Segerstrom’s Twin-Tower Project Boosted on 2 Fronts

The controversial, twin-tower South Coast Place project in Costa Mesa got a boost on two fronts Monday night.

Over objections from about 20 residents, the Costa Mesa Planning Commission unanimously approved maximum development for 3.1 million square feet of land owned by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons near the San Diego Freeway and Fairview Road.

Also meeting Monday night, the City Council approved supplemental environmental findings that tend to favor the project known as One South Coast Place.

However, the council met late into the night before taking up the Planning Commission’s action setting the maximum square footage to develop the site.

Despite opponents’ assertions that Monday’s Planning Commission action increased the maximum allowable size of the development, planning commissioners insisted that they were simply restoring the maximum development limit for the property that was temporarily removed from the city’s General Plan last year for further study.

The land-use plan features a twin-tower office complex strongly opposed by homeowner groups and other residents fearful of increased traffic congestion.

Monday night’s 5-0 vote sent the issue to the City Council, which was expected to adopt the plan late Monday or in the early morning hours Tuesday.

The council voted Monday night, 4 to 1, to adopt supplementary environmental findings that support the development--also in the face of strong opposition.

The findings include an assertion that by the year 2010 traffic would improve more if the Segerstrom project is built than if it is not built. The finding was based on the Segerstroms’ plan to include car-pooling, flexible work hours and help in the financing road improvements in the area.

After the Planning Commission meeting, Sandra Guiness, who lives east of the project on Myrtlewood Street, said of the panel’s decision: “The public is being kept in the dark about the (development) plan.”

She said there was too little advance notice about Monday night’s vote: “The Planning Commission is trying to rush the project through.”

Commissioners Defensive

No residents spoke before the commission in favor of the project. Commissioners were defensive, with panel Chairman Joe Erickson saying that the development limits were restored to the General Plan to clarify matters for residents who now claim they don’t want such details (in the city’s General Plan).

At the council meeting, Councilman Dave Wheeler cast the only vote against adoption of the environmental findings, arguing that “it would be fundamentally unfair” for the city to add “page after page of additional findings” to the original plan. “The original EIR was grossly inadequate, and my question is, why are we now trying to patch up problems caused by an insufficient report?”

The council majority did not defend the substance of the findings but rather agreed with City Atty. Tom Wood, who said they were legally permissible.

A pending lawsuit brought by a citizens group charges that the land-use portion of the General Plan doesn’t contain the required statements of population and building density, and that building densities planned for the Segerstrom property had been changed.

The resolutions considered by the City Council Monday night were drafted by the city attorney and director of development services to negate those allegations.

The construction site for the $100-million complex lies north of the San Diego Freeway between Harbor Boulevard and Fairview Road.

In early June, members of Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth filed a Superior Court lawsuit challenging the city’s approval of the project. The suit alleged that the project will produce “gridlocked streets” and “a general deterioration of the quality of life in Costa Mesa.”

Less than a week later, Segerstrom began clearing the 16-acre site, an action for which a city permit was not needed as long as excavations went no deeper than 18 inches. On June 12, much to the group’s chagrin, the city issued foundation permits that enabled Segerstrom to begin preliminary grading.