Santa Ana : Judge Refuses Ruling on Centerpointe Suit
A Superior Court judge denied requests by both sides that he decide a lawsuit filed by citizens’ groups attempting to prevent construction of the proposed $100-million Centerpointe downtown hotel-office complex.
Two groups, Citizens Property Rights Committee and the Alliance for Fair Redevelopment, filed the suit last October, arguing that the city’s investment--estimated by its opposition to be about $18.2 million--is excessive. The groups also claim that the project violates state redevelopment law.
The city filed a motion Wednesday, asking Judge Harmon Scoville to dismiss the suit. The citizens’ attorney, David Llewellyn Jr., filed a counter motion asking the judge to rule in their favor. Scoville denied both motions for summary judgment and gave both sides 30 days to decide whether to refile arguments or move for trial.
In making his decision, Scoville said higher courts have invariably overruled his summary judgments “if there’s any kind of a tryable issue.”
Llewellyn and City Atty. Edward Cooper briefly parried Wednesday on two of the citizens groups’ arguments--that city zoning does not permit a hotel on the 3.2-acre site southeast of Ross Street and Santa Ana Boulevard and that the developer, Milwaukee-based Carley Capital, should have been required to post a bond.
Cooper said that a city ordinance allowed the project to bypass the zoning restrictions and that a bond is not required on such a project.
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