Economic development, high school, signs

Here are some updates with added insights into topics from past columns:

--Many of my recent columns have focused on activities of the city Redevelopment Agency and plans to revitalize Town Center, key elements in efforts to enhance the municipal economy and increase the city’s share of sales and property tax revenues.

Now, council has added a regional aspect to encouraging economic development by joining with surrounding cities and other groups in a North Orange County Economic Development Partnership, an idea in the works for the past year but formalized Oct. 4.

The partnership will facilitate “planning, coordination and implementation of economic development projects” and “development of a strategic plan for economic development efforts of regional importance and common benefit,” according to a city staff report.

Included in the partnership are Brea, Buena Park, Fullerton, La Habra, Placentia and Yorba Linda. Also involved are the county, the county Workforce Investment Board, Fullerton’s Chamber of Commerce, Cal State Fullerton, Edison and the Gas Company.

Partnership parties agreed the accord “is not intended to be a contract, does not create any mutual obligations and the parties agree that there shall be no legal sanctions available for its enforcement or for any alleged breach.”

One of eight findings from focus group discussions with stakeholders conducted for the partnership by Cal State’s Social Science Research Center states: “Affordable housing for low-end wage-earners and young professionals [is] needed in North Orange County, both to keep workers close to home and to keep young people in the area.”

--My Oct. 6 column reported council’s decision to deny a request from Friends Christian High School to buy the city-owned, 32-acre Bastanchury Road site intended for a 1,200-student campus or to add an “option to purchase” to the lease signed in March 2003.

Now, the leader of a neighborhood group once opposed to using the land for a high school says it’s “time to move forward with alternative uses for the site and to assess a substantial lease termination fee…for wasting the last eight years of the public’s time.”

Ken Charlton of Yorba Linda Residents for Appropriate Land Use has urged council to require the school to “immediately” begin construction on promised joint-use facilities for completion within 12 months or adjust the lease payments to $2.5 million annually.

“Nearly nine years of waiting is enough, and the site could be put to various uses which could possibly include ball fields, cultural facilities, parks, etc. that could be enjoyed by everyone, not the few involved with this school project,” Charlton e-mailed the council.

Charlton agreed to conditions added to the school’s use permit in 2005 but now says, “It is obvious that the promises made by the school to build the joint-use facilities cannot be met, and it appears they are without adequate funds to move forward with the project,” a claim that’s been denied by school officials.

--Council’s August vote to approve a $1.6 million contract to renovate 16 Savi Ranch signs without funding from benefiting businesses has drawn some negative comments.

Now, at an Oct. 4 meeting, council rebuffed more signage without business funding.