ORANGE : Open-Space Bond Put on City Ballot

Responding to community demand, the City Council voted this week to let voters decide what to do with a 37-acre plot that is the last substantial open space in the city’s center.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to put on the June 2 ballot a bond issue to buy the land and preserve it as a park. The property, which stretches along Santiago Creek roughly from W.O. Hart Park to Tustin Avenue, includes the former site of the Santiago Golf Course and the now-demolished Rosewood Tract subdivision.

While the cost of buying and maintaining the land is undetermined, the bond will not exceed $25 million, said Jack McGee, director of community development. The annual cost of the bond issue to a family in a home valued from $200,000 to $250,000 would be less than $25, he said.

The council’s decision to put the bond issue on the ballot is a victory for local environmentalists who have battled several development plans for the property in the past decade.

In December, the Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance commissioned a survey showing that 86% of residents would support a bond issue, with most saying they would agree to more taxes to buy the land.

“The survey was one thing,” Councilwoman Joanne Coontz said, “but the proof will be the election.”

Howard Decruyenaere, president of the Santiago Creek Greenway Alliance, described the council vote as “a great day of opportunity for the citizens and community of Orange and neighboring communities.”

“Cooperation and teamwork is very important to get things done of this magnitude, and we’ll need more cooperation and teamwork to pass a bond initiative,” he said.

In an unusual show of cooperation, the property’s owner, the William Lyon Development Co., has agreed to pay the $6,000 it is expected to cost to place the issue on the ballot, said Frank Elfend, an independent developer working as a project consultant.

Support for the bond issue, however, is not expected to be unanimous, and proponents got a small taste Tuesday night of the opposition they may encounter before the June vote.

Resident Victor Calagna told the council that it had “gone a little overboard” in supporting the initiative.

“We’re talking about a lot of money for this piece of ground over here,” Calagna said. “I heard $25 million, and by the time we’re through it’ll be $50 million, and we haven’t heard anything about maintenance yet. . . . The people who live around the (former) golf course can buy it. They can be assessed.”

The council seemed relieved to turn the matter over to voters to decide.

“We’re tired of this controversy, and we need closure, and I hope we’re taking the right step to get there,” Coontz said.

“It’s time for all these folks to stand up and be counted and see if this thing will fly or not,” Councilman William G. Steiner said. “If it doesn’t fly, (the property) will be developed.”

Meanwhile, the Greenway group has scheduled a community cleanup of the creek for April 4.