In Garden Grove, a Grand Vision Needs a Site

The Garden Grove City Council has rescinded support for a large-scale Vietnamese cultural center near City Hall but will continue to work with the project’s proponents to find a home within the city.

The council, acting as the city’s redevelopment agency, voted unanimously Tuesday to continue the search for a location that can accommodate the proposed three-acre complex.

The center would include a museum, library and conference rooms.

In August, the redevelopment agency signed an agreement with the Santa Ana-based Nhan Ai Foundation, the local nonprofit group that is leading the project.

The agreement did not call for Garden Grove to provide money or land, city and foundation officials said, but did formalize the city’s support for the center. The agreement also proposed the project be on the corner of 7th Street and Garden Grove Boulevard, just blocks from City Hall.

The redevelopment agency has bought five of the 11 homes that occupy the block and envisions remaking the area with institutional and educational buildings.

But the agency was forced to rescind the agreement earlier this month because of a technical violation of the state’s open meeting laws. The agency had not listed all the potential sites for the cultural center that were discussed during an earlier closed session meeting.

The sites, six in all, have now been made public, but the agreement with Nhan Ai Foundation will have to be redrafted because of the violation.

A site proposed last year at the corner of Brookhurst Way and Garden Grove Boulevard was scrapped after some Korean American community members said it was too close to their business district.

On Tuesday, several residents who live near City Hall said they were concerned about the proposed site on Garden Grove Boulevard and 7th Street.

The cultural center “would be looking right into my backyard,” said Don Worshauer, who lives just north of the site.

Worshauer, who bought his home 11 years ago, said he’s also concerned because his house is in the redevelopment zone and the city could ultimately condemn it, he said.

Garden Grove officials said that the city has rarely invoked its powers of eminent domain to condemn land and that all of the properties it acquired on that block were done through negotiations with the owners.

City officials also said that because Garden Grove is built out, Nhan Ai Foundation would have trouble finding a large parcel of land for the $10-million center. The city can best help the foundation by identifying areas slated for redevelopment, they said. Nhan Ai would either buy the land from the original owners or through the redevelopment agency.

The City Council directed staff to begin a new search for a cultural center location, and outgoing Councilman Van Tran suggested that the new City Council, scheduled to be seated next month, form a subcommittee to manage the search. Tran was elected to the state Assembly, and Mayor Bruce Broadwater is in the final days of his last term.

All five council members said Garden Grove, which has the largest Vietnamese American community in the U.S., should house a cultural center that memorializes Vietnamese refugees and the war.

“The refugee history is important,” said Broadwater. “It’s what America is all about, helping other people.”

Phat Bui, a Nhan Ai Foundation director, said the group hopes the center will become a cultural anchor.

The foundation is working on more detailed plans to present to the city, he said.

“Obviously, we want to make sure that whatever we do complies with the law,” Bui said. And “we would certainly work with everyone to meet their views.”