O.C. man selling Bridgeville, CA on eBay
Itching to get away from it all? Small-town owner Bruce Krall has the answer, and he's selling it on eBay.
By KEITH SHARON
The Orange County Register
A SLOWER PACE: Laguna Hills mortgage banker Bruce Krall takes a stroll around the town he owns, Bridgeville. Krall bought the tiny Northern California burg in 2004 with plans to open a retreat center there.
MARK AVERY, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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Quote
“At night, when the clouds roll in over those mountains, it’s spectacular.”
Bruce Krall
BRIDGEVILLE - Every year, dozens of people head along Highway 36 through the redwoods, past the rickety barns and rusty farm equipment, several of them dressed like space aliens, to throw "flying saucers" off the old bridge into the Van Duzen River.
The flying saucer that travels the farthest wins its flinger a vacation in any spot around the world in a time-share program.
The last person who won Bridgeville's annual summertime "Bridgefest" contest, however, hasn't yet claimed the prize. It's as if they don't want to leave Humboldt County, where Bridgeville, a barely populated hole in the woods, is a mere dot on the map.
Ask anyone around here, if you can find anyone around here, and they'll tell you that the flying-saucer toss is the social highlight of the year.
For people accustomed to a slightly faster-paced life in Orange County, Bridgeville might as well be Mars.
Bruce Krall, the Laguna Hills mortgage banker who bought Bridgeville in 2004, loves his quirky little slice of nowhere.
"At night, when the clouds roll in over those mountains, it's spectacular," Krall said, a bit of sadness evident in his voice.
On Tuesday, he's going to do something that several of Bridgeville's 18 residents - who have come to like their long-distance landlord - don't want him to do.
He's going to open bidding on his 83-acre town on eBay.
You might have heard about Bridgeville, which got some notoriety in 2003 when it became known as the first town ever sold on eBay.
The problem with that story is it isn't true. You could call it an urban legend if there were anything urban about Bridgeville. More accurately, it's a subrural legend.
The town was auctioned on eBay, gaining international media attention, but it never sold. Potential buyer after potential buyer either backed out of the deal or was not qualified to pay the $1.77 million asking price. The property sat for a year without a buyer.
Enter Krall, 46, husband, father, T-ball coach. During the week, he's attached to his BlackBerry, hammering out commercial real estate deals. Most of the time, he carries scratch paper to jot down notes from constant calls or text messages.
A couple of times a year, he likes to get away.
He leaves home for a few days to swim with dolphins, to meditate silently, to do some yoga, to get in touch with his inner Bruce. Once, he went to a retreat about how to start your own retreat business.
You don't have to be a Zen master to figure out where he got the idea. Why not open your own retreat?
For years, Krall had been interested in buying property. A deal in Mendocino fell through. Another attempt to buy land along the central coast of California didn't close.
In 2004, his father found a real estate listing for Bridgeville, which had fallen into disrepair when its previous owner, an antique dealer whose family had health problems, neglected the former stagecoach town.
Krall had never heard of Bridgeville's eBay fame when he called the real estate agent.
The price had slipped to $700,000, just more than the average price of a new Orange County home.
Then he visited the place.
Done deal.
You've heard of the one-stoplight town. This is a no-stoplight town.
This would be a one-horse town if there were a horse. There are three cows that graze on the hill.
There is a post office, where a paper taped to the bulletin board announces: "Missing Dog, wolf/husky mix." The post office also serves as the library with old paperbacks waiting to be checked out.
The sound you hear, sometimes building to a roar, is the rushing Van Duzen River, where Krall's sons, 3 and 5, "like to swim ... naked" when they're here on vacation.
The school/community center is the hub of Bridgeville, drawing students and families from as far as 100 miles away. The school and a fire-service camp, which is populated during the drier months, both sit just outside Krall's property line.
Inside the property line sit: two bridges (one of them a historic landmark), eight tiny pink, green and blue houses, a main house with majestic views of redwood-covered hillsides, a vacant maroon cafe, and the Bridgeville cemetery, which has more headstones (19) than the town currently has residents.
"I'm the lady up on the hill," says Skylar Blue, known as Sky, who moved here from Texas to be closer to her daughter, a student at Humboldt State. Her prized possession is a 1960s Woodstock poster she hung on her living-room wall.
She left Texas to get a new start.
"Everybody tries to fix you up with some old toothless guy," she says of her former home.
She won't be finding many toothless guys in Bridgeville, where there aren't many guys at all.
"I like my privacy," Sky Blue, 49, says.
She'd better.
Most out-of-towners who stop at the post office ask: Where can I find gas? Where can I find water? Where can I find a bathroom?
The answer to all three questions is about two miles down the road at a place called Swains Flat, a general store with a couple of gas pumps.
Krall spent almost as much as he paid for the place to clean it up. He hired his brother-in-law, Steve Kylis, to live in and manage Bridgeville. Krall and Kylis had a bulldozer knock down what was left of the general store. They hauled away 10 semi trucks full of trash. They installed a septic system and rebuilt more than a few roofs.
The houses they refurbished are now almost all filled with tenants. One or two buildings still need repair.
On a recent Friday, Krall showed up with a 12-pack of beer for Chris Hanisko, who moved his family here from San Diego and lives with his wife and kids in a little pink house.
"It's absolute seclusion, and I love it," Hanisko says. "I've had too much of the city."
Krall can take you to the spot, on the edge of the black-sand Van Duzen, and show you were he was going to put the bungalows. There would be 10 here, and 10 up the river a ways near the old "China camp," where Chinese workers stayed while they were building the railroad.
He wanted a conference center and a dining hall. He planned to have pathways that led all through town and into the woods, pathways for introspective walks.
When he talks about Bridgeville, you can tell Krall really loves it.
"Can you imagine sitting in a cabin up here, listening to the flow of the river?" he asks.
The remoteness of the place is what he liked.
But the remoteness of the place is why he's selling. About six months ago, he and his wife were having dinner in nearby Eureka, and the thought came to them at the same time.
We can't do this.
He wasn't even standing in the middle of the Van Duzen River when he got cold feet.
Their life in Orange County is too good.
The Kralls live in the Amber Hill neighborhood, and they're constantly taking the kids to soccer practice or arts and crafts classes at the Laguna Hills Recreation Center.
Elisa Krall doesn't want to leave her MOPS group – Mothers of Preschoolers.
But most important, the Kralls live close to both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
In the end, the Kralls couldn't walk away from the schools, the parks, the recreation programs. They couldn't walk away from their extended families. Krall couldn't walk away from his mortgage banking job, which he loves.
"There is no question that it's beautiful, but it was a little too far," says Elisa. "As time went on, it really sunk in that we couldn't do it."
Bruce Krall says he didn't want to be the bad guy and pull his family away from their great life. He said he saw "The Mosquito Coast," a film in which Harrison Ford plays an uncompromising father who moves his family into a remote jungle.
Bridgeville isn't the jungle. But it isn't the city, either.
"I'm couldn't have them look at me and say 'Dad, what did you do?'" he says.
He and his wife agreed that his dream of operating a retreat center isn't dead. It is merely on hold, until they find a closer, less remote location.
"I'll do it ... someday," he says.
He didn't buy it on eBay, but he's going to sell it there.
As soon as he decided to sell, he wanted to capitalize on the notoriety that the town received. So he contacted Jenny Kompolt, who runs eBay's high-end auctions.
Recently, Kompolt has auctioned a lunch with Warren Buffett, the last flight on the Concorde, a $400,000 complete set of Air Jordan sneakers and one of Jay Leno's motorcycles.
"I thought selling a town was unique," Kompolt says.
In the first week of posting information about the pending auction of Bridgeville, Kompolt has received more than 80,000 unique hits on the Bridgeville page, which can be found at http://www.ebay.com/bridgeville.
The auction will last for 30 days. Starting bid: $1.75 million. (Kompolt's company is pre-qualifying bidders now to make sure they have the funds to buy the town). As Krall notes, it's a lower price than it was in 2003, the last time it was auctioned on eBay. At the end of the auction, the highest bidder will be introduced to Krall.
Bridgeville's residents will be watching closely. Krall has suggested this would be a perfect place for a religious group, movie company, college, corporation or, of course, a retreat center to spring up.
Chris Hanisko said he hopes the new owner is just like the current owner.
"If the town goes on the same path it's going now, that would be good," he says.
Then he thought for a second.
"And it would be great if somebody built a little bar up here," he says.
Southern California News
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weatherlover427
Newport Beach battles bugs
Newport Beach will use pesticides at 56 homes to combat nonnative beetle colony.
By JEFF OVERLEY
The Orange County Register
Citrus Root Weevil
Public meeting
The California Department of Food and Agriculture will hold an informational meeting on the extermination effort from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 10 at Mariner's Park at Dover Drive and Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach.
NEWPORT BEACH – Have you heard the one about the lesser of two weevils?
Unlike that classic pun, Newport Beach's citrus root weevil infestation is no laughing matter.
Worried that the large beetle could devastate crops and nurseries, state officials last week announced plans for a full-frontal assault on the winged plant-muncher.
On April 17, workers will spray pesticide at 56 Newport homes in hopes of laying waste to the voracious bugger, which feeds on 270 types of plant life.
"There's a large potential for damage if we don't get it under control," said Dan Sereno, Newport Beach's superintendent of parks and trees.
A 3-square-mile quarantine has been enforced since last year when the weevils were discovered in Newport - the critter's first established colony on the West Coast. Traps have been set and dumping of garden clippings has been restricted.
So far, horticultural casualties have been contained within a handful of Newport communities, and damage reportedly is light.
"I guess we'd rather they weren't here, but certainly it's not been a big hassle," said James Brown, whose Belcourt neighborhood has been ground zero for weevil activity in Newport.
But experts fear the varmints could hitch a ride out of town and into California's agricultural heartland.
"If it got into the agricultural crops, it could damage a significant amount of our fruit and vegetable output," said Steve Lyle, spokesman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
It's unclear how the weevils made their way to Newport Beach, though officials suspect they were stowaways in plant shipments from Florida or the Caribbean. In those regions, weevils have displayed a conspicuous sweet tooth, scarfing down large swaths of citrus fruit and sugarcane.
Before their appearance here, weevils hadn't made their way west of Texas, though specimens had previously been intercepted in plant shipments, according to a study by the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Shortly after their discovery in Newport, the weevils also popped up in Long Beach, where a smaller quarantine is in effect and eradication efforts also are scheduled.
It could take three to five years to completely wipe out the insects, but odds are that the April 17 spraying will help end much of the problem, said Nick Nisson, an entomologist with the county Agricultural Commission.
"I think there's a very good chance we'll get rid of it," Nisson said.
Newport Beach will use pesticides at 56 homes to combat nonnative beetle colony.
By JEFF OVERLEY
The Orange County Register
Citrus Root Weevil
Public meeting
The California Department of Food and Agriculture will hold an informational meeting on the extermination effort from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 10 at Mariner's Park at Dover Drive and Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach.
NEWPORT BEACH – Have you heard the one about the lesser of two weevils?
Unlike that classic pun, Newport Beach's citrus root weevil infestation is no laughing matter.
Worried that the large beetle could devastate crops and nurseries, state officials last week announced plans for a full-frontal assault on the winged plant-muncher.
On April 17, workers will spray pesticide at 56 Newport homes in hopes of laying waste to the voracious bugger, which feeds on 270 types of plant life.
"There's a large potential for damage if we don't get it under control," said Dan Sereno, Newport Beach's superintendent of parks and trees.
A 3-square-mile quarantine has been enforced since last year when the weevils were discovered in Newport - the critter's first established colony on the West Coast. Traps have been set and dumping of garden clippings has been restricted.
So far, horticultural casualties have been contained within a handful of Newport communities, and damage reportedly is light.
"I guess we'd rather they weren't here, but certainly it's not been a big hassle," said James Brown, whose Belcourt neighborhood has been ground zero for weevil activity in Newport.
But experts fear the varmints could hitch a ride out of town and into California's agricultural heartland.
"If it got into the agricultural crops, it could damage a significant amount of our fruit and vegetable output," said Steve Lyle, spokesman for the state Department of Food and Agriculture.
It's unclear how the weevils made their way to Newport Beach, though officials suspect they were stowaways in plant shipments from Florida or the Caribbean. In those regions, weevils have displayed a conspicuous sweet tooth, scarfing down large swaths of citrus fruit and sugarcane.
Before their appearance here, weevils hadn't made their way west of Texas, though specimens had previously been intercepted in plant shipments, according to a study by the University of California's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Shortly after their discovery in Newport, the weevils also popped up in Long Beach, where a smaller quarantine is in effect and eradication efforts also are scheduled.
It could take three to five years to completely wipe out the insects, but odds are that the April 17 spraying will help end much of the problem, said Nick Nisson, an entomologist with the county Agricultural Commission.
"I think there's a very good chance we'll get rid of it," Nisson said.
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weatherlover427
Paintball hits boy, 13, in eye
By Erika I. Ritchie
THEN: March 10
Sam Applegate, 13, a Las Flores Middle School student, was struck in his right eye by paintballs fired from a passing car while playing basketball in a friend's yard.
NOW
The Applegates and the friend's family put up a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the shooter. Doctors aren't sure whether his vision will return.
WHAT'S NEXT
Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Bob Hogbin said the investigation is continuing.
By Erika I. Ritchie
THEN: March 10
Sam Applegate, 13, a Las Flores Middle School student, was struck in his right eye by paintballs fired from a passing car while playing basketball in a friend's yard.
NOW
The Applegates and the friend's family put up a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the shooter. Doctors aren't sure whether his vision will return.
WHAT'S NEXT
Orange County Sheriff's Lt. Bob Hogbin said the investigation is continuing.
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weatherlover427
Shooting after party in Santa Ana leaves 2 men dead
By MATHEW PADILLA
The Orange County Register
Shooting after party in Santa Ana leaves 2 men dead
Two men died after a shooting at a party in a commercial district in Santa Ana at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.
Jairo Tamayo, 19, died at Garden Grove Medical Center and Erick Romay, 26, died at UC Irvine Medical Center.
Santa Ana police believe the shooting in the 2000 block of south Susan Street was gang-related.
By MATHEW PADILLA
The Orange County Register
Shooting after party in Santa Ana leaves 2 men dead
Two men died after a shooting at a party in a commercial district in Santa Ana at 12:30 a.m. Saturday.
Jairo Tamayo, 19, died at Garden Grove Medical Center and Erick Romay, 26, died at UC Irvine Medical Center.
Santa Ana police believe the shooting in the 2000 block of south Susan Street was gang-related.
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weatherlover427
Cypress man dies in Anaheim crash
Frankie Dominguez, a 41-year-old resident of Cypress, died in a car accident in Anaheim at about 2 a.m. Saturday.
Dominguez died at the scene of the collision at Orange and Dale avenues.
Tim Schmidt, a sergeant in the Anaheim Police Department, said the collision occurred after one vehicle ran a red light, but it's not clear if Dominguez was the one who failed to stop.
Schmidt declined to name the driver of the other vehicle, a Chevy Silverado pickup truck, who survived.
Frankie Dominguez, a 41-year-old resident of Cypress, died in a car accident in Anaheim at about 2 a.m. Saturday.
Dominguez died at the scene of the collision at Orange and Dale avenues.
Tim Schmidt, a sergeant in the Anaheim Police Department, said the collision occurred after one vehicle ran a red light, but it's not clear if Dominguez was the one who failed to stop.
Schmidt declined to name the driver of the other vehicle, a Chevy Silverado pickup truck, who survived.
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weatherlover427
Rescued dog gets new home
By Lois Evezich
THEN:
Ejaye Sadri rescues a black Labrador from beneath a demolished house in New Orleans on Jan. 1, months after Hurricane Katrina. She brings him home to Laguna Niguel and names him Midnight.
now
Sadri couldn't keep Midnight, so Alberta and Barry Cambeilh of Laguna Niguel adopted the dog last week.
WHAT'S NEXT
Because of her attachment to Midnight, Sadri plans to continue visiting him, easing the transition to his new home.
By Lois Evezich
THEN:
Ejaye Sadri rescues a black Labrador from beneath a demolished house in New Orleans on Jan. 1, months after Hurricane Katrina. She brings him home to Laguna Niguel and names him Midnight.
now
Sadri couldn't keep Midnight, so Alberta and Barry Cambeilh of Laguna Niguel adopted the dog last week.
WHAT'S NEXT
Because of her attachment to Midnight, Sadri plans to continue visiting him, easing the transition to his new home.
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weatherlover427
Money raised for sister city
By MAGDA LISZEWSKA
By Magda Liszewska
THEN: SEPTEMBER 2005
Dana Point adopted Slidell, La., as a sister city following Hurricane Katrina.
now
The City Council voted to donate $10,000 to the Red Cross and used $5,000 to start the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund. Residents contributed $5,162. Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary contributed another $2,500 and teamed up with the Rotary International's program, which donated $50,000 to Slidell.
WHAT'S NEXT
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society will help with cleanup
By MAGDA LISZEWSKA
By Magda Liszewska
THEN: SEPTEMBER 2005
Dana Point adopted Slidell, La., as a sister city following Hurricane Katrina.
now
The City Council voted to donate $10,000 to the Red Cross and used $5,000 to start the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund. Residents contributed $5,162. Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary contributed another $2,500 and teamed up with the Rotary International's program, which donated $50,000 to Slidell.
WHAT'S NEXT
Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society will help with cleanup
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weatherlover427
Reservists thanked for Iraq service
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
LOS ALAMITOS – The head of the U.S. Army Reserve on Saturday thanked members of a Los Alamitos-based Reserve unit for their service in Iraq.
"Their nation called and they stepped forward and said, 'I will serve,'" said Lt. General James Helmly, commanding officer of the Army Reserve.
Helmly extended a Friday stopover at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base to participate Saturday in the "Welcome Home Warrior-Citizens Awards Ceremony" for about 50 members of the 6th Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, which operates from the base.
Each member was called up on stage, with their family, and was given an American flag in a wooden case, a commemorative coin, lapel pins and other gifts.
From April 2004 until April 2005, the aviation-support unit was deployed to Iraq, where members transported more than 20,000 soldiers and nearly 6 million pounds of cargo.
"It's extremely nice being recognized," said Lt. Col. Anthony DeMolina of Aliso Viejo. He's the battalion's commander, and his civilian job is in the Los Angeles Police Department's aviation group.
"We've noticed and really appreciated the amount of support the United States has given us," he said.
By PETER LARSEN
The Orange County Register
LOS ALAMITOS – The head of the U.S. Army Reserve on Saturday thanked members of a Los Alamitos-based Reserve unit for their service in Iraq.
"Their nation called and they stepped forward and said, 'I will serve,'" said Lt. General James Helmly, commanding officer of the Army Reserve.
Helmly extended a Friday stopover at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base to participate Saturday in the "Welcome Home Warrior-Citizens Awards Ceremony" for about 50 members of the 6th Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, which operates from the base.
Each member was called up on stage, with their family, and was given an American flag in a wooden case, a commemorative coin, lapel pins and other gifts.
From April 2004 until April 2005, the aviation-support unit was deployed to Iraq, where members transported more than 20,000 soldiers and nearly 6 million pounds of cargo.
"It's extremely nice being recognized," said Lt. Col. Anthony DeMolina of Aliso Viejo. He's the battalion's commander, and his civilian job is in the Los Angeles Police Department's aviation group.
"We've noticed and really appreciated the amount of support the United States has given us," he said.
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weatherlover427
Apr 2, 8:31 AM EDT
Survey: Angels name change strikes out with many fans
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Fans may not like the Angels' new name, but they're not about to start rooting for the Dodgers.
Roughly three in four people want the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to change their name back to the Anaheim Angels, according to an Orange County Register survey published Sunday. Fewer than one in 10 prefer the new name.
Most people surveyed, however, say they'll back the Angels no matter what the team is called, while less than one in five won't support them, the newspaper found.
"You could call them the Mudslingers, but if they have good players, I'd still be there," said Kelly Goodman, 40, of Los Angeles.
Advertisement
Nearly everyone surveyed says a team's name isn't important. Performance topped the list, followed by location.
The Angels changed their name last year, prompting a city lawsuit claiming the move breached a stadium lease agreement. A Superior Court jury ruled in the team's favor earlier this year.
The city has used millions of dollars in its failed legal battle - spending opposed by three out of four people surveyed.
Angels spokesman Tim Mead said he hopes fans will separate their loyalty from the team's business strategy.
"We had to change the name for business," Mead said. "We had on-field success, but off field, we were not succeeding."
The Register survey was based on interviews with 1,100 Orange and Los Angeles county residents in February.
Survey: Angels name change strikes out with many fans
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Fans may not like the Angels' new name, but they're not about to start rooting for the Dodgers.
Roughly three in four people want the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to change their name back to the Anaheim Angels, according to an Orange County Register survey published Sunday. Fewer than one in 10 prefer the new name.
Most people surveyed, however, say they'll back the Angels no matter what the team is called, while less than one in five won't support them, the newspaper found.
"You could call them the Mudslingers, but if they have good players, I'd still be there," said Kelly Goodman, 40, of Los Angeles.
Advertisement
Nearly everyone surveyed says a team's name isn't important. Performance topped the list, followed by location.
The Angels changed their name last year, prompting a city lawsuit claiming the move breached a stadium lease agreement. A Superior Court jury ruled in the team's favor earlier this year.
The city has used millions of dollars in its failed legal battle - spending opposed by three out of four people surveyed.
Angels spokesman Tim Mead said he hopes fans will separate their loyalty from the team's business strategy.
"We had to change the name for business," Mead said. "We had on-field success, but off field, we were not succeeding."
The Register survey was based on interviews with 1,100 Orange and Los Angeles county residents in February.
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weatherlover427
O.C. seniors protest a new Home Depot
When a group of seniors hit the streets to protest a new Home Depot, the city listened.
By MICHAEL CORONADO
The Orange County Register
THEY SAID “NO”: Bobbi Decker, from left, Trish Hodges, and Jack Heath, all residents of the Capistrano Valley Mobile Estates, were part of the group that battled to keep Home Depot from building on a 13-acre site.
MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – The yellow T-shirt framed in glass inside the clubhouse at Capistrano Valley Mobile Estates is a reminder of a good scrabble.
Silk-screened onto the fabric are the words "Home Depot" inside a circle with a slash through it.
Residents here won the match nearly three years ago that pitted mostly seniors against the home-improvement giant.
Last week, city leaders acting as the redevelopment agency purchased a 2-acre plot on Stonehill Drive from Home Depot for $5.1 million, a sale that quietly capped a once-public battle that consumed residents and that was ultimately decided at the ballot box. The city owns the remaining 11-acre portion of land.
"They called us the fighters in tennis shoes," said Jack Heath, 81, who helped coordinate a long, determined fight against the proposal.
Capistrano Valley Mobile Estate residents hit the streets then, wearing the bright yellow T-shirts, spreading the word that Home Depot was a bad fit for the city.
"We gave a lot of time, sweat and foot power," he said.
Home Depot representatives maintained that the retail outlet would provide a healthy injection of sales tax dollars into city coffers, improve nearby streets and develop interchanges.
But a majority of residents were unconvinced and in an advisory vote rejected the idea that the city should sell its portion of the property to Home Depot for $9 million. The 2002 vote sent a strong-enough message that city leaders subsequently rejected the property sale in a formal vote.
The small plot of property owned by Home Depot USA was a key component in the land struggle because it provided the only access way into the remaining 12 or so acres of land that the city owned.
Now, the property remains undeveloped. The city's plan is to take out a 24-month loan, make interest payments and eventually sell the property to recoup its costs.
Last October, a report to the City Council explored the idea of allowing nearby car dealerships to develop the property for extra vehicle storage, employee parking and a parts-and-service facility.
So far, no formal proposal or agreement has been inked, but car-dealer representatives and city staff have talked over the idea, said Douglas Dumhart, the city's economic development manager.
Last year, representatives from the Automotive Investment Group, which owns the Dodge and Nissan dealerships projected they could triple the number of new and used vehicles they sold if they were allowed to expand onto the entire 12-acre site.
But in January, Toyota also approached the city about expanding onto the site, and now the city is talking with both parties about sharing the use of the property.
When a group of seniors hit the streets to protest a new Home Depot, the city listened.
By MICHAEL CORONADO
The Orange County Register
THEY SAID “NO”: Bobbi Decker, from left, Trish Hodges, and Jack Heath, all residents of the Capistrano Valley Mobile Estates, were part of the group that battled to keep Home Depot from building on a 13-acre site.
MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
MORE PHOTOS
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – The yellow T-shirt framed in glass inside the clubhouse at Capistrano Valley Mobile Estates is a reminder of a good scrabble.
Silk-screened onto the fabric are the words "Home Depot" inside a circle with a slash through it.
Residents here won the match nearly three years ago that pitted mostly seniors against the home-improvement giant.
Last week, city leaders acting as the redevelopment agency purchased a 2-acre plot on Stonehill Drive from Home Depot for $5.1 million, a sale that quietly capped a once-public battle that consumed residents and that was ultimately decided at the ballot box. The city owns the remaining 11-acre portion of land.
"They called us the fighters in tennis shoes," said Jack Heath, 81, who helped coordinate a long, determined fight against the proposal.
Capistrano Valley Mobile Estate residents hit the streets then, wearing the bright yellow T-shirts, spreading the word that Home Depot was a bad fit for the city.
"We gave a lot of time, sweat and foot power," he said.
Home Depot representatives maintained that the retail outlet would provide a healthy injection of sales tax dollars into city coffers, improve nearby streets and develop interchanges.
But a majority of residents were unconvinced and in an advisory vote rejected the idea that the city should sell its portion of the property to Home Depot for $9 million. The 2002 vote sent a strong-enough message that city leaders subsequently rejected the property sale in a formal vote.
The small plot of property owned by Home Depot USA was a key component in the land struggle because it provided the only access way into the remaining 12 or so acres of land that the city owned.
Now, the property remains undeveloped. The city's plan is to take out a 24-month loan, make interest payments and eventually sell the property to recoup its costs.
Last October, a report to the City Council explored the idea of allowing nearby car dealerships to develop the property for extra vehicle storage, employee parking and a parts-and-service facility.
So far, no formal proposal or agreement has been inked, but car-dealer representatives and city staff have talked over the idea, said Douglas Dumhart, the city's economic development manager.
Last year, representatives from the Automotive Investment Group, which owns the Dodge and Nissan dealerships projected they could triple the number of new and used vehicles they sold if they were allowed to expand onto the entire 12-acre site.
But in January, Toyota also approached the city about expanding onto the site, and now the city is talking with both parties about sharing the use of the property.
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