Fountain Valley Business Park Is a Step Closer

A lone tractor rumbled across the barren, dusty landscape Wednesday toward a patch of scraggly strawberry plants poking through the only watered ground on the lot. Its driver indicated that he was too busy to talk.

A plywood stand on Talbert Avenue across from the fields advertised “Fresh Strawberries,” but on Wednesday there was nothing to sell.

Strawberry fields may not be forever.

On Sept. 1, the Fountain Valley City Council will decide whether to replace the Sakioka Farms land at Talbert Avenue and Euclid Street with the largest business development ever proposed in the city. Two weeks ago, the council unanimously approved the zoning changes for the proposed 140-acre Southpark office and retail center.

Opposition Unwavering

Fierce resident opposition could force some minor alterations to the plan, City Manager Judy Kelsey said Wednesday. And while Kelsey said she did not want to predict the council’s future actions, she conceded that, after council members approved the zoning changes and the environmental impact report for the complex late Tuesday night, they are not likely to turn back on the plan now.

Steven Schwarz, a resident and one of about 100 members of Citizens for Maintaining the Quality of Life in Fountain Valley’s Environment, vowed Wednesday to continue monitoring the project in its phased, 10-to-15-year construction, and to shape it to residents’ wishes.

“It’s not at all over yet,” Schwarz said. “It has really only begun.”

Kelsey predicted that the complex will generate $1.5 million to $2 million in sales-tax revenue each year and cost the city no more than $500,000 in services, such as fire and police protection. In the 21 years that Price Club, the complex’s main tenant, will be under contract with the city, Southpark should produce $25 million in additional property taxes, she said.

“We need this project very much,” Kelsey said Wednesday. Without it, she said the city must begin to reduce services within the next decade because of budget constraints and a shrinking retail community.

The project also ultimately would provide about 14,000 new jobs, Kelsey said.

But most of the 130 residents who packed the council chambers Tuesday night to protest Southpark argued that while the city may need the money, the council could get a better package.

‘Make the Best Deal’

“If you’re going to do it (approve Southpark), make the best deal you can,” Jack Beauchamp urged, “because if you don’t, we’ll lose our shirt.”

The owners of the Sakioka Farms strawberry patch are selling their 2.38-million square feet of land for $12.50 a square foot to the Price Club. But the city plans to return to the company 50 cents on every dollar in sales tax it receives for 21 years, or until the company recoups about half the price of the land, whichever comes first, Kelsey said.

That deal, the city contends, is the only way to attract the discount retail store to Fountain Valley. In all, the city could actually end up giving the Price Club up to $14 million.

That, said Joel Rosen, a member of the Green Valley Homeowners’ Assn., is unacceptable.

He also told the council that he is sure other developers would pay more money for the site and develop it quicker.

Another resident, Woody Young, said that taking tax money from Fountain Valley residents and giving it to private enterprise is immoral. Kelsey said Wednesday that the money refunded to Price Club would come out of the city’s redevelopment fund and that all sales taxes would go directly into the city’s general fund.

The redevelopment fund, she said, can be used only for development purposes, such as the current proposal.

The site is bounded by Slater Avenue on the north, Talbert Avenue on the south, the Santa Ana River on the east and Euclid Street on the west.

Talbert and Euclid would be widened to add turning lanes; 11 of 14 traffic signals in the area would be adjusted to handle more traffic.

Price Club Center

The first stage of the construction would be the Price Club commercial center, to be built by two San Diego firms, Price Co. and Kornwasser & Friedman, on the north side of Talbert Avenue. The center would include a 150,000-square-foot anchor store and 132,000 square feet of other retail space.

A Price Club outlet on West MacArthur Boulevard in Santa Ana, just blocks away from the proposed site, would be closed when the Fountain Valley store opened.

Fountain Valley Associates, a local development firm, plans to handle the rest of the project, building retail stores and offices. In response to resident warnings that the retail and office space not used by Price Club could remain vacant, Kelsey said she was confident it would fill quickly.

Not all the residents at the Tuesday meeting opposed the project.

After resident Richard Wagner voiced opposition that “some things in life are more important than money,” such as a safe, residential environment, project supporter Bob Moss told the council: “We’ve been waiting 20 years for this development.

“Now’s the time to do it,” Moss said. “We’re not going to have a safe, quiet city without a police department and fire department to keep it that way.”