Santa Ana and Anaheim Blast Jail Site Plans

Orange County supervisors, having narrowed the site for a new jail to four--or perhaps five--sites in Anaheim and Santa Ana, faced a firestorm of criticism Monday from officials in those cities.

The supervisors will meet this morning to consider the matter. The Anaheim and Santa Ana city councils met Monday to put on record their opposition to the jail sites.

Calling Disneyland the “hub of happiness,” Anaheim Mayor Don Roth was joined in opposition to the construction of a jail in that city by representatives of the amusement park, the California Angels, the Los Angeles Rams and major Anaheim hotels and developers. Angels spokesman A.E. (Red) Patterson said a jail in tourist-oriented Anaheim would keep away potential visitors who would associate the city with gun-toting men “roaming around here.”

Bob McTyre, an executive at Walt Disney Productions, which owns Disneyland, said a jail would be a “gross intrusion” to the fantasy land that Walt Disney intended some 30 years ago. “We cannot speak strongly enough,” McTyre said, to discourage a new jail at the county agriculture station at 1010 S. Harbor Blvd., north of Ball Road and next to Disneyland.

Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset said: “It’s important that we don’t come out supporting a jail in Anaheim. However, I don’t buy this ‘hub of happiness’ baloney.”

Under pressure from a federal court order to ease jail overcrowding immediately, the supervisors have been given a report narrowing the search for an interim jail site to four locations--two are in Anaheim, one near Disneyland and the other near Anaheim Stadium, and two are in Santa Ana, one near a high school scheduled to open in 1988. The jail would house 1,000 to 1,500 inmates and would help ease overcrowding for the short term. Eventually, the county will have to build a jail that can house 5,000 to 6,000 inmates.

The supervisors and county Sheriff Brad Gates have been held in contempt of court and fined for not complying with a 1978 court order to improve jail conditions.

The supervisors today are scheduled to designate a preferred site for the interim jail. That action will launch a period of examination that probably will last until late this year, as environmental and other studies are undertaken. The board will then make a final site selection.

On the eve of today’s meeting, there were several developments:

- Both the Anaheim and Santa Ana councils approved resolutions, for presentation to the supervisors today, opposing the jail sites.

- Four of the five Anaheim council members said after Monday’s meeting that they would vote to sue the county if it proceeds to place a jail in the city without conducting environmental studies.

- A fifth site was placed under consideration late Monday when, in a last-minute bid to keep a new jail out of Anaheim, Supervisor Ralph B. Clark requested a study of whether a location in north Santa Ana now used to house juvenile offenders could serve as a jail site.

- And Lawrence G. Grossman, the special master of the jail appointed by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray, said in his latest report that the population of the main men’s jail exceeded 1,500 on March 3 but was under the limit since then, “primarily due to the early release of about 269 inmates on March 6, 8 and 9, 1986.” The rated capacity of the jail is about 1,200.

The Anaheim council met in emergency session Monday; the Santa Ana council held its regularly scheduled meeting Monday afternoon to discuss two other sites the supervisors will consider today.

Officials from both cities said they were surprised by the choices and angry that the supervisors appeared to be moving quickly to a decision.

“It’s the biggest shocker of the year--and I mean a shocker,” said Roth, who learned only Friday that the two Anaheim sites were on the county’s final list.

“It came out of the blue,” said Jack Lindquist, executive vice president for marketing for Walt Disney Productions.

In addition to the South Harbor Boulevard site, the other Anaheim site under consideration is an old trash transfer station north of Anaheim Stadium, fronting Katella Avenue and backed by the Orange Freeway.

The two Santa Ana sites are McFadden and Grand avenues and Fruit Street near Grand Avenue. Last Friday night, during an emergency meeting, the Santa Ana school board agreed to make an offer for both pieces of land--sites that the school district is considering for new elementary schools.

All four properties are owned by the county.

The site mentioned Monday by Clark is a 9.4-acre parcel on North Hesperian Street in Santa Ana. More than half of it is taken up by the Youth Guidance Center, which is run by the county Probation Department.

The report given to the Board of Supervisors on Monday, listing four sites as suitable for a jail but clearly indicating a preference for a location near Anaheim Stadium, dismissed the Hesperian Street site because, with the youth center there, it “does not meet the size requirements” of seven acres or more.

“To make it fit the size we have to blow out the buildings that are now on the site,” said Rod Speer, an aide to Supervisor Harriett Wieder. “The question is how feasible that is.”

Speer said Wieder was “leaving things open” and waiting to hear Tuesday’s discussion at the board before deciding on a site. He said the County Administrative Office was compiling data on the Youth Guidance Center location as a result of Clark’s request Monday and expected to have the report ready before Tuesday’s meeting.

A county official, who declined to be identified, expressed doubt that the supervisors would approve the site, saying the 100 or so juvenile offenders kept in the center would have to be moved somewhere else before the buildings were knocked down and a jail built.

“The board indicated last week that speed was the top priority,” the official said.

Aides to supervisors raised the possibility that Clark might wind up on the short end of a 4-1 vote if he attempts to keep the jail out of Anaheim, which is in his district.

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, whose district includes Santa Ana, does not want the jail in his district. Aides said Stanton was likely to be supported by Supervisor Bruce Nestande.

Stanton, to buttress his “not in Santa Ana” argument, circulated material Monday showing that the Katella-Douglas complex had an estimated 52 children age 18 or under living within a half-mile of the site, compared to 711 for the Harbor Boulevard site, 2,151 for Fruit Street complex and 2,576 for the Grand-McFadden complex.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said it was “doubtful” that he would make a motion in favor of a specific site or second anyone else’s, raising the possibility that Clark will find no support for putting a jail outside Anaheim.

Some Anaheim officials said Monday that they could understand Santa Ana’s opposition to a jail but, as Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Irv Pickler put it, Santa Ana once fought to become the “county seat,” home to county, state and federal offices. “At one time, they decided that’s where county government and the County Jail would be,” Pickler said.

Anaheim officials said legal action was probable.

“Absolutely, no question about it,” Councilman Lew Overholt said of a legal recourse. “The city is not going to have a gun held to its head.”

Anaheim City Atty. Jack White said the county would be in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act if it does not conduct a full environmental review prior to designating a primary jail site.

Meanwhile, in Santa Ana, officials were not so quick to suggest that Anaheim was a better place than Santa Ana for a jail, although City Manager Robert C. Bobb said the “most desirable site” was the one off Katella Avenue.

Anaheim officials said a jail would be devastating to the city’s entertainment and hotel industry.

Last year, Anaheim had about 32.4 million visitors who brought in $4.52 billion to Orange County’s economy, said Bill Snyder, president of the Anaheim Visitor and Convention Bureau. Of the county’s approximately 35,000 hotel and motel rooms, about 16,000 are in Anaheim, he said.

“When (visitors) come here, they expect to see a good ballgame, a good football game, (stay in) a good hotel” and visit “an unbelievable place called Disneyland,” Roth said. “I don’t think they come here expecting to see a jail.”

“We all know that Disneyland is known as the hub of happiness,” Roth said. “Let’s not change it to the hub of despair.”

Times staff writer John Needham contributed to this report. JAIL SITE ANALYSIS

HARBOR GRAND- BLVD. McFADDEN COMPLEX COMPLEX CITY ANAHEIM SANTA ANA AVAILABLE WITHOUT FACILITY DESPLACEMENT YES YES DIRECT FREEWAY ACCESS YES NO LAND VALUE (plus relocation coast) $4.6 Mil. $3.9 Mil. POPULATION DENSITY ( 1/2 mile radius) 12.9 17.6 PEOPLE/ACRE PEOPLE/ACRE TOTAL POPULATION ( 1/2 mile radius) 5,297 8,853 RESIDANTS RESIDENTS SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION DIFICULTIES NONE NONE

KATELLA- FRUIT

DOUGLAS STREET

COMPLEX COMPLEX

CITY ANAHEIM SANTA ANA

AVAILABLE WITHOUT FACILITY DESPLACEMENT YES YES

DIRECT FREEWAY ACCESS YES YES

LAND VALUE (plus relocation coast) $6 Mil. $4.6 Mil.+

$4.6Mil.

($9.2 Mil. total) POPULATION DENSITY ( 1/2 mile radius) 2.5 10.6

PEOPLE/ACRE PEOPLE/ACRE

TOTAL POPULATION ( 1/2 mile radius) 1,264 6,495

RESIDENTS RESIDENTS

SPECIAL CONSTRUCTION DIFICULTIES NONE REQUIRES TWO

MONTHS

MORE CONSTRUCTION TIME THAN OTHER

THREE SITES