Land Deal Rejection Stalls Art Center Plan

The City Council may have quashed plans for a long-awaited community arts center by rejecting a deal that would have raised $1 million for the center.

“I’m appalled,” Mayor Charles V. Smith said after the council on Tuesday deadlocked 2 to 2 on the plan. “We just killed our chance to build a community cultural center.”

The money was to have been one of the final components in a $6-million package to pay for a cultural center and theater, which the city has been planning for years.

On Tuesday, however, the council failed to pass a proposal under which two parcels of city land would have been sold for $1 million to Delma Corp., a developer based in Huntington Beach.

The first parcel, 1.4 acres at Westminster Boulevard and Hoover Street, is the site of a deteriorated school auditorium built in the 1920s. The city has been trying for a year to sell the land, estimated to be worth $370,000, officials said.

The second parcel, about four acres, was purchased in 1983 for a senior housing project. The city agreed to lease the land for $100 a year for 55 years to Delma Corp., which built an apartment complex there in 1984.

That deal, said City Manager Bill Smith, makes the land essentially worthless to the city for at least 45 more years.

Delma was willing to buy both parcels for $1 million, and Smith and Councilwoman Charmayne S. Bohman voted to sell.

But council members Frank G. Fry Jr. and Margie L. Rice voted no, saying they thought the city could hold out for more money.

Councilman Tony Lam abstained.