Worker day job site to go on block

The site of the Laguna Beach Day Worker Center has been put up for sale following repeated protests by anti-illegal immigration activists about the use of the land.

Caltrans officials say the property on Laguna Canyon Road could fetch about $950,000 at a public auction July 23. Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank has said the narrow, 16,000-square-foot property is worth $7,000, provoking ire from center opponents who believe the city wants to buy the property far below market rates to keep the dayworker center operating.

“What the city is trying to do is make sure no one wants to buy this property,” said Eileen Garcia, a Laguna Beach resident and a member of the Minuteman Project. “What’s going on there is illegal, and our city should not put one more penny into it.”

Frank said the land was “useless” for anything but its present use. Frank said the city hired an appraiser, who determined the property had a low value because it is not zoned and would need substantial government review to be developed. The city’s general plan discourages developing the property, which is located adjacent to Laguna Coast Regional Park.

Frank said the land’s value to the city is that it helps keep day laborers off city streets and allows them to find work in a systematic way.

The 8-year-old dayworker center helps workers, including those in the U.S. illegally, find temporary employment and learn English. Members of the Minuteman Project and other anti-illegal immigration groups have repeatedly protested at the site.

“A lot of political pressure has been put on Caltrans ... because of the Minuteman controversy,” said David Peck, chairman of the Cross Cultural Center, which annually funnels $22,000 in city funds to the labor center.

“If we lose the site, we will find another, but I’m hopeful we can work something out.”

Caltrans spokeswoman Pam Gorniak said the property was being sold as part of a yearlong process to divest itself of unneeded land.

“The department wanted to clear its land excess,” Gorniak said.

“We wanted to see it if we needed it for state transportation purposes.

“We didn’t.”

The property was first put up for auction at nearly $1.3 million in May and received one bid for $250,000, which was rejected as too low, she said.

Gorniak said Caltrans had received three calls of interest on the property.

The use of the property has been debated since 2006, when Garcia found records that showed the center was operating on state property.

State officials had not realized the property belonged to them.

The center was initially ordered closed, and then the land was leased to the city for $420 a month.

A lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court in October on behalf of Garcia and her husband, George Riviere.

The lawsuit was filed by Judicial Watch, a Washington-based think tank that has filed similar suits elsewhere.

Garcia and Riviere allege the city is violating federal law by spending public funds to operate the center. The suit is pending.

jennifer.delson@latimes.com