Leader urges Santa Ana Heights action

New efforts at the county level have sparked progress on a list of projects in Santa Ana Heights, including the widening of Irvine Avenue and development of a park at Mesa Drive and Birch Street.

The seven projects, worth roughly $14.7 million, have been mired in bureaucracy, some for more than 10 years.

Since his election in November, Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach and his staff have drawn up a list of what needs to be done and a timeline to get there.

The money wasn’t the problem. Santa Ana Heights is in a redevelopment area created to address the negative effects of nearby John Wayne Airport, and it has a $40-million fund to spruce things up.

Supervisor Chris Norby has said he wants to shut down the county’s redevelopment agencies, but Moorlach believes officials should complete promised work first.

“The biggest pushback I’ve had with Santa Ana Heights is the redevelopment agency — we’ve got a board chair who doesn’t like them,” Moorlach said. “We’re saying, ‘Fine, here’s what it was structured for, here’s what’s left to do.’ ”

He recently set a timeline to move projects out of the planning stage and into construction. Supervisors still must approve the spending, but Moorlach thinks he can convince them.

Norby said Thursday that he would support at least some of the public improvements in Santa Ana Heights, and he’s “definitely supportive of resolving all the issues there and then shutting the agency.”

Several projects will come to the board for approval this summer, the first being 1,200 feet of new sidewalk on Bristol Street in June. A plan to widen Irvine Avenue from four to six lanes between Mesa Drive and Bristol Street and refurbishment of a park on Orchard Drive would follow later this summer.

“It’s great news for us,” said Barbara Venezia, who chairs an advisory committee representing Santa Ana Heights residents. “I think when he [Moorlach] says these projects are worthwhile to do, people will take a second look.”

Other projects on the list include repaving and utility line burial on Kline Drive, horse riding arenas, and the Mesa-Birch park, a project the board rejected last year.

Moorlach also is proposing money for a defunct community center project be used to supplement a fire station that’s over budget.

That’s a relief to Newport Beach, which was heading the project.

The eastern half of Santa Ana Heights is part of Newport Beach, and residents of the western half are seeking annexation, so city officials took the lead on the fire station at Acacia Street and Mesa Drive.

What started out as a $4.1-million facility is now at least $12 million, Moorlach said.

“As long as those projects are funded and completed, we’re happy,” Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said.