City Sale of Land Is Back On

Reversing its earlier position, the City Council has decided to sell a parcel of land and continue negotiations to sell another parcel in a deal that is expected to raise $1 million to $1.5 million for a new community arts center.

A proposal defeated last month would have resulted in the sale of two adjacent parcels of city-owned land for $1 million to Delma Corp., a Huntington Beach-based developer. Dissenting council members said the city should hold out for more money.

City officials, after renegotiating with Delma Corp., came up with an alternate plan that the council approved this week. Money from the sale will help pay for a $6-million cultural center and theater that the city has been planning for years.

The council agreed to sell the first parcel, 1.4 acres at Westminster Boulevard and Hoover Street, for $630,000. The city has been trying for a year to sell the land, which is the site of a deteriorated school auditorium built in the 1920s.

The city will continue negotiating with Delma Corp. officials on the second parcel, about four acres purchased in 1983 for a senior housing project. At that time, the city agreed to lease the land for $100 a year for 55 years to Delma, which built an apartment complex there in 1984.

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

Delma has agreed to buy the parcel if the city will help arrange tax-exempt financing for construction of an 80-bed congregate care facility for elderly residents, which would complement the existing senior apartment complex.

The issue is expected to come back to the council in September, officials said.