COUNTYWIDE : Umberg Pushes Plan to Gain Site for Jail
Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) on Tuesday asked the Board of Supervisors to endorse a bill that would enable the county to buy property by eminent domain with only a simple majority vote, instead of the current four-fifths vote.
The freshman legislator’s efforts are designed to allow the supervisors to buy property at Gypsum Canyon, just east of Anaheim Hills, for construction of a regional jail facility.
Umberg’s bill, which already has been introduced in the state Assembly, is narrowly written to apply only to Orange County, and only for land to be purchased for a future jail.
Efforts to build a jail in Gypsum Canyon have been stalled for years because only three of the five supervisors favor a jail there.
Under current law, eminent domain can be invoked only if four of the five supervisors vote to condemn the land and purchase it from the Irvine Co., which does not want to sell to the county because the developer has plans to build a residential community in Gypsum Canyon.
On May 14, county voters will go to the polls to decide on Measure J, a half-cent sales tax measure to finance regional jail facilities.
In letters sent Tuesday, Umberg asked the supervisors to take up the issue at their meeting on Tuesday.
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