Countywide : OCTA Offices to Be Housed Under 1 Roof

The Orange County Transportation Authority is in transit.

Over the next month, nearly 300 administrative employees who now are spread over five offices will move into one building in Orange.

The move is a byproduct of the 1991 consolidation of several transit agencies into OCTA, which oversees county bus service, the dial-a-ride van network and freeway call boxes.

“It’s nice to be under one roof,” said Gary Burton, deputy director of finance and administration for OCTA.

The agency will occupy six stories of an office tower on Main Street and La Veta Avenue in Orange.

Up to now, administrative employees have worked out of several buildings in Santa Ana and Garden Grove.

Burton said the move will save the agency money in lease payments.

OCTA now spends about $1.65 per square foot for office space.

In the new building, the agency will spend about $1.23 per square foot.

The new complex will have an “open” design that will include few enclosed areas or private offices.

Burton said the design reduced the amount of space OCTA had to lease.

As part of the move, officials plan to recycle 6 1/2 tons of paper--mostly old files and documents that have piled up at the old offices.

OCTA officials are now in the process of consolidating the agency’s operations department at a facility on Acacia Parkway in Garden Grove.

The building will serve as a dispatching center for OCTA buses and dial-a-ride vans.

Throughout the move, customers will still be able to reach OCTA at its regular phone numbers, officials added.