Plan for Bristol Redevelopment Moves Forward : Government: Santa Ana City Council gives preliminary approval to ordinance that officials hope will resolve lawsuits that have long stalled the $355-million project.

The City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to an ordinance designed to jump start the $355-million Bristol Corridor Redevelopment Project, which would expand Bristol Street and revamp more than a dozen commercial areas along that thoroughfare.

The council unanimously approved the ordinance at its regular meeting Monday.

In a related decision, the council agreed in closed session to attempt to settle the lawsuit that has stalled the redevelopment project, by offering the plaintiffs $149,000 in attorneys’ fees and by loaning one of them money to upgrade his business. If the settlement is accepted, the project would be freed from litigation and could move ahead.

The plan, which was approved in 1989, has been mired in the courts as a result of the lawsuit filed by two local residents, who argued that the city has not done enough to seek replacement housing for hundreds of families who would be displaced by the redevelopment project.

Attorneys for the businessman and single mother who filed suit in 1990 also said the city has not adequately explained why property near Bristol Street but not considered run down was included in the project area.

The city prevailed in Superior Court, but the 4th District Court of Appeal ordered city officials to resolve those issues before proceeding with the plan.

“We think we’ve complied with the courts’ ruling in the matter through the ordinance,” City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said. “It indicates the reasons why non-blighted property was included in the project area. Secondly, it shows where alternative housing would be available.”

Before the meeting, Attorney Richard Spix, who represents Robert T. Gonzales, an optometrist with offices in the project area, and Evangelina Avalos, a single mother in the zone, dismissed the ordinance as “a paper cover-up.”

“It’s just more of the same. We don’t get any meaningful action toward solving the real problem,” Spix said.

“The city is still making findings that there’s plenty of housing in Santa Ana. All the while 27,000 of the 91,000 dwelling units in the city are (considered) overcrowded by the U.S. Census,” Spix said.

Councilman Robert L. Richardson said the council’s decision Monday night would move a long-stalled project forward.

“It moves us one heck of a sight closer to getting the ugliest street in Orange County improved,” he said.

The council will consider the ordinance for final approval Oct. 3.

After that, Cooper said, the courts must decide whether the ordinance is legally adequate.