BREA : City Redevelopment Delayed by Judge

A Superior Court Judge blocked the city of Brea and its Redevelopment Agency on Tuesday from acquiring any more properties for its 50-acre downtown development project until hearings in a court case concerning relocation benefits for businesses and residences in the area resume July 13.

The suit filed by the Brea Small Business Coalition against Brea and its Redevelopment Agency seeks to halt development on the site, because, the coalition alleges, the city had not complied with state guidelines for providing residents and business owners with relocation aid.

Superior Court Judge Robert C. Todd’s order Tuesday came after he forced Brea attorney James Markman to drop an objection to documentation Todd was seeking on the history of redevelopment in Brea going back to the early 1970s.

Todd told Markman that if he did not withdraw his objection, he would issue a ruling in the case on the spot that the city of Brea would not find favorable.

Markman had objected to giving Todd the requested information, saying that closing arguments in the case had been heard during the first week of June.

“Frankly, I wasn’t happy this morning,” Markman said. “Obviously I withdrew the objection rather than take an adverse ruling.”

Todd’s Tuesday order, however, allowed Brea to proceed with the forced relocation of inventor Michael Kunec, 73, from his workshop in an aging warehouse in downtown Brea. Kunec was served with an eviction notice Tuesday afternoon ordering him off the premises by 5 p.m. Sunday. Sue Georgino, the Redevelopment Agency director, said she was unsure if Kunec would really be removed from his warehouse Sunday.

“We still want to work with him to find a relocation site, and that’s all we wanted throughout this process,” Georgino said.

Since 1985, Brea has relocated 41 businesses and more than 250 households in the redevelopment area to make way for a proposed shopping center and housing and entertainment complex.