Yorba Linda Star newspaper begins covering community events on front page 100 years ago

One hundred years ago the Yorba Linda Star newspaper began publishing accounts of local events from an office in the newly opened Halloway Building on Olinda Street, said to be the community's first two-story commercial structure.

The newspaper was started by A. V. Douglas, who began publishing the La Habra Star in 1916. Wanda Davis was the Yorba Linda newspaper's first employee in the edifice owned by Bert Halloway that also housed a garage and furniture store as first tenants.

Issues through 1919 apparently no longer exist, but microfilm starting with Vol. 3, No. 101, March 22, 1920, is held at the Yorba Linda, Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside libraries.

Here's a small sampling of topics from front pages that once carried the banner “Covering Yorba Linda – Atwood – Yorba – Olinda – Santa Ana Canyon Districts – East Coyote Hills – and Richfield-Yorba Linda Oil Fields”:

--Boy Scout Troop 99, organized as Troop 1 in 1916, has often been on the front pages: recounting a Thanksgiving hike in 1924, hosting a benefit show raising $40 in 1928 and preparing for the historic scout Jamboree at Irvine Ranch in 1953.

Also often on front pages were 4-H club members: winning a silver cup, athletic events and baseball games at Junior Aggie Day at the county fairgrounds in 1928, taking first places at the Los Angeles and Orange County fairs in 1930 and a best-in-history club record in 1941.

Of course, the 105-year-old Yorba Linda Women's Club always has been a front page staple: buying a building site in 1921, holding the first meeting in the clubhouse in 1922, deeding the building to the city for a community center in 1975 and the structure destroyed by fire in 1976.

--Native son Richard Nixon might have the most front-page articles over the years, including the formation of the nation's first Nixon for President club with a $1 membership fee and Mrs. Hoyt Corbit as president in 1959.

One of Nixon's first visits as an elected official – a Congressman representing Whittier – was in 1948, when his speech topic at the Women's Club building, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce with a meal by a Friends Church women's group, was communist spy techniques.

The Star followed Nixon's career by noting vote totals received from Yorba Linda residents in his campaigns: 504 out of 596 for senator in 1950; 632 out of 808 for vice president in 1952; 1,209 out of 1,683 for president in 1960; 1,109 out of 1,448 for governor in 1962; 3,118 out of 3,903 for president in 1968; and 5,827 out of 7,595 for president in 1972.

An “impeach Nixon” rally with speeches and folk music at Chamber of Commerce-maintained Nixon Park at Imperial Highway and Yorba Linda Boulevard drew 200 people in 1973, with the Richard Nixon School PTA selling hot soup to raise cash for audio-visual equipment.

First mention of Nixon in the Star was in 1929, when the 16-year-old won “first honors” in a Whittier High School oratorical contest.

Yjorba Linda adopts ordinances regulating drone aircraft, banning adult businesses in Savi Ranch

Two new city ordinances – one establishing local regulations for drone aircraft and the other prohibiting adult businesses in Savi Ranch – take effect early next month after approvals by Yorba Linda's City Council.

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems ordinance regulates the devices commonly called drones on the basis of land use issues, which are considered regulatory rights of states and cities, since the Federal Aviation Administration is the only agency allowed to regulate navigable airspace.

Community-based safety requirements and restrictions that do not preempt federal aviation rules or authority are needed to protect the public from hazards associated with drones, city planner Nate Farnsworth stated in a recent report to the council.

The new ordinance regulates drone usage “primarily related to the potential takeoff and landing near special events and emergency responses,” Farnsworth noted in his report.

Drone takeoffs and landings are banned outside of an operator's (or observer in contact with an operator) visual line of sight; within 25 feet of another individual, excepting the operator or operator's designee; and on private property without the consent of the property owner.

Also prohibited are takeoffs and landings within 500 feet of a special event or emergency response without a city-issued temporary use permit, a device with any type of weapon attached to it and any violation of an FFA temporary flight restriction or notice to airmen.

The ordinance is based on a model that was developed by the Association of California Cities – Orange County, with input from the county Sheriff's Department and Fire Authority, the city's Parks and Recreation Department and representatives from local sports leagues.

The new ordinance banning adult businesses from locating in Savi Ranch makes permanent the moratoriums the council placed on the businesses in two interim urgency ordinances that were approved in May and June.

The urgency ordinances were adopted in response to concerns that an adult business might seek to lease the former TGI Friday's site on Eastpark Drive that closed in March. The site is about 200 feet away from the 69-unit Oakcrest Terrace apartment complex.

Also in the area is the 54-unit Oakcrest Heights apartment complex. The developments allowed higher densities to meet requirements under the city's state-mandated 2008-14 housing plan.

A 2004 adult business ordinance allowed the establishments in the Savi Ranch planned development and in M-1 (light industrial) zones but did not include a separation distance requirement from residential uses, noted a report to the council by planning intern Ashanti Mason-Warren.

Originally, residential uses were not planned in Savi Ranch, and residential uses near eligible areas in the M-1 zone were largely separated by significant grade differences along La Palma Avenue on the city's southern boundary, according to the report. 

Sales tax sharing agreement draws Maserati, Alfa Romeo dealership to Yorba Linda's Savi Ranch

A sales tax sharing agreement with a planned Maserati and Alfa Romeo dealership in Savi Ranch and a letter of support for an Amazon headquarters in Orange County have earned approval from Yorba Linda's City Council members.

The tax sharing agreement with J Star Auto Group is designed to assist the company with capital improvement costs associated with building a new permanent dealership facility at

the site of the former Olive Garden restaurant on Oakcrest Circle in Savi Ranch.

The city would rebate 45 percent of the city's one percent share of the dealership's sales tax collections for 20 years, up to the amount of improvement costs, which the city estimates will be $2.7 million.

Projected sales tax revenue to the city during the subsidy period is $3.3 million, with $300,000 estimated in each future year. The dealership will hire 40 full-time employees. This year's total sales tax revenue from all sources in the city is expected to be $7.3 million.

The city “has found that it will benefit the city to induce J Star Auto Group Inc. to open and operate a dealership by enhancing local employment and expanding the tax base of the city,” officials noted before a required public hearing. (Nobody from the public spoke at the hearing.)

J Star bought the Olive Garden site in 2014 and has been discussing the possibility of a tax sharing agreement with the city for three years. The agreement becomes effective when the dealership opens, expected by Jan. 1, 2019.

A report to the council noted, “the city's share of sales tax will be a significant increase in revenue over that generated by the previous business occupied on the property.”

Among terms of the 29-page agreement: The city has the right to audit the calculation of sales tax, and should the dealership close for a continuous period of one year or more, J Star's right to receive payments is permanently terminated.

Currently, J Star sells Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiats from a facility on East Crystal Drive in the Anaheim portion of Savi Ranch.

The council also has voted to send a letter of support for Amazon's proposed second headquarters to be located in Orange County, an estimated $5 billion project that has drawn interest from dozens of cities and counties nationwide.

Lucy Dunn, president and chief executive officer for the Orange County Business Council, requested Yorba Linda send a letter supporting a proposal to locate a new facility in Irvine, but the council instead indicated backing for the project anywhere in Orange County.

However, most council members noted it was unlikely any Orange County city would be up for serious consideration due to workforce costs, inadequate employee housing and other issues, such as traffic.

A headquarters facility would not include just warehouse workers, but would involve a cross-section of jobs, which the business council said could be up to 50,000 high-paying positions.

50 years ago: Yorba Linda residents chart own course as City Council meets twice in four days

Spirits were high 50 years ago this week as Yorba Linda residents eagerly entered a new era in which they would control their destiny as the county's 25^th city – with locally elected leaders making the decisions formerly reserved for politicians and bureaucrats in Santa Ana offices.

The fledgling city's newly elected governing body met twice within four days: on Nov. 2, 1967, to organize the first City Council and then on Nov. 6, 1967, for the first regular council session.

Here's a look at some of the council's early decisions:

--A longstanding tradition of rotating the mayorship among members began, with the following serving six-month mayor terms in order of electoral vote totals: Roland Bigonger, 1,049 votes; Whit Cromwell, 1,029; Bill Ross, 872; Burt Brooks, 838; and Herb Warren, 811.

A few succeeding councils ignored the tradition due to various political and personal feuds, but just one past council member never served at least one term as mayor. All five council seats were on the 1970 ballot, with Brooks, Ross and Warren defeated for re-election.

–Hired as first employees were William Probert, acting city administrator; Irene McCarter, city clerk; Jim Erickson, city attorney; Len Hampel, assistant city attorney; Alex Bowie and Homer McCormick, deputy city attorneys; John Toups, city engineer; and Bill Knitz, his assistant.

Another longstanding tradition of an invocation at each council meeting was initiated by Rev. Joseph Guthrie of the First Baptist Church at the first meeting, and longtime resident Hurless Barton was named to the unpaid city treasurer post at the second meeting.

--Among ordinances adopted at the first meeting: county laws applicable to Yorba Linda remain in force for 120 days or until replaced by city ordinances, council named as city's planning agency until a commission is appointed and building permits temporarily halted.

The first resolutions named the employees, set times for planning agency sessions at 7 p.m. first and third Mondays before the 8 p.m. council meetings at the Richard Nixon School and named the county sheriff as city police chief.

--First inquiry for annexation came at the first meeting for a west-side area that was in the proposed boundaries but eliminated by county supervisors to prevent a delay in incorporation. The request by 192 people was approved at the second meeting, and many other annexation requests were heard at the second and third meetings.

--First “no” vote was cast by Bill Ross at the third meeting on Nov. 20, also the first session to last past midnight (until 1:10 a.m.). Ross opposed the city's 14^th ordinance establishing a five-member Planning Commission. He wanted seven members.

--Other firsts: lease a Main Street building for a City Hall at $100 monthly, accept federal and state flags for City Hall display from the Rotary Club and denote November 1967 Community Development Month, requested by the Jaycees