A plot of largely undeveloped private land in North Tustin appears set to stay that way for the next five years after Orange County Supervisors declined to vote on a proposal by the landowner to possibly open the land for development.
The move comes after mounting concerns and questions from residents on what could be built.
The tract of 11 acres is currently held under the Williamson Act, a state law that lets land owners get a property tax break if they agree to keep the land undeveloped and use it for agriculture.
A representative for the Miller family, which owns the property through a family trust, said since it’s private land they aren’t planning to use for farming, the family should be able to do what they want with it by asking supervisors to let them out of the Williamson Act contract five years early.
“They do eventually want to develop or sell it,” said Zeb Law, the family’s lawyer, at the OC Board of Supervisors’ Tuesday meeting. “But the immediate use for the purposes of this meeting … is to simply cancel any agricultural requirement.”
Residents who live in the neighborhood surrounding the land argued it should be left in its current state, saying it’s a beautiful addition and that there weren’t enough answers on possible development that would flood their suburb with traffic from new homes.
“The Williamson Act has preserved this jewel in all the time my folks have lived here,” said Courtney Cole, who spoke on behalf of her parents that live near the site. “We implore you, I implore you … to vote against this cancellation.”
[Read: Tustin Residents Protest Possible 11-Acre Development on Open Space]
Ultimately, county supervisors didn’t vote on the issue, with Supervisors Katrina Foley and Vicente Sarmiento raising concerns that they couldn’t vote on the future use of the land without knowing more specific plans for the property.
“I’m not a fan of piecemeal development, and that’s what this smacks of,” Sarmiento said. “I’m not prepared to take that step of making the cancellation.”
Nicole Walsh, one of the county’s attorneys, argued they could make the cancellation without knowing what the future entailed for that land because it was up to the supervisors to decide how detailed the plans needed to be.
But Foley brought up portions of the Williamson Act that called for them to look at the alternative use, and said the Miller family had not provided one.
“Keeping the property the same is not an alternative proposal,” Foley said. “I don’t think this application is compliant with the code and is ripe for us to discuss.”
County Supervisor Don Wagner, who represents unincorporated North Tustin, said the proposal was about giving property owners flexibility on their land.
“The Williamson Act didn’t preserve this jewel. It provided some economic incentive, but the owners preserved this jewel,” Wagner said. “I would want the right to dispose of my property within the law.”
Wagner also encouraged the neighbors and the family to work together after one neighbor offered to buy the land, which is valued at around $5.7 million by the Orange County Assessor.
“If the community has an interest in preserving that space, it’s up to the community to work out a deal with the owner,” Wagner said. “There is an opportunity now, there is leverage now, to do a deal. In five years, no matter what this board does, the Williamson Act goes away.”
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
