The Orange County nonprofit, OCCORD, sued the cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove on behalf of the Rise Up Willowick Coalition. The cities are considering 12 proposals submitted to redevelop the land when the golf course lease ends next year. The lawsuit alleges the cities violated the state’s Surplus Land Act, which calls for public land to be prioritized for affordable housing and open space uses, such as public parks.
The non-profit Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD) filed a lawsuit against the cities of Garden Grove, Calif. and Santa Ana, Calif. seeking to stop the sale of a large open parcel of land where residents want to see parks, community centers and affordable housing, The Orange County Register reported. The suit was filed in Orange County Superior Court October 7.
Garden Grove owns the 102-acre Willowick Golf Course, which sits across its border in Santa Ana, The Register reported. The cities are considering 12 proposals recently submitted to redevelop the land when the golf course lease ends next year. Neither city has made the proposals available to the public.
Earlier this year, Garden Grove and Santa Ana provided three “vision concepts” as guidelines to create one of these: a new stadium, which would eat up half the land, a “district” with a large corporate tenant and a cultural or educational center, or either a tech or agriculture-focused campus with possibly “creative and flexible office spaces” surrounded by small so-called “pocket” parks, The Register reported.
On their websites, officials from both cities wrote that they came up with the plans after seeking public input and organizing community workshops, The Register reported. But local residents, backed by community organizations, said there has been a lack of transparency and communication.
“I live one block away and the first I heard of it was when an OCCORD member knocked on my door,” said Robert Escandon, a Santa Ana native who joined the recently created Rise Up Willowick Coalition, a group of residents and community groups looking to ensure that any development on the golf course be community-centered and not a means to gentrify the area, The Register reported.
Byron Lopez, whose family rents in the nearby Santa Anita neighborhood, told The Register that Rise Up Willowick members surveyed almost 325 homes surrounding the golf course and found that “the vast majority had no idea of what was being planned for our community.”
“This is unacceptable for such a large plot of land whose development could have damaging results for our community. This is public land and the public should have a direct say in its development,” Lopez said.
With the Willowick Golf Course as a dropback, Escandon and Lopez were joined by other residents and attorneys at the adjacent Cesar Chavez Campesino Park, where they announced the lawsuit, The Register reported.
The lawsuit alleges Garden Grove and Santa Ana violated the state’s Surplus Land Act, which calls for public land to be prioritized for affordable housing and open space uses, such as public parks, The Register reported. Garden Grove officials said that the Surplus Land Act does not apply to the commercial golf course, which the city bought in 1964, “because the land is not surplus, it has never been surplus, nor ever held as surplus by the city of Garden Grove.”
“While the City of Garden Grove has received various proposals, its staff is still in the process of reviewing the proposals and no decision has been made,” Garden Grove spokeswoman Ana Pulido wrote in an e-mail.
“At the same time, the City of Garden Grove is aware of the passage by the State Legislature last month of AB 1486, which amends the Surplus Land Act to require public agencies to first declare land surplus prior to disposing of any property after January 1, 2020. While the City of Garden Grove is still reviewing whether it would apply to commercial property owned by Garden Grove outside its jurisdictional boundaries, the City would likely comply with its requirement,” Pulido wrote.
AB 1486, which awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature, amends the state law to expands a local agency’s requirements in an effort to create more affordable housing, The Register reported. Meanwhile, officials in Santa Ana said their city is not obligated to comply with the law because the city doesn’t own the Willowick property, according to the lawsuit.
Santa Ana city manager Kristine Ridge told The Register she could not comment because she had not yet seen the lawsuit.
The lawsuit asks the court to order that the cities rescind their requests for development proposals and halt any other actions to sell the properties, until they both comply with the state law and offer the land first for open space use or to affordable housing developers, The Register reported.
“Only if nobody wants to buy it for a park or affordable housing, can the city sell it for a profit,” said attorney Brian Olney, of the Pasadena-based Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai law firm.
In Santa Ana, 64 percent of households are considered “rent-burdened,” paying more than 30 percent of household income on rent, the lawsuit notes. In Garden Grove, more than 30 percent of households are in the same situation, The Register reported.
Meanwhile, both cities are considered “park poor” under state standards, The Register reported. In Garden Grove, 1 percent of city land is used for parks and recreation, and in Santa Ana, it’s 4 percenbt, according to the lawsuit.
“They have a dire shortage of parks,” Olney said. “And this is among the last open parcels of its kind being offered for sale. It’s outrageous.”
The 68-page “Envision Willowick” report and other information can be found on the websites of both cities, under “visioning document.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.