Wrap-up for June primary election in YL

I missed the mark in my March 22 column when I suggested two measures on the June ballot to allow higher densities on 11 specific properties to meet state-mandated low-cost housing requirements might boost this city’s normally tepid turnout for primary elections.

Ballots cast in this year’s presidential primary totaled just 33.37 percent of Yorba Linda’s 43,592 registered voters, below the 37.5 percent turnout in the 2010 non-presidential year

And of two primaries held in 2008, a February vote for hotly contested presidential races drew 56.4 percent of voters, but only 23.3 percent in the lack-luster regular June primary.

Here’s a rundown of races affecting this city’s electorate, with all ballots now counted:

--Although 14,547 Yorba Lindans cast ballots, about 600 didn’t vote on Measures H and I. The H vote to allow up to 30 units per acre on two Savi Ranch parcels was 8,477 “yes” and 5,474 “no,” a 60-40 split. The I vote to allow up to 10, 20 or 30 units per acre on nine west-side parcels was 7,400 “yes” and 6,464 “no,” about a 53-47 split.

H was approved in 46 of 48 precincts, tied in one and lost in a Savi Ranch precinct with five voters (in which only one cast a ballot). I won in 33 precincts and lost in 15 mostly west-side precincts. Precinct turnouts ranged from 23 to 45 percent.

--Turnout of the city’s 24,618 registered Republicans was 40 percent. Mitt Romney won 7,989 votes, Ron Paul 728, Rick Santorum 397 and Newt Gingrich 334. Democratic turnout was 33 percent of 9,390 registered with Barack Obama carrying 2,370 votes. (Low “declined to state” and minor party turnout account for the overall 33.37 rate.)

Country Club and Fairlynn county islands turnout is always a bit higher than that from within city limits. This year, 588 of 1,604 registered voters cast ballots, or 36.6 percent. The 401 GOP voters gave Romney 324 votes, and the 135 Democrats gave Obama 108.

--An historic high of five Yorba Linda residents will take seats on the 75-member county Republican Central Committee that guides partisan GOP affairs for the county’s 679,877 registered Republicans (at last count). The new terms begin in January.

Yorba Linda winners: Dennis White, 9,923 votes; Brett Barbre, 9,092; Brenda McCune, 8,913; Karla Downing, 8,868; and Peggy Hwang, 8,489. Top vote-getter for six positions representing the Orange County portion of the newly drawn 55th Assembly District was La Habra Mayor Tim Shaw with 10,669 votes.

Running just out of the money was longtime Yorba Linda pastor Jim Domen, who came in seventh with 7,561 votes. Others in the race: Desare Ferraro of Placentia (5,474 votes) and Connie Lanzisera (6,329) and Robert Lauten (1,914), both of Brea.

For many years, the only elected committee member from Yorba Linda was four-term City Councilman Mark Schwing, who served six two-year terms before losing in 2010.

--Again Yorba Lindans cast more mail-in than polling place ballots, with mail-ins totaling 9,101 versus 5,446 at the polls. County island count was 355 mail-in and 233 polling place. Mail-in and poll results were nearly identical.

State reviews city's redevelopment spending

I was one of only two audience members at a recent meeting of Yorba Linda’s newest government entity, as the seven-member body wrestled with finance issues associated with the state-mandated dismantling of the city’s 29-year-old Redevelopment Agency.

The freshly minted panel, named the Oversight Board of the Successor Agency to the Yorba Linda Redevelopment Agency, is contesting decisions by the state Department of Finance to reject some expenditures using former Redevelopment Agency tax funding.

Specifically, the state denied more than $26 million in planned expenses, consisting mostly of items connected to the City Council’s proposal to redevelop Town Center using the increased property taxes collected from the past redevelopment project areas.

Also rebuffed by the state were Savi Ranch signage expenses, administrative and salary expenditures and a contract for work on a state-required housing document.

Unless state officials reverse their rulings, the city would have to find other revenue sources to continue the designated projects. The Oversight Board voted 6-1 to send a modified “Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule” back to the state.

The document reaffirms the city’s position that two Savi Ranch sign contracts and a pact with Harris & Associates for Town Center engineering work are legitimate obligations incurred by the former Redevelopment Agency and should be paid by Agency funding.

But the city did agree to remove items associated with spending bond proceeds for Town Center development because “no documents exist to establish an enforceable obligation.”  The city had included these items as “a placeholder” for future spending, officials stated.

These agreed-upon placeholder removals accounted for $23.7 million of the previous $26.8 million denied by the state in a three-page letter to a city official dated May 18.

A little background: the state abolished redevelopment agencies as of Feb. 1, but allowed city councils to serve as successor agencies to wrap up redevelopment affairs. Successor agencies were to have actions reviewed by appointed oversight boards.

Yorba Linda’s oversight board includes Mayor Mark Schwing and the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Manager, Pam Stoker, appointed by the council, and Councilman Tom Lindsey, Kennith Peterson and Stephen Stowell, named by the county Board of Supervisors upon the council’s recommendation.

Others are Claudette Dain, named from the North Orange County Community College District, and the incoming Placentia-Yorba Linda school district superintendent, Doug Domene, appointed by the county Superintendent of Schools.

Obviously, the local oversight board is dominated by city-associated reps unlikely to not echo council concerns. However, real oversight is handled by the above-mentioned state Department of Finance.

Among items cut by the state were administrative, legal and salary costs claimed by the city for the 2012 calendar year. The city seeks $1,407,795 paid from redevelopment tax funds, while the state maintains only $638,631 will be allowed for such reimbursement.

Measures H, I wins: two projects planned

 Don’t expect a burst of building activity with the passage of Measures H and I--which will allow higher-density, multi-family low-cost housing units on specified properties in the city--but an affordable plan for one of the two Savi Ranch parcels is already in place.

And, surprisingly, a concept is being developed for one of the high-profile west-end sites for homes that might sell in the $700,000 range, according to the owners of some parcels that make up 5.9 acres south across Yorba Linda Boulevard from the Nixon Library.

First, let’s look at the latter proposal, which might ease the minds of residents worried about an infusion of densely packed, low-cost units on 12 west-side “infill” properties.

For years the location has been labeled the “Nixon Archive” property because a building to house Nixon papers was once suggested for the site, but John Hansen, a family rep for one of the four parcels included in the acreage, told me he never was contacted about such a plan.

Hansen said three of the property owners have been working with a developer to build 37 or 38 single-family “market rate” homes on the land, less than the 59 units allowed under Measure I, for a total of six or seven units-per-acre instead of the maximum 10 per-acre.

Building fewer than the maximum number of units won’t result in a state call for added high-density zoning elsewhere, stated Pam Stoker, housing and redevelopment manager.

She told me at a city-sponsored informational meeting on H and I that what counts for state purposes is the council-approved zoning, not the number of units eventually built.

Hansen said he and another owner, Jim Burke, descendent of a pioneering Yorba Linda family, financed a modest pro-H and I campaign because they needed I to pass to allow them to build six to seven units-per-acre over the previously zoned two units-per-acre.

Second, at Savi Ranch, the City Council on May 15 approved a 69-unit project on 3.2 acres, once home to Mitsubishi Motors (1995-2005) and Classic Chevrolet used cars (2005-07) that was contingent on Measure H winning. Also approved was a 43-unit plan in case H was defeated.

Square-footage, 676 for one bedroom, 811 for two bedroom and 1,056 for three bedroom, is less than a code-required 900, 1,000 and 1,200. An estimated 219 individuals would be housed in 8 extremely low-income, 25 very low-income and 35 low-income units

A Final Note: So far, “trigger” clauses on two major city contracts--the police and trash hauling agreements--have been exercised by the council, although a possible bid process for trash collection wouldn’t come until closer to the end of that pact in 2029.

A third major contract--for management of the Black Gold Golf Club--expires June 30, 2015. Originally, the agreement with Kempler Sports Management was to end in 2011, but the pact was extended four years in exchange for reduced management fees in 2009.

Considering council’s desire to find well-qualified, lower-cost service providers, expect a bid procedure for Black Gold golf operations to be discussed inside the next two years.

Landscape cost impacts general fund budget

The cost of amenities long-enjoyed by Yorba Linda residents and visitors--attractively landscaped roadways, medians and slopes--again will impact the municipal budget, as City Council members work on a 2012-13 fiscal year spending plan.

Official figures won’t be available until after June 30, but the general fund contribution to citywide landscape maintenance, street lighting and traffic signal operation was estimated at $778,640 for the 2011-12 fiscal year, when the last budget was approved.

That’s in addition to a bit more than $6 million raised from assessments levied with the annual property tax rolls to pay expenses involving landscaping and lighting on major roadways, six local landscape zones, local street lighting and three traffic signal zones.

Expenses for the current year are expected to be $7.6 million, funded by the assessments collected with property taxes, the city’s general fund contribution, a transfer of $258,417 from reserves banked by two local landscape zones and $571,171 in other taxes.

Plus, one large homeowner association is contesting the assessments property owners have paid since 1980, according to Judy Murray, president of the Rancho Dominguez Community Association, who pegged total overpayments at $2 million.

Murray said the 218 properties in the single-family home development now pay about $185,000 each year in homeowner dues to maintain landscaping on slopes adjacent to Yorba Linda Boulevard, Yorba Ranch and Dominguez Ranch roads and Trailside Drive.

She noted “virtually all” of the $2 million paid into the city’s landscape assessment district has been for services not received, since her association “maintains the city-owned rights-of-way that are maintained for others through the [city-run district].”

“An HOA providing all of these services for themselves with HOA dues, should not be thrown into a benefit zone to subsidize the benefits for other properties,” Murray stated.

Her area’s landscape zone, L-2, contains 6,795 single-family residences, a multi-family parcel with 124 units, 21 commercial parcels, three schools and about 200 acres of park and rural land.

An engineer’s report scheduled for presentation at a June 19 council session might more equitably apportion costs if, as some officials suggest, L-2 is divided into 14 benefit zones, but a refund of past assessments could involve legal action. The association’s attorney is John Gullixson, a former three-term councilman.

Citywide, the owners of 21,347 single-family homes paid $49.60 for landscape and $1.31 for lighting on major roadways this year, and owners of 17,183 single-family homes paid $16.95 for local lighting. The city has 5,665 street lights.

The 63 signalized intersections are split into three zones: owners of 2,892 eastside single-family homes paid $2.98; owners of 18,455 western and central single-family homes paid $5.88; and owners of 62 Savi Ranch parcels paid a total $3,333.

Owners of 13,753 single-family homes in five landscape zones, mostly eastern, central and Vista Del Verde, paid from $82.55 to $449.73. The Savi Ranch parcels paid a total $19,984.