A MAJOR hotel project for Garden Grove, as yet unbuilt.

By Jim Tortolano/Orange County Tribune

There are no reliable predictions about what will happen in our West Orange County cities in 2025.

All that are, are questions.

So here are the questions that may or may not be answered in 2025.

Question: Now that all local cities have passed anti-camping or public access ordinances aimed at curbing problems caused by homelessness, how will they be enforced and how effective will they be? Three of the four cities – Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Westminster – have “navigation centers,” or access to them, but how much of an impact it will have on what we see on the streets?

Question: Will long-delayed major projects be built? In Garden Grove, there are three major hotels planned for Harbor Boulevard but there’s been no visible progress toward the start of construction. Additionally. two major developments – Brookhurst Place II and a nearby five-story mixed use building at Garden Grove Boulevard and Brookhurst Street remain vacant lots.

In Westminster, the replacement for Westminster Mall, now called Bolsa Pacific, have made progress on paper, but no changes are evident.

In Huntington Beach, the controversial Bolsa Chica Senior Care project has received approval from the city council, but there are signs the new council majority may reverse itself.

Question: Who will be the winners – other, perhaps than the attorneys – in several ongoing or potential major lawsuits with the potential to affect Huntington Beach? Surf City is embroiled in a long-running legal battle over its refusal to submit a “housing element” accepting a responsibility to zone for over 13,000 new housing units. It’s also been sued by the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which is demanding that it abandon its at-large city council election system and go to a by-district model, which has been implemented by most cities and school districts in Orange County.

Question: With declining enrollment across the county, will local school systems start to consolidate and/or close school campuses? Ocean View School District has already begun the process and others may be forced to follow.

Question: How will be new situation in Washington – with Republicans controlling Congress and the White House – affect our cities? The federal government presently provides considerable funding for transit, including the OCStreetcar connecting Garden Grove and Santa Ana. With that change mean less of a chance for possible expansion of the light-rail line?