Item 16 - Willowick Golf Course Update

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September 7, 2021 Mayor Sarmiento and City Council Members City Council Chambers 22 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 RE: Receive and File Update on Willowick Negotiations Dear Mayor Sarmiento and City Council Members, The Rise Up Willowick Coalition (“the Coalition”)is comprised of residents from the City of Santa Ana (“the City”), the City of Garden Grove, and neighboring Orange County Cities as well as local organizations whose goal is to ensure that the Willowick Golf Course property (“Willowick”) is developed to meet the needs of current local residents and their vision which includes publicly accessible parkland for active recreational use, and open space and deep affordable housing The Coalition is providing this letter to the City Council in order to provide necessary context and information that is currently not included in the Receive and File staff report provided to the Council regarding the negotiations of the Willowick property. All the information in this letter is a fact and is part of the public record. 2019 Lawsuit Filed Against the Cities of Garden Grove and Santa Ana When discussing why Garden Grove cancelled the sale and lease of Willowick to McWhinney, LLC, the Staff Report states that “Due to changes in the Surplus Lands Act, the process for selecting a master developer was cancelled.” This sentence is misleading and does not accurately portray the reality of what happened. The fact is that the City of Garden Grove was in violation of the California Surplus Land Act (“SLA”) and was forced to stop the sale and lease of Willowick to McWhinney, LLC. In October, 2019, OCCORD on behalf of Rise Up Willowick, sued both the City of Santa Ana and the City of Garden Grove due to the potential illegal sale of Willowick through the 2019 RFP (Request for Proposals). The 2019 RFP process would have violated the SLA, a statute that requires the disposition of surplus land to be disposed through a public process and notices public entities to acquire public land in order to develop affordable housing, open space and other community uses. The City of Santa Ana was dismissed without prejudice from the 2019 lawsuit. In late 2019, the City of Garden Grove tried to illegally sell the land to McWhinney, LLC; however, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel ordered a Temporary Restraining Order in November 2019 and a Preliminary Injunction to stop the sale in December 2019. Due to the filing of the lawsuit, and Judge Strobel’s orders the City of Garden Grove was forced to stop the Master Developer RFP issued earlier in 2019 as well as the sale to McWhinney, LLC. City of Garden Grove’s Appraisal of the Willowick Property 1 of 2