South Coast Metro to grow?
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Andrew Glazer
SOUTH COAST METRO -- The Segerstrom family’s plans to expand city arts
facilities and develop new office space here will face its first public
scrutiny later this month.
The project calls for constructing a 2,500-seat symphony hall, a
140,000-square-foot art museum, a 140-seat expansion to South Coast
Repertory Theater, three office towers and two parking structures.
The 54-acre site for the planned development is bordered by Bristol
Street, Sunflower Avenue, Avenue of the Arts and the San Diego Freeway.
The public will have an opportunity Aug. 14 to respond to a document,
available at City Hall and two local libraries, which outlines the
project’s potential effects on the area.
In late September, the Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss
whether to recommend the project to the City Council.
The project may generate more traffic, smog, and with the new jobs it
would create, draw more people to the already crowded city, according to
a report prepared by independent consultants.
But Costa Mesa Planning and Redevelopment Manager Michael Robinson
said he expects the project will draw minimal opposition. The buildings
are fairly removed from residential neighborhoods.
Robinson, who said the city’s planning staff still hasn’t made a
decision on the project, said he was concerned about possible increases
in smog here.
“The area already has an air pollution problem,” he said. “Anything
that adds more pollution exacerbates that problem.”
The developers would demolish the Edwards Cinema and three restaurants
here to make room for the new buildings.
Copies of the report are available until Sept. 1 in the planning
division at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive; the Mesa Verde Library, 2969 Mesa
Verde Drive East; and the Costa Mesa Library, 1855 Park Ave.
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