COSTA MESA : Low-Income Houses’ Relocation to Begin

Starting April 15, crews will begin moving run-down houses in the Victoria Street area to other parts of the county to provide low-income housing, county officials said.

The county’s plans may save as many as half of the 69 homes that the city wanted to tear down to make way for a $25-million project to widen Victoria Street. The homes stretch along a 1 1/2-mile strip of Victoria Street between Harbor Boulevard and Canyon Drive.

Initially, the county will store the homes on a 15-acre, county-owned lot at the intersection of Grand and McFadden avenues, according to Rick Efker, who supervises new housing development at the county’s Environmental Management Agency.

From there, the county will relocate the homes and use them to replace dilapidated farm houses and bungalows--some of which were constructed at the turn of the century--in unincorporated areas such as El Modena next to Orange and Colonia Independencia next to Anaheim, Efker said.

The county’s plans call for 10 houses to be moved initially, at a cost of $15,000 per home. The county has pledged $150,000 toward the effort, and Costa Mesa has agreed to pay an equal amount to move another 10.