The Orange County Board of Supervisors Tuesday offered preliminary support for the Diocese of Orange’s new plans for an apartment complex for seniors in North Tustin, a project that has been dealt multiple setbacks over the years.
The 6.6-acre site would feature 100 apartments for seniors at 11901 Newport Ave. The board will consider final approval at its Sept. 11 meeting.
In December 2015, the board voted 3-2 to recall a spot-zoning ordinance that was changed on March 15, 2011, to allow for the project, which was touted then as the Springs at Bethsaida Senior Living facility on 7.25 acres.
The complex will include two single-story buildings and developers say it will have a surplus of parking. The Diocese has pushed for it to help empty-nesters on fixed incomes remain in the neighborhood.
“I’m very, very excited about this project,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who pushed to recall the spot-zoning ordinance in 2015.
“I just needed some time to bring the community together to really produce a lasting and enduring project that is part of this community,” Spitzer said. “It’s a much better project from the community’s point of view.”
The project had faced opposition from neighbors for years, and Orange County Superior Court Judge Gail Andler sided with the Foothill Communities Coalition in a ruling in March 2012 to overturn approval of the project by the Board of Supervisors.
However, the Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in January 2014 with the justices ruling that spot zoning is OK if it’s in the “public interest,” but found that the spot zoning for the Diocese’s project was “arbitrary or capricious.”
The project’s opponents in the past objected to the height of the buildings and because they feared it would open up the area to more commercial development.
John and Mary Prescott donated the property to church leaders in August 1956. The initial plan was to put St. Cecilia’s Church and a school on the land, and that proposal received the Board of Supervisors approval. However, the Tustin Heights Association, a forerunner of Foothill Communities, sued.
The diocese won that battle in the state Supreme Court, but officials decided to put an end to the project and the church was built elsewhere in Tustin.