Board OKs Option of Eminent Domain for Santa Ana Sites

Faced with overcrowded schools and virtually no vacant land for new buildings, Santa Ana Unified School District trustees voted Tuesday night to take properties through eminent-domain proceedings, if necessary, to get residential and commercial property in central Santa Ana.

The district wants to buy 78 parcels of land in the central city that would form sites for three new schools. The new schools would open in 1990.

A standing-room-only crowd of property owners protested the school board’s 4-0 vote. Most property owners who testified said they owned multi-unit rental housing and criticized the prices being offered by the school district as too low.

“I found the offers we received as personally insulting,” said Edward Slack, who identified himself as a real estate broker from Tustin.

However, few tenants of the rental properties turned out to protest the planned land acquisitions.

Government agencies, such as a school board, have the right--under state eminent-domain laws--to buy private property at an appraised price, even if the owner does not wish to sell.

Santa Ana Unified, the largest school district in the county with about 38,500 students, has had severely overcrowded schools for the past 10 years, school officials said Tuesday night.

They said that the district must build one new high school and 11 new elementary schools in the next five years and that the state has already budgeted money for the three proposed elementary schools in central Santa Ana.

The problem for the district has been getting enough property owners to agree to sell to meet the minimum standard of 10 acres recommended by the state Department of Education for a new elementary school. Santa Ana Unified is proposing that none of the three central campuses be larger than 6 acres because of difficulties in buying property in highly developed central Santa Ana.

School board President Robert Richardson told angry property owners that eminent domain would be used only if talks fail.

‘Formalizes the Intent’

“This vote tonight only formalizes the intent,” Richardson said. “It does not mean we will stop conferring with the property owners. This is something we do not address lightly.”

Many property owners who protested to the school board on Tuesday night noted the rapidly rising value of property in the county.

“Property values in Orange County have been increasing on a monthly basis,” said Jerry Elliott of Santa Ana, one of the owners.

He said that, therefore, the district’s appraisals, made three months ago, are no longer current.

He also protested that eminent domain gives property owners “less civil rights than street urchins.”

By state law, however, the district can offer a landowner only the highest of two appraisals, Assistant Supt. Anthony J. Dalessi said. This prohibits the district from bargaining upward for the land.

Dalessi conceded in an interview that the county’s inflated land prices in recent months have worsened the district’s problems. “We had our last appraisal three months ago,” he said. “But when we made an offer to some landowners, they said, ‘Well that (appraisal) was months ago.’

“The current situation (with costly land and housing sales) hasn’t helped our situation,” he said.

Sites Proposed by District

The three proposed elementary schools and their sites are:

- Heninger Elementary, at 417 W. Walnut Ave. on 5.62 acres.

- Garfield Elementary, on 4.99 acres in the vicinity of Lacy and 4th streets.

- George Washington Carver Elementary, on the northeast corner of Santa Ana Boulevard and Pacific Avenue.

According to Dalessi, existing schools in the central Santa Ana area are especially overcrowded: “Most of the existing schools are on year-round schedules already to relieve overcrowding. And we have loaded up the school grounds with portable classrooms.”

Dalessi said Santa Ana Unified must start building the proposed elementaries “as soon as possible, but certainly no later than June, 1989.” He said the district wants to open the schools by fall of 1990.

Dalessi said the district has tried to avoid eminent domain in assembling land for the 12 new elementaries and one new high school planned for the next five years. He noted that the district has recently bought unused churches, an old bottling plant and several vacant tracts. But he said the central city area has little unused land or vacant buildings.

About 60% to 70% of the residences proposed to be bought for the central Santa Ana elementary schools are owned by absentee landlords, Dalessi said. He added that renters in those buildings will get extensive help from the district, including aid in finding a new place to rent.