In December 2017, the Cities of Garden Grove and Santa Ana held a Joint Study Session to discuss the potential reuse of the Willowick Property (Property). At the meeting, both City Councils directed staff to conduct further due diligence including visioning and economic valuation of the Property.  

In April 2018, the Garden Grove City Council approved an Agreement with the City of Santa Ana that provided for the Cities of Garden Grove and Santa Ana to further implement the exploration of the redevelopment of the Property by retaining independent consultants to help create a vision of future development, work with community outreach to determine community needs, and determine the economic framework for the value of the Property. These costs would be shared equally between the cities.

Staff is pleased to report the selection of the Visioning and Economic Consultants are complete. Following the Requests For Proposals (RFP) that was circulated in May 2018, ten (10) RFPs were received from economic analysis consultants and six RFP (6) proposals for visioning consultants.  An interview process was held with the top three RFPs for economic analysis and the top one for visioning.  At the conclusion of the interview process on June 28, 2018, the Selection Committee comprised of Santa Ana and Garden Grove staff recommended HATCH as the economic consultant and SWA as the preferred visioning consultant. 

The next steps will be a coordinated series of Community Workshops to seek public input to form a visioning plan for the 101-acre Property. The series will consist of three, monthly community workshops and will take place in Santa Ana. These community workshops will include discussions on several topics, including development ideas, concepts, and community needs and goals. The visioning plan will guide the preparation of development plans for the future use of the Property.

The following provide details about each scheduled community workshop:

• Workshop #1 will focus on exploring ideas from community members and determining the needs and goals of the community and will be held on Thursday, August 30, 2018, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The meeting location will be held at the Goodwill Industries located at 410 N. Fairview Street, Santa Ana 92703. 

• Workshop #2 will discuss economic and market forces, and will include activities using maps and boards and will be held on Thursday, September 27, 2018, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Spurgeon Intermediate School located at 2701 West 5th Street, Santa Ana 92703.

• Workshop #3 will evaluate alternative the concepts derived from previous workshops and will be held on Thursday, October 25, 2018, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Spurgeon Intermediate School located at 2701 West 5th Street, Santa Ana 92703.

The proposed visioning process will help both cities better understand how the Property can best serve and enrich the community for current and future generations, including determining what activities and land-uses are needed, and how it can keep pace with changing conditions and trends.

The completion of the visioning process and economic analysis are anticipated to be completed in late December 2018.

This report is for information only, no action is required.

By:  Greg Blodgett, Sr. Project Manager