Activists Ask Trustees to Drop Support of Redevelopment Plan

Three Latino activists urged the Santa Ana school board to reconsider its support of a controversial city redevelopment plan.

The board recently endorsed the plan, which was expected to bring in tens of millions of dollars to the district for building schools over the next 35 years.

But the City Council dropped consideration of the project for now after more than 2,000 residents, most of them Latino, showed up to oppose it last week. Those residents feared that their homes could be taken from them in the redevelopment, which would cover the central 45% of the city.

At the school board meeting, John Raya, a member of the city’s redevelopment advisory committee, said he opposed the plan and called on the board to rescind its support.

Failing that, the board should hold public hearings and “subject yourself to public scrutiny,” he told the board.

John Palacio, another redevelopment committee member, said he opposed the project as well, saying that it offered no specifics on how the money would be used and where schools would be built. Also, as a result of the project, he said, residents could lose their homes to eminent domain.

Arturo Montez, spokesman for the League of United Latin American Citizens, also asked the board to oppose the redevelopment plan.

Although the board majority--Trustees Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Robert W. Balen and Richard C. Hernandez--have embraced the proposal, Trustees Sal Mendoza and Rosemarie Avila expressed dissent on Tuesday.

Mendoza reiterated his call to find alternatives for funding school construction.

Although the promise of money for schools is “very appealing,” Avila said, she called the plan too vague.

Balen said that because the city is not actively considering the redevelopment plan, the discussion was moot.

“I think you need to speak to the City Council on that,” he said. “It’s not our plan.”