County Revises Theo Lacy Jail Plan in Effort to Mollify Orange Officials

County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a revised plan for expansion of the Theo Lacy branch jail in Orange, reducing the height of the planned construction and the size of cells and dormitories.

The changes were a response to objections by officials in Orange, but a lawyer for the city said some concerns had not been addressed.

“It plugs up some deficiencies, but there is room for more changes” said the lawyer, Susan M. Trager. “The city still has no clarification of visiting hours and where releases are to occur, and we still can’t tell what the building will look like.”

Orange will probably refile a lawsuit against the project, Trager said, because the supervisors rescinded the plan cited by the city’s current lawsuit.

Trager and Daniel W. Hoover, a representative of The City shopping center across the street from Theo Lacy, asked the board Tuesday to postpone its vote and allow a period of time for public comment.

Hoover said operators of the shopping center received a copy of the revised plan Friday. Trager said she first saw a copy Sunday night.

The board, advised by a county lawyer that no public comment period was required, held the vote.

Trager said afterward that if more time had been allowed to study the changes, remaining objections to the plan could have been resolved.

Those objections involve safety matters, she said, such as who will pay for additional police and firefighters if the increased jail population makes them necessary, and how security will be handled.

Michael M. Ruane of the County Planning Department said planners tried to be responsive to the concerns of Orange officials.

“I don’t know if public review would resolve any issues,” he said. “We think it (the revised plan) is a good move as far as the city is concerned.”

The original version of the plan, which is intended to alleviate overcrowding at the county’s main jail in Santa Ana, called for multiple-story buildings that would increase the Theo Lacy inmate population from about 800 to 1,737, including, for the first time, 300 maximum-security inmates.

Orange officials complained that the expanded jail with high-risk inmates would bring more crime into the city and cost it $300,000 more for police. City officials also worried that the county might expand the jail again later.

Supervisor Don R. Roth, whose district includes the jail site, offered a compromise limiting the inmate population to 1,437 and dropping the idea of housing maximum-security prisoners.

That plan was approved by the Board of Supervisors in December, and on Tuesday was incorporated into documents that must accompany the final expansion plan. The other changes approved Tuesday call for all of the buildings at the jail, except a parking structure, to be kept at one story.

The effect of that, said Dan Wooldridge, an aide to Roth, is that construction will spread out an additional 63,000 square feet, leaving virtually no room for future expansion.

Dormitories that were originally designed to hold 300 beds have been scaled down to hold 208, Wooldridge said, and cells will be designed to hold one inmate each, rather than two.

An employee parking structure originally planned to be two stories will have four stories, Wooldridge said, because the original plan was inadequate.

Ruane said Orange officials will be included in discussions on the architectural design of the jail and other matters as the project progresses.