County : Parkland Dedication Issue Headed for Board

The Orange County Planning Commission decided Tuesday to ask the Board of Supervisors if it still wants to free some developers of their obligation to provide local parkland to the county.

More than a year ago, the supervisors voted to allow developers who had built more affordable housing than was required to exchange their excess “credits” for reductions in the amount of parkland they had to donate to the county when building new developments.

The Environmental Management Agency drew up two alternate plans to make the board decision law, but after objections by some environmental groups and homeowners’ associations, the Planning Commission decided to ask the supervisors if they feel the same about their decision, made 13 months ago.

Philip Bettencourt, a vice president of Gfeller Development Co. of Tustin, told the commission that he agreed that the 1984 “board mandate here, if it isn’t cold, is certainly cool.”

Gfeller is one of the major holders of excess credits, having built far more housing for low- and moderate-income residents than the county required under its mandatory affordable-housing program, which is now being phased out.

“We need to know what the board’s action would be today,” said Bettencourt, who also spoke on behalf of the Building Industry Assn. of Orange County. Bettencourt was a key architect of the proposal to let holders of excess credits swap them for lowered land donations.

Developers of new housing in unincorporated areas of the county are required to set aside 2.5 acres of land for local parks for every 1,000 residents in the new development, or pay fees equivalent to the cost of 2.5 acres.