ACT V facility arrives

The relocation of the city’s corporate yard had more ups and downs than Bluebird Canyon and city officials jubilantly celebrated its completion Tuesday.

Councilwomen Toni Iseman and Elizabeth Schneider cut the ribbon that officially opened the city’s new ACT V Maintenance Facility in Laguna Canyon. It was a symbolic moment for the two. They had put aside their personal and political differences in the winter of 2004-05 to hammer out the compromise, which ended more than a decade of political infighting about the relocation, first recommended in 1995 to make way for a spiffy renovation of the downtown parcel optimistically called the Village Entrance.

“The driving force for the relocation was the Village Entrance,” said former Mayor Wayne Peterson. “In order to do it, we had to move the maintenance yard.”

The idea was not new, but it proved to be almost as divisive as the Montage Resort and Spa project that required a special election to get approval.

Relocating the maintenance yard was talked about for at least 20 years, according to retired Public Works Director Terry Brandt.

“But we started getting down to brass tacks 10 to 15 years ago,” Brandt said.

Although City Project Manager Wade Brown did a space study in 1991, it was 1995 before the council appointed a Village Entrance Task Force to make recommendations for a future project that would do the city proud on the parcel next to City Hall. The task force recommended relocation of the maintenance yard to ACT V, the remote parking lot at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road.

The city bought the ACT V parcel from the county in 1996 for $725,000. A committee headed by then Councilwoman Kathleen Blackburn laid out the parameters for a relocated maintenance yard and architect Peyo Michael was hired to design the project.

It was put out to bid in 1998.

The bids on Michael’s elegant design, with a custom colored roof to match the hillside vegetation and exterior paint that echoed the hue of the gravel used on the graded area that served as peripheral parking, floored City Manager Ken Frank. He called the design “gold-plated” and well beyond the city’s means.

Changes were recommended in February 1999 which reduced the costs. Construction was scheduled to begin in September 1999.

“The cost was estimated at $4 million,” said Blackburn, who dubbed herself the “Queen of the Corporate Yard.”

Blackburn never waived her support for the relocation even when longtime political ally Paul Freeman withdrew his approval and became the third vote in the fall of ’99 in favor of a postponement of the project for a year. Grading, which had begun, was stopped.

Iseman, who ran for council partially because she opposed the project, was ecstatic.

The project was revived and the battle resumed in November 2003, when the Laguna Canyon Conservancy appealed the council’s approval of a coastal development permit to the Orange County Planning Commission, because the ACT V parcel was on unincorporated county land. The planning commission ratified the permit.

Iseman, who sat on the California Coastal Commission as an elected official and was allowed to vote on local issues, made no bones about her displeasure. She and Commissioner Sara Wan appealed the permit to the commission.

The hearing in July 2004 was sort of like a Hatfield-McCoy wedding. Proponents of the project sat on one side of the hearing room, opponents on the other, with little communication exchanged. The hearing was continued.

Then, Mayor Pro Tem Cheryl Kinsman appointed Schneider and Iseman to a sub-committee to work up a proposal for the maintenance yard and the Village Entrance that the community would support.

Many thought she was deranged. Turned out she was inspired.

“I had the crazy idea of putting Toni and Elizabeth in a room together and just see what came out,” Kinsman said. “It was nothing short of a miracle.”

Their groundbreaking compromise was unveiled at a workshop in January 2005, bringing the city and the community closer to agreement on the configuration and location of the corporate yard. It was not a bloodless coup.

The compromise agreement reflected the diverse goals and constituencies of Iseman and Schneider. Both gave up more than they wanted, including reductions in parking spaces at both sites and at the cost of some political support.

It was a price they were willing to pay.

“Through the spirit of compromise, everyone wins on this project,” Iseman said.

Key elements of the initial compromise, which was later refined, included 264 public parking spaces at Act V; one, two-story building instead of two, one-story buildings, a 22% reduction in the fuel modification zone and more trees.

Another key issue was the estimated budget, which had increased by that time from an estimated $5.4 million to $6.4 million, said Assistant City Manager John Pietig, who had been charged with shepherding the project through the red tape and reluctant locals.

The increase was to be covered by boosting the sales price of the city-owned Olive Street lots and additional funding from the Orange County Transportation Authority for its portion of the project.

And finally, the compromise promised a parking structure to accommodated more than 500 vehicles at the Village Entrance.

Schneider and Iseman’s compromise was approved by the council in April 2005 and presented to the coastal commission in June.

The development permit was speedily approved.

“It took the commission less time to make the decision that it took to read the staff report,” Kinsman said.

“I wanted to go up and hug Toni after the vote,” Schneider said.

On the heels of the commission’s favorable vote, the City Council approved funding that night for the Village Entrance project. A funding source is still to be identified.

Construction on the maintenance yard began in September 2006 and the 264-space parking lot was opened in time for the summer 2007 Festival Season.

City employees began moving into the facility Jan. 2.

“The project cost around $10 million,” said Mayor Jane Egly at the dedication. “We have kept the peripheral parking and increased the parking we need downtown.”

When the employee move-in is completed, the existing maintenance yard, Employee Parking Lot and Lumberyard Parking Lot, next to City Hall, will be resurfaced and opened to the public in early March

“All of these actions free up space for future Village Entrance project,” Egly said.

That was the whole idea — way back when.