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Lawsuit challenging Angel Stadium sale heads to court Wednesday

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Attorneys for Anaheim and a residents’ group that is challenging whether the Angel Stadium sale was done legally will meet this week in Orange County Superior Court.

They’ve made their arguments in court filings and are now awaiting a decision from Judge David A. Hoffer, who could rule on the case Wednesday or might ask for more information and issue a ruling later.

At issue is the People’s Homeless Task Force Orange County’s lawsuit alleging that Anaheim violated the state’s open meetings law, known as the Brown Act, when city leaders crafted and approved the $320 million deal to sell the stadium property to SRB Management, a business partnership of Angels owner Arte Moreno.

The group argues city officials improperly held discussions during closed sessions on whether to sell the property rather than negotiate a new lease and what elements to include in the deal, and that they illegally limited public input on the decision. The suit asks the court to nullify the sale, which has not closed escrow, so it can be redone.

The city has maintained officials followed the law and the sale should be allowed to stand; it also challenged the accuracy and admissibility of court declarations the plaintiffs filed from a city councilman and former city manager.

Another pending issue also has the potential to derail the stadium deal, but the timeline for a decision on that front is unknown. The state Department of Housing and Community Development in December told Anaheim it had violated the Surplus Land Act, an affordable housing law, because it didn’t follow the law’s provisions, but also did not qualify for an exemption from them.

State officials said that before city officials approved the deal – which would yield $150 million in cash and $170 million in affordable housing and other community benefits – they should have offered the property to affordable home developers and at least talked with any who made viable offers.

Anaheim has continued to disagree with the state’s finding, saying the Surplus Land Act does not apply to the stadium sale. Both sides said they still hope to work it out; under the law, the penalty if the city goes ahead with the deal but does not correct the violation could be $96 million.

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