Gravel Pit Neighbors Expected Park, but Not an Industrial One

Meridith Beeson bought her condominium on the Santa Ana River 13 years ago, enticed by visions of a park and a lake in place of the 137-acre gravel pit across the river. She even paid $1,000--on top of the $32,900--for a soon-to-be lake view.

Instead, Beeson’s Anaheim property someday might overlook an industrial park under a plan before the Orange City Council to annex the gravel pit site and create a commercial and industrial area.

“When I originally moved in, I thought this would be a nice community to live in, with boats on the lake and a park,” Beeson said. “As the years progressed, we had nothing (except) a view across the river’s flood control area to the dirt.”

This week at a neighborhood meeting, about 200 people signed a petition opposing the rezoning and calling for some government agency to buy the land and create a park.

In 1950, R.J. Noble Co., a family-run Orange County contractor, began excavating sand and gravel from the site, between Glassell Street and Lincoln Avenue. The area is in county territory but wedged between Anaheim and Orange.

About 20 years later, the county proposed to buy the property from R.J. Noble and eventually to create a regional park. But because of budget cuts and the expense of filling the pits, the county dropped the idea in 1979, said Grace Secketa, a planner for the county’s Environmental Management Agency.

Then this year, the City of Orange, hoping to get extra tax money from the land, approached Noble about annexation, and the company agreed--if the city would rezone the land.

“For long-range planning, we feel (commercial and industrial) land uses are best for the property from an economic standpoint,” Paul Cleary Jr., president of Noble, told residents at this week’s meeting. Cleary said the company will be mining the pit for 15 years and filling it for another five, so development would be years away.

Orange City Planner Jim Reichert said that because of the site’s proximity to freeways, planners think a high-quality office park would be most appropriate and “would provide the tax base needed for the city.”

But residents say they never knew that the county had dropped the park from its master plan. Resident Dottie Hudecek, chairwoman of the new 137-Acre Committee, said her family and neighbors always had thought the land would become a park. In fact, the gravel pit already is labeled on some maps as Five Coves Regional Park.

“Now we’re finding the only park we’re getting is an industrial park,” said Hudecek, who has spent the last two weeks posting notices and calling neighbors and officials about the proposed zone change.

Dennis Steinwand lives in a single-family home on Riverview Avenue and can see the gravel pit from his street. Before he bought the house, he said, he looked at the area on a map and found that the gravel pit was destined to be a park. “I bought the house thinking what a nice thing it would be to walk down to a park.”

Steinwand, who has been going door-to-door telling his neighbors about the proposed change, said homeowners are most worried about potential traffic.

In fact, Reichert said, Glassell Street and Lincoln Avenue might have to be widened to six lanes. The city’s rezoning plan already calls for a new four-lane road between Batavia Street and Riverdale Avenue along the southeast levy of the river, said Gary Johnson, city engineer.

Resident Jerry Klim said he could be faced with four lanes of traffic on one side, six lanes on the other and the river in back, making him and his neighbors “prisoners” in their complex.

The Local Agency Formation Commission, which must approve annexations, has agreed to Orange’s plan. Because the 137 acres is a pocket of county territory in Orange’s “sphere of influence,” the annexation doesn’t need county approval.

In August, when the plan went before the Orange City Council, residents asked for a 60-day extension, claiming that they hadn’t been notified. City planners said they had published a notice in the newspaper and notified residents within 300 feet of the site, as required by state law. But because of the distance between the edge of the pits and the houses, few received notices.

The council agreed to postpone a vote until Oct. 27.

City Council member Don Smith said he’s waiting until then to decide. Although it would be “logical” for the city to annex the area, it does not have the money to build a 97-acre park, he said.

Residents in the six or seven neighborhoods surrounding the gravel pits are determined to fight the change and still are hoping for the park.

“I stayed around for the lake (for 13 years),” said Beeson. “I’m going to live here until it comes.”