Angel Stadium sale is deemed illegal by state housing agency | LA Times

The Angel Stadium sale was declared illegal Wednesday by California’s state housing agency, which gave the city of Anaheim 60 days to redo the deal or make the land available to interested bidders.

That could put the city in the position of scrapping the deal and starting over, suing to pursue it, or paying almost $2 from every $3 in cash from the sale toward state fines.

Under a state law called the Surplus Land Act, public land made available for sale should first be offered to affordable housing developers. If Anaheim chooses not to make the stadium land available to developers beyond Moreno, the California Department of Housing and Community Development said the city could comply with the act by setting aside 80% of the land for housing and reserving 40% of those housing units as affordable.

The state agency said the city had violated the Surplus Land Act in three ways: by not properly classifying the land as surplus; by not making the land available to other developers; and by not notifying the agency of such availability and any negotiations before reaching the sale agreement with Moreno’s company.