring the picture for cities statewide. The effects of Assembly bills 1X 26 and 1X 27 are complicated, said Costa Mesa's special counsel, Celeste Brady.

IRVINE — The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved an ordinance that saves the Irvine Redevelopment Agency (RDA) from dissolution. The voluntary program opts the RDA into an alternative redevelopment program, thus bypassing any closure required by the Dissolution Act, which was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown into law June 29. The funds will be paid through the RDA, not the city's general fund, said Mark Asturias, city housing and redevelopment manager. The City Council also approved the city staff's recommendation to appeal the contribution amount — about $2.6 million for the fiscal year 2011-12 — which was determined by a state finance department alternative formula and varies by city.

COSTA MESA — The Costa Mesa Redevelopment Agency's deadlock vote in March to pay back more than $1 million into the city's general fund was beneficial in the long run, city officials said this week. Some residents accused agency members — who are also the City Council members — of refusing to pay down $1.3 million of more than $10 million the agency owes the city's general fund from a loan. Critics claimed the agency members were purposely keeping money out of the general fund gap to partially justify the layoffs at City Hall.