Expanding
city’s redevelopment would be no joke
Jim Drummond Political Perspectives
Yorba Linda Star -March 31, 2005 -
Viewpoints Section
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Excerpts:
Although the City Council is focused on redevelopment plans
for Yorba Linda’s 344-acre downtown section, many other
areas would seem ripe for attention by the elected officials.
The city’s northern, eastern and southern sections could benefit from the
same type of high-density projects proposed for the city’s historic central
core and west-end areas.
The council created a Redevelopment Agency in 1983 to develop
the then-vacant Savi Ranch area into an economic powerhouse,
which contributes new tax revenues to city coffers.
The downtown section was added in 1990 for what most residents
thought would be a long-needed refurbishment of the sleepy
area. Instead, the council’s
vision has grown to include a huge increase in retail space, new parking structures
and more high-density housing units.
The city says all this is possible because the Redevelopment
Agency has the ability to acquire private property from
one private owner, not for a traditional government purpose,
but for redevelopment by another private party – to eliminate
physical and economic blight.
And to ensure easy acquisition of the private land needed
for the project, the city adopted the authority eight years
ago to use or threaten to use eminent domain in the area.
While other city areas might not meet the state’s lenient definition of
physical blight, they can be considered economically blighted because redevelopment
would bring in many more tax dollars. New project areas could be brought under
the Redevelopment Agency authority, with the eminent domain provision extended
to those commercial and residential properties.
For example, the city could reconsider the Metrolink train
station in the southeast. Surrounding residents who successfully
opposed the facility before the 2004 election might become
what the city likes to call "willing sellers," allowing
officials to create a true transit-oriented urban village.
Also underutilized is the area around the city’s elite Black Gold Golf
Club. Some expensive condominiums, a few new high-end restaurants, pedestrian
pathways and a parking structure would create a lively day and nighttime entertainment
venue along the city’s northern tier.
And a proposal to build a dense, three-story, mixed-use commercial
and residential complex in place of the Yorba Station shopping
center could be expanded to the full length of Imperial
Highway, with the city creating a corridor of new shopping
and loft-living opportunities for Yorba Linda residents.
All these new project areas could target what the city’s developer-partner
Creative Housing Associates calls "creative-class homebuyers," such
as "artists, engineers, designers, architects and others," who would
enjoy living in one of the new pedestrian-friendly urban environments.
A FINAL NOTE – Since this is the eve of April Fool’s Day, readers
might laugh off the idea that the city’s current or future elected leaders
would alter Yorba Linda’s heritage in the ways described.
Not laughing, however, are many central and western residents
who put in much time and effort in the 1970s – during a period of rapid population growth
throughout northern Orange County – to carve out and preserve for future
generations Yorba Linda’s special low-density environment.
Jim Drummond
is a longtime Yorba Linda resident.
JIM DRUMMOND POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES
Yorba Linda Star - March 31, 2005
- Viewpoints Section
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