Home Ranch project on the table

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- A proposed home furnishings store and office park in the

Halecrest/Hall of Fame neighborhood would flood residential streets with

traffic, the president of the neighborhood’s homeowners association said

Tuesday.

Gilbert Collins was reacting to an environmental report prepared and

released by city-hired consultants last week, indicating how the project

would affect the area.

The site of the proposed project is between Fairview Road and Harbor

Boulevard, just north of the San Diego Freeway.

The IKEA store and office complex would draw nearly four times the amount

of traffic currently flowing around the site, the report said. Some of

that traffic would be generated by the more than 8,000 employees working

in the complex, but forced to live outside Costa Mesa because of citywide

housing shortages.

“It’s not good city planning to have people traveling from far away to

their jobs,” Collins said Tuesday.

The proposed 93-acre project, known as Home Ranch, includes the 17-acre

IKEA store site and nearly 2 million square feet of office space. Some

office buildings would be nine stories high.

Collins is also opposed to a proposed illuminated 150-foot IKEA sign.

“It would be an aesthetic nightmare,” he said.

C.J. Segerstrom & Sons owns the land, which the city designated for

medium-density homes and industrial use. Buildings on the site cannot

exceed five stories, according to city ordinances.

As a result, the Segerstroms are asking the city to make exceptions for

the project.

If the City Council does not approve the request, the developers would be

restricted to building the IKEA store only.

Calls to a C.J. Segerstrom spokesman were not returned.

Mayor Gary Monahan and council members Joe Erickson and Linda Dixon said

they hadn’t yet read the report, which is about 800 pages long.

FYI

A public hearing on the Home Ranch project is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Monday, April 24, at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa.

Copies of the Environmental Impact Report are available for public

viewing until May 10 at the following locations:

* City of Costa Mesa Planning Division, 77 Fair Drive

* Mesa Verde Library, 2969 Mesa Verde Drive East

* Costa Mesa Library, 1855 Park Ave.