MISSION VIEJO : Council Zeroes in on Site for Civic Center

The City Council on Tuesday took the first step toward acquiring property owned by the Mission Viejo Co. for a civic center complex.

The council voted 4 to 1 to set up a subcommittee to investigate obtaining eight acres at Chrisanta Drive and La Paz Road that would give the city enough room to build a civic center, a community theater and expand a county library on the site.

That parcel is now occupied by an Edwards Theatres movie complex and the Mission Viejo Co. headquarters.

The council has already voted to bid on another City Hall site and last week authorized its staff to make an offer of about $3 million on a two-story office building at 24800 Chrisanta Drive.

The council’s decision was angrily opposed by Councilman Robert A. Curtis, who had negotiated with the Mission Viejo Co. last week to donate 7.2 acres of land near Crown Valley Parkway and Interstate 5 for a civic center complex.

The land grant would have been tied to the city’s approval of a 719-home housing project in east Mission Viejo and the development of a hotel and commercial project.

“I think this is an absolutely ludicrous attempt to undermine this gift of 7.2 acres,” Curtis said. “I intend to protect this opportunity against any ill-advised effort to sabotage it.”

But Councilman William S. Craycraft, Councilwoman Victoria C. Jaffe and Mayor Christian W. Keena have labeled as inappropriate Curtis’ efforts to negotiate an agreement on his own.

But Curtis said it would be “foolish” to reject the Crown Valley property “regardless of its genesis and embark on a route whose ramifications have yet to be fully explored.”

Jaffe said the approval of the committee does not mean that the city has committed itself to a City Hall site. “This does not in any way bind or tie the hands of the council,” she added.