LOS ALAMITOS : Petition Opposes Redevelopment Plan

A citizens group on Tuesday submitted to the city clerk about 900 signatures on petitions opposing the city’s inaugural redevelopment project.

If the county registrar of voters certifies at least 536 of the signatures, the City Council must either repeal its redevelopment plan or schedule a referendum on the issue on a future ballot.

Assistant City Manager Gerard Goedhart, also currently acting city clerk, said he counted 899 signatures he received Tuesday. A leader of Citizens for Fair Government, a group formed to challenge the city’s newly created Redevelopment Agency, said it turned in 948 signatures.

The City Council last October established a Redevelopment Agency for the first time in the city’s 31-year history.

On July 16, council members unanimously approved the agency’s first redevelopment project area, a 200-acre region largely concentrated in the city’s commercial/industrial hub along Katella Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard. No residential property is included in the approved project area.

Acquiescing to residents’ concerns, however, council members included in the plan a stipulation that eminent domain may not be used by the agency to acquire private property.

But the citizens group, fearing that a future City Council could reinstate the eminent domain provision with a simple majority vote, launched the referendum campaign.

“Without the power of eminent domain, why have a redevelopment agency?” said Sam Hardin, the group’s chairman emeritus, on Tuesday. “If a private owner doesn’t want to sell, what is (the agency) going to do? We’re convinced eminent domain will be used.”

Council members, however, insist that they plan to use redevelopment only for small, isolated projects, such as business relocations and renovations, all with the approval of property owners. By doing so, council members say they can attract and keep strong businesses to buoy the city’s economic foundation.

Mayor Alice Jempsa said a chief target in the project area is the Oak Middle School site, a closed facility which Los Alamitos Unified School District officials plan to level and develop. If that effort proceeds under the auspices of the city Redevelopment Agency, the city would receive some state funding, in the form of tax increment payments. Without a redevelopment area, the city would earn nothing under the project.

Although the city Redevelopment Agency fund now totals just $102,000, Hardin said his group fears that the agency can issue bonds for up to $645 million for new projects. Consequently, the group charges that “this is an end-around maneuver around Proposition 13,” Hardin said.

The group had until 5 p.m. today to return the petitions to the city, when the ordinance authorizing the redevelopment project area is scheduled to become effective. The ordinance now will be suspended while the county registrar counts and verifies the petitions.

If the registrar’s office certifies the signatures, the council will have 88 days to decide which course to take. If the council refers the issue to the voters, it may set a special election or place the referendum on a general-election ballot in June or November of next year.