And the fallout in Anaheim continues…
The Anaheim City Council voted 6-0 this week to void the sale of Angel Stadium, following a turbulent two weeks of federal investigations and the resignation of Anaheim’s mayor, Harry Sidhu.
The deal, originally approved in December 2019, had the city agreeing to sell the stadium and surrounding land to SRB Management, Angels owner Arte Moreno’s business partnership, in exchange for $150 million in cash and another $170 million in community benefits including affordable housing. The state soon alleged that the deal would violate the Surplus Land Act, which requires local government agencies that want to sell land to first offer it to affordable housing developers.
City of Anaheim officials, at the time, argued the deal was exempt from the law, but then restructured the deal to provide Moreno and his development company with $124 million in credits to include 466 units of affordable housing within a neighborhood to be built on the Angel Stadium parking lot.
To resolve the city’s violation of the state affordable housing law, the city, state and Moreno agreed to use $96 million of that money toward the construction of about 1,000 units of affordable housing elsewhere in the city of Anaheim.
The deal seemed to be done until the Feds stepped in earlier this month with word that they were building a case against Mayor Sidhu over public corruption allegations. Officials said Sidhu tried rushing the sale, violating affordable housing law, so he could get his reelection financed by the Angels
California Attorney General Rob Bonta requested that an Orange County judge put on hold on the agreement between the city and the state that was intended to settle a dispute over whether Anaheim broke an affordable housing law with the stadium sale deal.
Since that news broke just less than two weeks ago, Sidhu denied any wrongdoing and then resigned from his post, as did Melahat Rafiei, member of the Democratic National Committee and state party secretary, after being named in connection with the investigation.
According to the O.C. Register, dozens of Anaheim residents pressed the council to cancel the “tainted” sale earlier this week, while also calling for an independent investigation of council members and staff to learn who knew what, and to review any contracts with council campaign donors. Those include the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, whose former CEO was arrested last week in an investigation that appears tied to the federal investigation of Sidhu.
Moreno’s plans to redevelop the 150-acre site included building thousands of homes, as well as shops, hotels and offices.
Word is the city of Long Beach is now looking to lure the Anaheim Angels to head toward the water and abandon Anaheim following the never-ending scandal.