A longtime Orange County housing advocacy group warned the city of Anaheim on at least three occasions that its proposed Angel Stadium sale would violate California’s affordable housing law, according to documents reviewed by The Los Angeles Times.
The city disagreed, and the City Council and the city’s planning commission voted to approve the deal. The advocacy group then reported the matter to the state housing agency, which found that Anaheim indeed had violated the law.
That violation could cost Anaheim taxpayers close to $100 million.
Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of the Irvine-based Kennedy Commission, said his group referred the suspected violation of the Surplus Land Act to the state housing agency after the city declined to expand the affordable housing required within the Angel Stadium project.
“That’s something they didn’t want to do,” Covarrubias said. “They just felt they were exempted from the Surplus Land Act.”
The city continues to deny it has violated the law, and it could sue to challenge the state finding. The state could sue to enforce the violation and block the Angel Stadium sale.
Representatives from the city and state, however, are in talks about a possible settlement in which the sale could go forward, according to people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly about them.
“We don’t have any updates to share at this time,” Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster said.
In a settlement, the city could face a fine of...
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