OCTA board OKs eminent domain proceedings against landowners for I-405 expansion
“The Orange County Transportation Authority will initiate eminent domain proceedings against three property owners in order to gain temporary access to work on the I-405 Improvement Project.
Without much discussion, the agency’s board endorsed a plan on Monday, Jan. 22 to begin the process of acquiring a slice of two Huntington Beach properties — the Bella Terra Medical Plaza and Sendero Huntington Beach apartment complex — and an industrial parcel in Fountain Valley.
OCTA is leading the $1.9 billion project that will expand a 16-mile stretch of the I-405 by adding one regular lane in each direction between Euclid Street and the I-605 freeway and express lanes both ways between the State Route 73 and I-605. Repairs to bridges, freeway entrances and exits are also planned.
The temporary acquisition would allow crews to use the private land during building.
The expansion of the Magnolia Street bridge near the 152-unit Sendero apartments requires a retaining wall be built near the complex.
“The location of the project will cause enormous private injury that will disproportionately afflict harm on Sendero and its residents,” said Alisha Ortiz, an attorney for apartment owner Sendero Huntington Beach.”
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Casiano, Louis. The Orange County Register 22 January 2018.