OCTA Puts Goodwill in Peril

Santa Ana had earmarked a 31-acre parcel near Harbor and MacArthur boulevards as part of its federal empowerment zone. Officials wanted to coordinate sites for the $3-billion effort to revitalize impoverished neighborhoods. But that plan was undermined by a quick deal engineered by the Orange County Transportation Authority in which it acquired the site for a bus depot.

Santa Ana is an area of high bus ridership, and serving that population is important. But the quick purchase was bad politics because the city’s goodwill was needed for the authority’s proposed light rail project.

Also, one likely attraction for enlisting needed federal help in building a rail system would be the existence of the empowerment zone. So the purchase for bus transit needs may have removed a selling point for the authority’s rail system.

With sensitive plans for the rail line through the city already in jeopardy, the authority staff got a green light for the purchase from some of the board members during a closed session after a regularly scheduled Oct. 14 board meeting. When Supervisor Todd Spitzer howled about the deal, the board took a public vote on the acquisition to protect itself from a possible lawsuit over a public-meetings law violation.

But the damage to relations with the city was already done, and there was a sense that this deal was rushed through without an opportunity to raise objections. Santa Ana has an injunction preventing further work on the depot until a hearing early next year on some environmental questions.

OCTA has said that if Santa Ana can find another suitable site the transportation authority can trade the land. Even if finding another site proves possible, it will take time to repair relations between the city and the authority.