County to Do Jail Project EIR to Calm City’s Concerns

County officials, fearing a lawsuit from the City of Orange that would challenge a 1,016-bed expansion of the Theo Lacy branch jail, say they will seek an environmental impact report rather than just go ahead with the project.

The county had formally announced plans last week to add 1,016 beds to what is now a 721-bed minimum security jail in Orange.

But objections by city officials have forced the county to reconsider.

“Due to the opposition of the City of Orange to the proposed expansion and potential for litigation, preparation of (the environmental impact report) is recommended,” Michael M. Ruane, an official in the county Environmental Management Agency, said Thursday in a report to county supervisors.

Study to Cost $75,000

The supervisors are to consider Ruane’s suggestion Tuesday.

Ruane estimates that the report will cost $75,000 and would be done by a consultant picked by the supervisors. He said the report “will be processed under an accelerated schedule” and should be finished in October.

City officials, led by Mayor Jess F. Perez, complained that the county did not fully inform them of plans to add four buildings to the county complex that now includes the minimum-security branch jail, a juvenile detention center and an animal shelter.

Perez and City Council members also expressed concern that two sites near the city are among four possible locations for a new 5,000-bed county jail. That would mean the city and its environs could be sites for a disproportionate share of the county’s jails, they said.

Perez said city objections to the Lacy expansion might lessen if the two sites were ruled out. The supervisors are expected to pick a site for the 5,000-bed facility this summer. Delaying any final decision on the Lacy expansion until October, at the earliest, will let city officials see where the county decides to put the big jail.

Under Pressure

The county has been under pressure to find new jail beds since March, 1985, when a federal judge found the supervisors and Sheriff Brad Gates in contempt for not ending overcrowding in the main men’s jail in Santa Ana.

Besides the 5,000-bed jail at a site to be picked later, the supervisors last year also chose a county-owned parcel near Anaheim Stadium for a 1,500-inmate jail, setting off a storm of protest and a suit by Anaheim.

Although some county officials have said the Lacy expansion will cause plans for the Anaheim jail to be scrapped, the supervisors publicly have refused to link the two, saying plans for the Anaheim facility are on schedule.