$1 land deal retracted

Newport Beach won’t be getting the cheapest land price in years on a county-owned parcel overlooking the Back Bay, after Orange County supervisors on Tuesday appeared ready to quash the $1 sale.

County officials had discussed selling a site that’s less than an acre to the city, which would turn it into a park to serve the Santa Ana Heights area. The land is on Birch Street at Mesa Drive.

Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva pulled the item off Tuesday’s agenda when he saw he wouldn’t get enough votes to pass it, said Don Hughes, Silva’s chief of staff.

Supervisors Chris Norby, Lou Correa and Bill Campbell opposed the $1 sale. “I think the issue is one of precedence,” Campbell said. “We have a piece of property here in Santa Ana for sale. The mayor of Santa Ana called and said, ‘If you’re going to sell that piece to Newport Beach for a dollar, we’ll take that piece in Santa Ana for a dollar.’ ”

Now, officials said, they’re not sure what the next step is. Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said the city could ask to fold the park discussion in with a batch of city-county issues that are now being negotiated.

The county-owned property has been in the city since East Santa Ana Heights was annexed in 2003. Since then the city has lost about $1 million a year in property taxes from the area that go onto the redevelopment agency’s coffers, he said.

Whether the City Council would pay a fair market price for the land might depend on its zoning, Kiff said. Whatever price the city would pay for the property, the money would go to the redevelopment agency and must be spent in the redevelopment area, he said.