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Yorba Linda, take back your town
The Orange County Register - Monday, December 26, 2005
Editorial: A referendum to stop a city government redevelopment plan is worth supporting
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The city of Yorba Linda its foolishly pushing ahead one of the most anti-property-rights, anti-taxpayer projects conceivable in the form of a Town Center plan that will likely use eminent domain to drive small-business owners off their land and will provide special privileges to certain developers.
"This is about a gathering place for our community," proclaimed Councilman Ken Ryan, according to a Register report. "It's about walkable, inviting public spaces, a place where memories are created, not forgotten."
Unfortunately, the main memories that would be created if this plan is implemented would be the obliteration of property rights and the inevitable creation of an enormous amount of public debt in an effort to transform a quaint downtown area into a high-density urban core favored by planners. Yorba Linda residents ought to be concerned about what this will mean for the character of their city and about the misuse of tax dollars.
The council last week voted 3-1, with one member abstaining, to OK two zoning-change ordinances to allow this project to proceed. Regulations will go into effect in 30 days. No doubt, the city rushed ahead its approvals to circumvent an initiative by opponents scheduled for the June 6 ballot, which would require citywide voter approval for major projects such as this one.
If this project is approved, council members reason, it wouldn't be subject to an approved initiative.
That initiative is too broad, and we oppose it. But opponents of the Town Center are collecting signatures for a separate citywide referendum to overturn the two ordinances passed by the city last week. They are trying to gather 6,000 signatures by Jan. 19 for a potential summer 2006election, and readers ought to sign these petitions.
This is the right way to proceed, given that residents cannot directly throw out the redevelopment plan or the eminent-domain powers because those items were approved many years ago.
The project would create a new high-density housing zone to promote the construction of 501 homes as well as 560,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. We're not against developing new homes, apartments, stores and restaurants. But the city "is force-feeding higher densities that deny existing owners the appreciation of their properties," explains Chris Sutton, the Pasadena attorney who represents Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment, the activists opposed to the Town Center.
"The implementation of the Town Center depends upon the use of eminent domain [or the threat of it]against several businesses," said Mr. Sutton. "The government is getting in bed with this particular developer and doing everything it can to throw out the existing businesses and owners."
If developers, working in the free market, want to develop more attractions in the area without subsidies and eminent domain, that's fine. In Anaheim, the city is loosening zoning rules so that everyone benefits - current businesses can stay put, but developers have more latitude in building new things. Anaheim also is avoiding the trap of subsidies and interfering to the advantage of particular developers.
That's the right approach. Yorba Linda is taking the wrong approach. City officials are deciding to obliterate the quaint downtown in the name of a broader planning vision - one we suspect is not particularly popular throughout the city. Fortunately, concerned citizens are now taking the right approach to stop this travesty.
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