MISSION VIEJO : Group Acts to Halt Plans for City Hall

Seeking to derail plans for an $18-million City Hall, opponents of the city’s civic center proposal have come up with a petition bearing 5,198 signatures in an effort to bring the issue before voters in the November municipal elections.

The petition will be turned in to the county registrar of voters, which will have 30 days to verify the signatures. The document needs to be signed by 3,801 registered voters to qualify for the city election.

Citizens Action Committee, a local political group that opposes the plan, has been circulating petitions since September and has spent about $5,000 so far, said Gary Manley, chairman of the group.

The City Council has moved ahead with the City Hall project, hiring architects to draw plans for an 80,000-square-foot facility, of which about 20,000 square feet would be rented out. The civic center would be built near Crown Valley Parkway and Interstate 5. Citizens Action Committee members feel the city’s plans are far too extravagant given the state of the economy and that an existing building can be purchased for far less and in a better location.

“We simply want the people to approve of a major expenditure like this,” Manley said Wednesday. “We feel the council has been absolutely irresponsible in making this decision” to move ahead with the civic center project.

But Councilwoman Susan Withrow, who sat on a city committee that approved plans for the civic center, said that $18 million “is not a lot money for what we’re getting. We need a City Hall, there’s no getting around this. If we’re going to build one later, it’s going to cost a lot more.”

Purchasing an empty office building would mean heavy renovation costs, she added.

“I’m not against letting the people vote,” Withrow said. “Our concern is the ability on a ballot to put down all the elements, the complexities that are important on this project.”

The council will decide on Monday whether to place the City Hall question on an advisory ballot in June. The advisory ballot, proposed by Councilman Robert A. Curtis, has been heavily criticized by the Citizens Action Committee, which seeks a binding vote.

“I think (the council) is not exercising any courage here,” Manley said. “They’re saying up front that this is only a survey and they may or may not abide by it. That’s wrong.”