Land Purchase for Widening of Santa Ana Freeway Urged : Measure M: Officials want to use the tax revenue to buy right-of-way property through Anaheim before the state confirms construction funds.

With land prices in Orange County escalating, transportation officials propose in a report issued Friday that a major chunk of the new Measure M sales tax money be used to buy land for widening the Santa Ana Freeway through Anaheim.

“If we don’t move aggressively, we’ll rapidly be put in a position where we can’t afford the I-5 project,” said Stan Oftelie, executive director of the Orange County Transportation Commission.

The report by OCTC officials said that without the money, widening the freeway will take 20 years. About $511 million is needed at today’s prices to buy land to widen the freeway north of the Garden Grove Freeway.

But the report also presents a major dilemma: What if the county spends all that money for right of way, but the state does not approve construction money?

“Discussion should be held with the California Transportation Commission to explain our proposal and to obtain support for future construction funds,” the county commission’s report says.

“The gamble,” Oftelie said, “is that if we take this approach, we have to believe that the state will build the project.”

Oftelie said using money from Measure M, approved in November, to buy freeway land would not delay other projects: “I don’t think we’ll lose or slow down any street or road or rail project in Orange County.”

The commission has already earmarked $50 million to build several fast-track projects, among them car-pool lanes on the Orange Freeway and design work for remodeling the El Toro Y, where the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways meet.

The County Transportation Commission report calls efforts to buy land for the widening “the most complex” in state history. There are 80 potential hazardous waste sites along the corridor. Several commercial parcels will have to be bought and a power substation and underground service lines relocated to make way for construction, which would double the width of the six-lane freeway.

The report, which will be addressed by the commission Monday, recommends that they direct agency officials to prepare a financial analysis of the benefits and disadvantages of spending the Measure M money on right of way and to meet with the California Transportation Commission to determine the state’s commitment to provide construction funds.

Widening work is nearly completed on the freeway between the El Toro Y and Costa Mesa Freeway. Work is scheduled to begin later this year between the Costa Mesa and Garden Grove freeways.