HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 13 - Willowick Golf Course Update Community Development Agency
santa-ana.org/cd
Item # 16
City of Santa Ana
20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Staff Report
September 7, 2021
TOPIC: Willowick Golf Course Update
AGENDA TITLE:
Willowick Golf Course Update
RECOMMENDED ACTION
Receive and file the Willowick Golf Course update.
DISCUSSION
Background
Willowick Golf Course is a 101.5-acre property located at 3017 W 5th Street, owned by
the City of Garden Grove and located in the jurisdictional boundaries of Santa Ana. The
property is located in the Santa Anita neighborhood, adjacent to the Santa Ana River on
the east and the Pacific Electric Right-of-Way on the north. It is in close proximity to the
Romero Cruz Academy, Spurgeon Park, Cesar Chavez Campesino Park, and abuts
Garden Grove's Buena Clinton neighborhood and the Willowick Royal Mobile Home Park.
On December 4, 2017, the Cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove held a Joint Study
Session to discuss the potential reuse of the Willowick Golf Course (“Property”). Both City
Councils directed staff to undertake further due diligence in the areas of visioning and
economic analysis of the Property. Subsequently, the Cities retained independent
consultants to help create a vision of future development and to work with the community
to determine both the community needs and conduct a general market assessment.
The Cities hosted four workshops to help develop a Vision Plan for the redevelopment of
the Property. This process explored conceptual land use options formed by community
and stakeholder collaboration and input facilitated by SWA, the consultant for the
visioning of the Property. Initial feedback gathered from community workshops envisioned
several desired community benefits that included, but was not limited to, the following:
affordable housing, open space, community gathering space, cultural arts facilities,
neighborhood retail, and connectivity to transit.
On January 29, 2019, the Cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove held their second Joint
Study Session to receive an update from the visioning and economic consultants and
approved the City of Garden Grove’s development and release of a Request for
Proposals (RFP) to solicit a master developer for the reuse of the Property.
Willowick Golf Course Update
September 7, 2021
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From April 29 through June 28, 2019, the City of Garden Grove, in collaboration with the
City of Santa Ana, solicited proposals from qualified developers to transform and
redevelop the Willowick property. A total of 12 responses to the RFP were received,
including nine development proposals and three non-contingent cash offers. The Garden
Grove City Council considered a ground lease with a master developer, McWhinney, on
December 10, 2019. However, the consideration was continued. Due to changes in the
Surplus Lands Act, the process for selecting a master developer was cancelled, and the
City of Garden Grove commenced a Surplus Lands Act process for the Willowick
property.
Surplus Lands Act
On October 9, 2019, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1486. AB 1486,
which amended the Surplus Land Act effective January 1, 2020 to include, among others,
changing the existing, long-standing definition of “surplus land”; providing that land shall
be declared either “surplus land” or “exempt surplus land” before a local agency may take
any action to sell or lease land; and adding a new limitation providing that an “agency’s
use” “shall not include commercial or industrial uses or activities, including
nongovernmental retail, entertainment, or office development,” or “property disposed of
for the sole purpose of investment or generation or revenue." To comply with the
amended Surplus Land Act, the City of Garden Grove sent notices of availability to the
following: local public entities and housing sponsors for the purpose of developing low-
and moderate-income housing, to the City of Santa Ana and County of Orange, any
regional park authority and the State Resources Agency for open-space purposes, and
to the local school district for school facilities or use.
Appraisal
An appraisal of the property in February 24, 2021 concluded the market value of the
101.5-acre property was $90 million . This appraisal, conducted by George Hamilton
Jones Inc., was completed utilizing an inspection of the property, investigation of various
comparable data, market studies, and valuation analyses. The appraisal was also based
on the property being subject to the Surplus Lands Act, which states that if 10 or more
residential units are developed, then 15 percent of the total number of units must be
dedicated to affordable housing.
Current Status
The City of Garden Grove received three proposals to acquire the Property through the
Surplus Lands Act process: (1) Willowick Community Partners (City Ventures, Jamboree
Housing, and Primestor); (2) The Trust for Public Land, State Coastal Conservancy and
Clifford Beers Housing; and (3) McWhinney Land LLC and Wakeland Housing.
A proposal for open space purposes and two general development proposals that include
housing and commercial uses were submitted from the above development partnerships.
The City of Garden Grove has posted information pertaining to the proposals and Surplus
Land Act process at the following webpage: www.ggcity.org/sla.
Willowick Golf Course Update
September 7, 2021
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused a pause in the Surplus Land Act process, but the City
of Garden Grove has formally commenced a negotiation process on April 19, 2021. The
Surplus Land Act requires public agencies to engage in good faith negotiations for a
minimum of 90 days with each interested party/proposer. Negotiations are ongoing.
Letter from The Rise Up Willowick Coalition
On September 7, 2021, The Rise Up Willowick Coalition sent a letter to the Mayor and
City Council relating to this Receive-and-File informational report. The Rise Up Willowick
Coalition is actively working with the City of Garden Grove relating to the Willowick Golf
Course and expressed a desire to include their comments with this informational report.
In response, staff is attaching The Rise Up Willowick Coalition’s letter as an exhibit to this
report (Exhibit 1).
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with this update.
EXHIBIT(S)
1. Letter from The Rise Up Willowick Coalition
Submitted By: Steven Mendoza, Assistant City Manager
Approved By: Kristine Ridge, City Manager
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
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This section is problematic because the Fair Market Value of the property has not been
established, which is a process of the good faith negotiation process. This section seems to
validate the City of Garden Grove’s appraisal of the Willowick Property as the actual valuation of
the land and is misleading.
The staff report fails to mention that the $90 million valuation of the property is based on Willowick
being converted to a “Master Planned Community” that will be primarily market-rate housing with
commercial and retail development, some affordable housing, and a negligible amount of open
space. The appraisal assumes that the property will be rezoned.
Current Santa Ana Open Space Deficit
Given that Willowick property is currently zoned as open space the Coalition believes it is
important that the Council Members receive information on the need for this land use in the City.
Throughout the City’s Environmental Justice (EJ) outreach for the General Plan, residents have
consistently said they urgently need more open space.The City’s summary of the EJ Survey
Results states that “when asked to rank from a list of five actions that will improve their quality of
life and create a healthy environment, 468 responses were received. The following lists the
actions that were ranked by all respondents from first choice to last choice. First choice: Additional
public parks, open space and community centers within walking distance from their home, school,
or business.”Residents who attended the City’s 10 EJ Community Forums also consistently1
named their need for Open Space as one of their top needs.
The residents’ requests for more open space are not surprising given that the City of Santa Ana
dedicates only 4% of their land to open space.The Santa Ana Municipal Code states that the2
City's parkland standard is 2 acres per 1,000 residents.This standard is lower than the one
suggested by the California Quimby Act which recommends a park standard of 3 acres per 1,000
residents. Table 5.15-13 of the Santa Ana General Plan Update Recirculated Draft Program
Environmental Impact Report states that based on the City’s parkland standard, the City’s current
park deficit is 118.64 acres. For comparison, Willowick is approximately 102 acres. This deficit will
only deepen with the increase in development anticipated by the General Plan Update.
We hope that you found helpful the clarifications and additional information the Coalition has
provided in this letter. We invite the Council to reach out to the Coalition to further discuss the
community’s vision for Willowick. Please contact Cynthia Guerra at (714) 805-7317 and at
cguerra@riseupwillowick.org.
Thank you,
The Rise Up Willowick Coalition
2 ParkScore- City of Santa Ana, Trust for Public Land,2020.
1 City of Santa Ana’s Environmental Justice Outreach Executive Summary, p. 6, July 21, 2021.
https://www.santa-ana.org/sites/default/files/pb/general-plan/documents/Formatted%20-%20EJ%20Community%20Outr
each%20Report%207.20.21%20final.pdf
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