"For 30 years, no one has been able to make any of the permitted uses work." That line sits in the FAQ on the City of Yorba Linda's West Bastanchury Site project page. It refers to the 27 acres of city-owned land south of Lakeview Avenue, between Casa Loma and Eureka avenues, that has had no use for three decades.
The page goes on to say why. Every use the deed allows "needs someone to fund construction, build a program, and pay for its operations year after year." Yorba Linda is now starting a new round of planning for the land, and that is the requirement any idea will have to meet. A park, a pool or a library won't move forward because it gets the most votes. It moves forward if someone can show how to pay for building it and then for running it every year after.
The list of allowed uses is long
The deed restrictions came with the city's 1995 purchase of the northerly 27 acres. They bar housing and limit the land to public uses. The use-restrictions document posted with the project lists what counts:
- City Hall, civic center buildings, and city vehicle and equipment storage
- Fire and police facilities
- A library, museum or post office
- A community center or community garden, and a senior citizen center
- Child or adult day care
- A private or public high school
- Recreational and athletic facilities, including parks, playgrounds, sports fields, courts, rinks, pools and aquatics, and skateboarding
Residents have already asked for most of these. In 2014 an Urban Land Institute technical assistance report collected more than 180 submissions that named 38 uses. The ones mentioned most included a children's park, a dog park, a skate park, a sports complex, tennis courts, a library, community events and equestrian use. The city's own file of emailed suggestions adds performing arts space to the list. In a 2020 report, the Orange County Register said several residents kept making the same point when the city asked for ideas: "No more homes, and nothing that causes more traffic."
So nobody has been short of ideas. What has been missing is money that keeps coming in after the ribbon-cutting.
The original 40 acres split into two halves with two results
The city's West Bastanchury holdings were once larger than 27 acres. The two pieces ended up very differently.
| Southerly 13 acres | Northerly 27 acres | |
|---|---|---|
| Acquired | 1977, no restrictions | 1995, with deed restrictions |
| Earlier use | Leased for vegetable and Christmas tree farming | Oil production, then a leased private high school site |
| What happened | Sold to Shea Homes, which built 23 single-family homes | Vacant since 2013 |
| Money to the city | $10.5 million expected from the sale, as reported in 2020 | None from development |
The unrestricted parcel found a buyer, and the rest of the city was set to benefit from the sale. The Register reported in 2020 that Yorba Linda planned to use the Shea Homes proceeds to help pay for the library and arts center then being built on Lakeview Avenue. The restricted parcel had a harder problem. Any use allowed there has to be paid for, and then it keeps costing money to operate.
The private high school plan ran into financing
The biggest attempt to use the 27 acres shows the problem. According to the city's timeline, Yorba Linda leased the site in 2003 to Yorba Linda Friends' Church, which planned a private high school. Rough grading, utilities and abandonment of the old oil wells started in 2005. The church couldn't finance the school, and the land went back to the city in 2013. A 2013 Register report said the church had asked for credit for drainage work and for removing 21 oil wells.
Jim Drummond's October 2026 Register column adds the numbers. The campus was expected to cost $53 million and was set to open in 2013. Organizers told the council they couldn't get a $39 million bank loan.
A high school is on the deed's list. It was planned for this land, and some of the site work was done. It still didn't get built, because the money ran out before construction.
Financing is now written into the rules
The city has now put this lesson into its conditions. The project page says any viable proposal has to meet four tests. It must:
- Integrate into the surrounding community
- Have a realistic source of financing and be able to support its continuing operations
- Contribute to public services for Yorba Linda residents
- Comply with the 1995 deed restrictions
The page also lists what's fixed by "legal context and circumstance." The deed restrictions can be released only by the party that holds them, and "any new use must be economically viable," with what can be built "largely dictated by the cost of development and economic benefit to the community."
That puts the 2014 wish list in a different light. A sports complex or an aquatics center is allowed by the deed. To pass the second test, a proposal also has to say who builds it and how it covers its costs every year.
The city's FAQ gives its reasons for taking this up now. Neighbors have shown interest in seeing the property put to use, and acting now lets the city "preserve local control" and deal with nuisance issues on the site. It also says Yorba Linda isn't required to build anything and could leave the land as it is.
The state step comes before any proposals
On September 15, 2026, the City Council approved Resolution No. 2026-6007 as Item 7 on the consent calendar. It finds that the city-owned property is exempt surplus land. The Register's column reported the vote as 5-0.
The Register explained the reason for the resolution. California's Surplus Land Act requires cities to offer surplus property for affordable housing unless an exemption applies. A legally binding restriction against housing, like this deed, is one of the exemptions. City Manager Peter Grant's staff report says the resolution "does not authorize sale, lease, development or any specific future use." The project page describes the request as asking the state to let the city "potentially sell, lease, or otherwise dispose of the Site."
That wording links back to financing. Selling or leasing is how a partner with its own money could come in. The adopted resolution notes that the state Department of Housing and Community Development reviewed a draft and advised around May 14, 2026, that it met the exemption requirements. The city expected the state's formal response in late October 2026, and the timeline on its project page still marks that step as "We're here."
Where residents can weigh in
The first public step was a drop-in Community Conversation on Thursday, September 10, 2026, in the multipurpose room at Lakeview Elementary School, 17510 Lakeview Avenue. The city mailed postcards to every home within 1,000 feet of the site. It also said no uses or developments were proposed or decided at that meeting.
The city has said which topics will be open for public input:
- Community benefits, meaning what a project gives back to the neighborhood
- Design, covering height, setbacks, landscaping and buffers along the edges
- Open space, including landscaping and possible trail connections
- Traffic and school safety, especially around Lakeview Elementary and Vista Del Verde Park
- How revenue is reinvested, meaning how any money from the site serves the community
The last item fits the financing requirement. If a sale or lease brings in money, residents get a say in where that money goes. The traffic item matters to the neighborhoods next to the site. The city's timeline notes that buyers in the Bridlewood Estates tract, approved in 1999 just east of the site, signed disclosures about a school planned for the land.
If the state approves, public engagement is expected to start in early 2027, after the holidays. The City Council will approve and publish the details of the process before it begins. Grant's report says the council will take up an engagement plan "at an upcoming meeting." The November 3 council meeting was canceled. The cancellation notice lists Tuesday, November 17, as the next regular meeting.
You can already send in comments. The project site has an online comment form that goes to [email protected], and an email signup for milestone updates. The city also says it will post a running "You Said, We Heard, Here's What's Next" update showing how resident input is shaping the process. The posted fact sheet, slides and overview video from September 10 are available on the same page.
If you're selling a home near Lakeview Avenue, Vista Del Verde or Bridlewood Estates, buyers may ask what's going on with the vacant land nearby. At the Bald Brothers Team, we keep track of local projects like West Bastanchury so your listing comes with clear, current answers about the site. Start the Two Week Selling System™ and get your free plan.
