OCTA to pursue eminent domain for 3 local properties for 405 Freeway expansion

The Orange County Transportation Authority board voted unanimously Monday to pursue eminent domain to acquire parts of two properties in Huntington Beach and one in Fountain Valley for its 405 Freeway expansion project.

Eminent domain is the power of a governing body to take private property for public use for “just” compensation to the owner.

In Huntington Beach, OCTA officials say they need part of the Sendero apartment complex property near the southbound 405’s Magnolia Street exit and a piece of a medical office property near the Bella Terra shopping center.

In Fountain Valley, the agency wants land in an industrial parcel near a Jerome’s Furniture store.

The properties are being affected by OCTA’s $1.9-billion effort to improve the 405 between the 73 Freeway in Costa Mesa and the 605 Freeway near Rossmoor.

When the project is completed in 2023, officials say, both directions of the 405 within that stretch will have an additional general-purpose lane, along with a new “express” toll lane. The existing carpool lane in both directions will be converted to an express lane.

Officials have scheduled a project groundbreaking ceremony for Friday in Costa Mesa.

At the 152-unit Sendero complex at 8955 Riverbend Drive, OCTA is looking to expand the Magnolia Street offramp, which will require access to a grassy strip on the property’s eastern edge, bordering Magnolia, officials say. OCTA is looking to build a retaining wall there, rebuild the sidewalk and make room to widen the street.

The agency said the project will not remove any apartments or parking.

OCTA said it has been in contact with the complex’s ownership since early last year. In the fall, Sendero sent OCTA an objection letter, saying the project would hurt the complex’s chances of keeping tenants and renting out apartments.

Alisha Ortiz, an attorney representing Sendero, told the board Monday that the project would have “enormous” impacts on the property.

Regarding the medical office property at 7677 Center Ave., OCTA is looking to obtain a temporary construction easement so it can build a retaining wall. The project would affect two parking stalls, officials said.

At the Jerome’s site at 18370 Pacific St., OCTA is looking to widen the southbound Euclid Street offramp and build a retaining wall. It would affect landscaping on the property.

In all, the 405 project is impacting 305 properties along its roughly 15-mile stretch, according to OCTA.

“It’s important to point out that all of the necessary property to construct the project was planned as partial acquisitions, and many of them are only temporary during construction of the project,” agency spokesman Eric Carpenter said in an email Monday. “This is a $1.9-billion project, which will be the largest freeway construction project in the state, and OCTA has worked closely with the cities along this stretch of the freeway to make these improvements, as much as possible, within the existing right of way.

“For a project of this size and scope, it’s pretty remarkable that we’ve been able to design it in such a way that no homes or businesses were planned to be fully acquired to move forward with the freeway improvements.”

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint

UPDATES:

5:35 p.m.: This article was updated to remove the time and place of the groundbreaking ceremony because it is not open to the public.

This article was originally published at 5:20 p.m.