Countywide : Caltrans Notification Procedures Tightened

Reacting to escalating land costs and to Caltrans’ plan to demolish a new office building in Santa Ana for widening the Santa Ana Freeway, the state Senate approved legislation that would require Caltrans to notify local governments of its potential need for specific parcels even before state highway projects are funded and have received environmental clearance.

The legislation, introduced by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City), was approved 27 to 4 and sent back to the Assembly for minor amendments.

Katz’s bill requires Caltrans to identify all land parcels that it may need in the next seven years and tell city and county officials about them.

“Costs of the Interstate 5 freeway reconstruction project have escalated sharply because of rising real estate values in Orange County,” the Senate Rules Committee reported to the full Senate. “In some cases, lack of communication between Caltrans and local building and planning departments has allowed certain key parcels to be developed. Now Caltrans faces the prospect of purchasing these parcels for huge sums.”

The committee cited the three-story Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. building next to the MainPlace/Santa Ana shopping center on the north side of the Santa Ana Freeway. It was built in 1985 on a site bought from the city for $936,500. Caltrans now plans to buy the building and site, now worth a estimated $8.5 million, and demolish it.

The panel also criticized the “slow-moving Caltrans real estate bureaucracy” for failing to move quickly enough to acquire an abandoned gas station in Santa Ana that has been turned into a fast-food outlet.