Both Fullerton and Brea have been recognized with awards for redevelopment efforts in their local downtown business district areas that create a warm and friendly feeling that attracts business owners and consumers alike. Unlike those towns, this one does not already have an area that resembles a downtown business district or a redevelopment agency to work on the project either.
Paul Connolly, interim director of the city's community development department, says the City Council is currently considering a number of options, but first will be taking public input on the subject at its next scheduled meeting on Monday.
"What we would like to achieve is more of the downtown feeling, so that there's a community center feeling about it. We don't have that right now," Connolly says. "The City Council is considering it because the city owns the street and a parcel there."
In all, the proposed project site, at the northeast corner of the intersection of Los Alamitos Blvd. and Katella Ave., consists of one-and-a-half blocks of property, totaling nine acres of land. At present, there is a former post office building (now serving as a bookstore), a parking lot and the street that the city owns. Also, there are other retail establishments, offices and restaurants in the area. However, the city is open to ideas for everything from razing the current buildings and starting anew, to rehabilitating the area and existing properties.
"Everything is on the table. There aren't any specific proposals at this time," Connolly says. "The council would like to see the property function as levers to attract retail and other businesses that would lead us to a downtown feeling. The council is very flexible at this point. We're talking to developers, realtors and potential users."
The City Council's primary emphasis, Connolly says, is putting community feeling and servicing the local residents ahead of sales tax revenue. Studies conducted by the city have shown that it could use some more locally directed retail centers, specialty type retail establishments, along with other restaurants and specialty markets ala Trader Joe's or Bristol Farms, for instance.
And like the recently completed Birch Street project in Brea, Connolly says the city is not objectionable to adding some multifamily product into the mix, maybe on the upper floors of a retail center. "At this point we're not ruling anything out," Connolly says.
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