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.