LOS ALAMITOS : Petition Garners Needed Signatures

A petition calling for the city’s redevelopment plans to be put to a vote has more than enough signatures to force an election, the City Council was told this week.

However, legal authorities not affiliated with the city are still trying to determine if the petition itself is valid, City Manager Robert C. Dunek said.

The county registrar of voters has verified 823 signatures on the referendum petition, well above the 536--representing 10% of the city’s registered voters--required to force the vote, according to Dunek.

City Atty. Thomas W. Allen said his position with the city made it necessary to seek an “outside objective opinion” on the validity of the petition.

The City Council will take up the issue again at its Sept. 11 meeting. If the referendum petition is determined to be valid, the council will have two options--repeal the redevelopment plan or schedule the referendum election.

“We want to be sure whatever action we take is backed by strong legal opinions,” Mayor Alice Jempsa said.

In July, council members, acting as the newly created Redevelopment Agency, unanimously approved the city’s first redevelopment project area, a site concentrated in the commercial and industrial center along Katella Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard. The plan has been suspended until the council decides whether to repeal it or schedule an election.

Soon after the agency’s action, a group called Citizens for Fair Government was formed to challenge the redevelopment plans. Of particular concern to the group was the fact that eminent domain proceedings could be implemented with a simple majority vote of the agency, forcing people to give up property they do not want to sell.

“We feel that a redevelopment agency is not in the best interest of the residents of Los Alamitos,” said Citizens for Fair Government Chairman Bill Daniels. “I’ve lived here 40 years and I’ve loved it without redevelopment.”

Councilman Ronald Bates said the city redevelopment plans currently cover only small projects designed to attract and keep businesses.

“People need to know that our redevelopment has nothing to with condemnation (or) eminent domain,” Bates said. “It has to with economic redevelopment.”