BREA : Judge Criticizes City on Redevelopment

In a case that could temporarily halt a multimillion-dollar commercial development slated to begin construction this summer, an Orange County Superior Court judge Wednesday blasted the city Redevelopment Agency, saying town officials gave “very little assistance” to people and businesses forced to relocate by downtown redevelopment plans.

Superior Court Judge Robert C. Todd is expected to rule within a week in the case, which was brought by the Brea Small Business Coalition. The group of small merchants is asking Todd to halt further relocations of residents and businesses from a 50-acre downtown site until the agency comes up with a new relocation assistance plan.

“My observation is that the information you’re giving the public is muddled and far from clear,” said Todd, after listening to two hours of testimony from agency attorney James Markman on the history of redevelopment plans and relocation assistance in Brea.

If Todd rules in favor of the merchants, he could temporarily halt plans by Watt Commercial Development Co. to begin work this summer on a 22-acre commercial development in the area. Watt has signed up several tenants for the site.

Markman testified Wednesday that even though a redevelopment advisory committee in 1983 recommended that no eminent domain proceedings be used against owners in the area, the Redevelopment Agency decided in 1989 to use the process without calling for a new committee to meet.

“After the project area committee was gone, everything was gone. You created amendments quietly a few years later, but no one gets notice as a group until after you pick at them one by one,” Todd said, referring to Brea’s piecemeal buying since 1985 of parcels in the affected area.

Todd ordered Markman’s testimony almost a week after Markman had delivered closing arguments in the case on behalf of Brea and its Redevelopment Agency.

Coalition attorney Michael Leifer said he was gratified by Todd’s remarks.

“That’s what I’ve been arguing all along, and it’s gratifying to have your position accepted,” Leifer said.

The coalition has argued that the Brea Redevelopment Agency violated California state law because it did not file relocation plans with the state until after 255 households and 41 businesses had been moved to make way for the project.

Last week Edward Goebel, a lawyer with the state Housing and Community Development Department, testified that the plans, submitted to the agency in April, should have been received before any relocations began and that the plans contained numerous flaws, errors and violations of law.

Following Markman’s testimony, Brea Redevelopment Agency Director Sue Georgino restated the city’s position.

“We’ve talked to other legal counsel and redevelopment agencies in other cities, and it’s not a commonly held understanding that the plans be submitted to HCD,” Georgino said. “We did send copies of the plan to the State Board of Equalization.”