MISSION VIEJO : Development Unit Set Up on 5-0 Vote

The City Council established the city’s first redevelopment agency this week amid assurances that no residential areas would be affected.

“We need to seize the initiative in South Orange County in expanding our commercial base,” said Councilman Robert D. Breton. “We need to be attracting a major hotel so we can attract that huge market of consumers that go daily to South Coast Plaza.”

Breton was part of a 5-0 vote that established what City Hall is calling a Community Development Agency. The five members of the City Council will also serve as members of the agency, City Manager Fred Sorsabal said.

The broad, sweeping powers of eminent domain, the process by which a city evicts property owners and tenants to make way for new development, has made redevelopment controversial in some cities.

“But I think if you bring people in on the ground floor,” Councilwoman Sharon Cody said, “they won’t feel like you are sneaking around on them.”

Although no land has been set aside for possible redevelopment, formation of the agency will allow city officials to call for bids from consultants to help establish a redevelopment area, Sorsabal said.