Countywide : Desert Jail Report Wrong, Roth Claims

County administrators used flawed land-value estimates in a report that recommended rejecting a controversial desert jail proposal, county supervisors and Irvine Co. officials said Wednesday.

Supervisor Don R. Roth, who has long touted the desert jail proposal, was so angered by the recommendation that he directed his staff to respond with its own price estimates. Roth’s staff analysis is expected early next week, when the report--prepared at the supervisors’ request by a multi-agency advisory committee and the county administrative office--will be formally presented to the supervisors.

“That report is so flawed that it doesn’t make any sense to spend any effort on it, but that’s what we’re stuck doing,” Roth said. “I’ve asked my staff to analyze the thing and update its land values because I guarantee you, they are way off.”

Roth, a former mayor of Anaheim, strongly opposes construction of a county jail in Gypsum Canyon, just east of Anaheim. Instead, he has supported a so-called “desert jail” near Chiriaco Summit in Riverside County.

The report released Monday, however, dismissed Chiriaco Summit as too expensive and said it should “not be pursued further.”

Roth angrily dismissed that recommendation and said the report bases its conclusions on incorrect information, including a misunderstanding of the price of land in Orange County. Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who has supported construction of a jail in Gypsum Canyon, said he, too, questions the land-price estimates.

Although one section of the report states that “the cost per acre for land in the Chiriaco Summit area will be less than Gypsum Canyon land,” charts used to tabulate the costs of the two facilities seem to belie that.

The report’s “summary of issues” estimates that site acquisition for 2,700 acres in Gypsum Canyon would cost $15 million, compared to $8 million for buying 1,100 acres in the desert. At those estimates, desert land would come to $7,272 an acre, more expensive than property in Gypsum Canyon, which would cost $5,555 per acre.

The Irvine Co., which owns the land in Gypsum Canyon and has plans to build a residential community there, would not provide precise estimates of per-acre values. But a spokeswoman said Roth’s figure is far closer to the truth than the figure in the report.

“Residential land in Orange County, including Irvine Co. land, generally goes for close to $1 million an acre,” the spokeswoman said. “There’s no way it would sell for $5,000.”

County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider conceded that some of the report’s estimates are stated incorrectly. But he added that the real cost differences between the proposed sites are in transportation and utilities.

Doug Woodyard, the official who wrote the report, agreed, saying that the document should have made clear that it was addressing “build-able” land in Gypsum Canyon. Only 300 acres in the canyon could be used for a jail, he said, so the $15 million to buy it would purchase land at the price of about $50,000 per build-able acre.