Thread: CA: Laguna Beach day labor job site up for sale

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Laguna Beach job site up for sale

Agency says July 23 auction of parcel long used as day labor center forms part of its plan to unload unused parcels of land.


By CHRISTA WOODALL and AMY TAXIN
The Orange County Register
Caltrans has put up for sale the sliver of land where Laguna Beach has had a day labor hiring center for more than a decade.

The site has been the focus of controversy since an anti-illegal immigration activist last year pointed out that the land was state-owned and not properly permitted for use as a day labor site. The agency initially asked Laguna Beach to vacate the property, then reached a one-year lease agreement and began exploring whether the state had a need for the site.

Now Caltrans is putting the 16,810-square-foot parcel up for auction July 23. The minimum bid price is $950,000 – a price derived based on its potential for small commercial development, said Pam Gorniak, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

"Once a parcel is declared as excess, it is sold at fair market value, which is what we believe is our responsibility," Gorniak said.

The site was designated as a hiring center in 1993 to help keep day laborers from soliciting work on the street and to provide greater security for workers and employers. Over the past several years, the parcel on Laguna Canyon Road has been the target of protests by anti-illegal immigration activists who say the hiring site encourages illegal immigration.

City Manager Ken Frank said the city is now paying $420 in rent on a month-to-month basis for the Cross Cultural Council to run the day labor center on the site, as it has since 1999. But he says he's not looking for a new location for the day labor center because he thinks Caltrans has little chance of selling the parcel at the price it's seeking.

"I don't think anybody will be bidding with the minimum bid they have. Nobody in their right mind would bid $950,000 for that property," Frank said. "It is not worth anything. It's excess right of way."

Caltrans had put the parcel up for auction in May but didn't get any offers that met the $1.26 million minimum bid price at the time.

The auction will begin at 1 p.m. in Diamond Bar. For information, go to www.dot.ca.gov/property.

Anti-illegal immigration groups plan to protest at the day labor site from 6 to 8 p.m. July 21.

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/ne ... 759628.php

Who says that is not worth that much. They keep forgetting about air rights.

That sliver of land,like any other parcel in Laguna Beach could be worth much more. I live not far away and am surprised at the low cost. Something sounds fishy to me (no pun intended).

I'm hoping La Raza or the ACLU buy it. Therefore, a bullseye will be clearly painted on their smirking faces.