Still time to refine Town Center project

Nothing, of course, is likely to impede progress on the city’s Town Center proposals:

CITIZEN INPUT—For all practical political purposes, the $35 million Old Towne redevelopment project and the related addition of high-density homes, condos and apartments throughout the city’s surrounding central and western areas are a done deal.

The economic viability of the massive undertaking requires placing hundreds of new residents within walking distance of a proposed 100,000 square-feet of new retail space and the possible “repositioning” of some of the area’s current commercial establishments.

The city has invested too much time and money—and purchased too many downtown business and residential properties—to alter the concept at this date. Only a Supreme Court decision changing redevelopment law could doom the current “visualizations.”

Creative Housing Associates, the city’s redevelopment partner, will conduct some public outreach meetings before submitting a conceptual plan for implementation. Residents might be able to influence some project details if they attend and voice strong concerns.

For example, plans mention an “art-house theatre with flexible opportunity for performing arts.” Most arts and culture advocates want the reverse—an actual performing arts facility that could also be used as a small community movie house.

Citizens desiring such changes in the current plans need to gather their constituencies, attend the meetings and make their desires known to both planners and council members.

EXPERIENCED VOICE--Hank Wedaa, who was elected to the second City Council as a low-density advocate and served all but two years between 1970 and 2000, recently e-mailed me some interesting comments on issues relating to the Town Center project.

“I have always believed that an informed community would usually support the City Council if the project concerned was fundamentally a good project,” Wedaa wrote.

While noting his “mixed emotions” regarding the project and the Imperial Highway pedestrian bridge, he added, “I am aware of how really difficult it is to effectively communicate with the large number of people who live and work in Yorba Linda.”

“On a project of this magnitude, involving so many millions of dollars, the council should make special efforts to inform the community of its plans on a daily basis,” he wrote.

Wedaa suggested, “We need community support to make it a success. Let’s not build another downtown Brea that is not supported by the residents—during the week it’s a ghost town.”

A FINAL NOTE—A Yorba Linda City Council resolution supporting Anaheim in the Angel name-change controversy didn’t sway team owner Arte Moreno from adopting a new moniker—the fourth in 44 years—for his one-time world-champion baseball club.

The council’s little-noticed action came at its Dec. 7 meeting, when council members unanimously “resolved that the City of Yorba Linda expresses its support for the City of Anaheim in its efforts to ensure that the team name remains the Anaheim Angels.”

The page-long resolution contains 11 “whereas” clauses, including one which cites the economic benefits the Anaheim Angels name brings to the community in, “among other things, national and international recognition, tourism, conventions and business.”

The resolution was requested by Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and adopted as part of Yorba Linda’s new Good Neighbor Policy with Anaheim. A copy was sent to Anaheim, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Major League Baseball Commissioner.

Three issues will lead community news in 2005

Yorba Lindans can expect action--and perhaps some controversy--on three main issues on the community’s front burners in 2005:

HIGH SCHOOLS—Friends Christian High School planners face several obstacles in their drive to build a campus on 32 acres of land leased from the city along Bastanchury Road in west Yorba Linda, in addition to continued opposition from nearby residents.

Even if school supporters are able to obtain all governmental approvals to construct and operate a high school on the site by an upcoming June deadline, City Council members might reassess the property’s value or even consider alternative proposals for the land.

City officials expected a first $400,000 lease payment last year, under a contract worth an estimated $81.5 million over 55 years and up to $225 million for a 99-year term. Instead, council set a new June 2005 deadline for the school to meet lease agreement provisions.

Interestingly, immediately after the publication of a Los Angeles Times article headlined “Yorba Linda Church Holds Sway Over City, Critics Say,” council members termed the lease a “business decision,” despite not seeking other bids during the 2003 negotiations.

Meanwhile, plans for the public high school further east on Bastanchury Road at the intersection with Fairmont Boulevard will move ahead quietly this year. Residents won’t see construction work on the 56-acre site until 2006, with opening set for Fall 2008.

POLICE PACT—Also later this year, council members will consider the fourth-year supplement to a five-year agreement with Brea for law enforcement services. This year’s $7.8 million cost is the largest single item in Yorba Linda’s operational budget.

Obviously, creating a city police department would duplicate costly infrastructure, management and other expenses now shared with Brea. Contracting with the county Sheriff’s Department is not likely, partly due to that agency’s recent spat of bad publicity, including a Grand Jury report citing a climate of fear and intimidation in the department.

So, council members will continue the pact with Brea for a 35^th year, after several notes of concern about rising costs, including the impact of increasing public safety pensions.

OLD TOWNE AREA—Selection of a development team to build the Town Center project will be the next major step in implementing the Old Towne redevelopment plan.

Until then, the city will continue buying up Old Towne commercial and residential property, perhaps using the threat of eminent domain to motivate any reluctant sellers.

Some residents might protest proposals for a significant increase in housing density throughout the area. Unfortunately, very few of the town’s original homeowners, who established the city’s 1972 low-density General Plan, remain to fight the battle again.

A FINAL NOTE—This week marks the 45^th anniversary of the student newspaper at California State University, Fullerton. I was the editor during the then-Titan Times’ seventh year, when the publication moved from a weekly to a twice-weekly schedule.

Hundreds of journalists have worked on the paper since the Jan. 4, 1960, inaugural edition. The now-named Daily Titan began publishing four times a week in 1969.

I’ve contributed a history of the campus’s first decade of student publications, including early newspapers, magazines and yearbooks, to the http://www.overbeck.com/ Web site maintained by retired communications law professor Wayne Overbeck.

I’m hoping other fourth-estate graduates will e-mail me additional information and corrections, so that I can fill in details for a few of the years that are a bit sketchy.