Costa Mesa officials to tour Home Ranch
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Jennifer Kho
COSTA MESA -- City Council members and residents looking for a better
understanding of the proposed Home Ranch project will get the chance to
see the site Friday.
“It’s always good to eyeball things,” said Paul Freeman, spokesman for
C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, owner of the property. “It’s always good to see
things firsthand and to understand what the physical constraints are,
what the line-of-sight issues are and just what some of the possibilities
are. I think it will be useful.”
Home Ranch, a 93-acre project originally scheduled for Planning
Commission review last year, was redesigned to add housing, as well as
reduce building heights and the square-foot density of the proposed
office space.
The modified proposal for the site -- a lima bean farm bordered by the
San Diego Freeway, Fairview Road, Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue
-- calls for a 308,000-square-foot Ikea furniture store, 791,050 square
feet of office space, 252,648 square feet of industrial business and 464
homes.
Despite the redesign, the project has remained controversial.
Three homeowners associations -- Mesa North Community Assn.,
Halescrest/Hall of Fame Homeowners Assn. and Mesa Del Mar Homeowners
Assn. -- have opposed the project because of worries that the project
could strain police and fire services, as well as increase traffic and
urban runoff.
The organizations also expressed concern about the density of the
proposed housing and the aesthetics of the Ikea.
Robin Leffler, a Mesa Verde resident, said she opposes parts of the
project that are expected to significantly exceed the general plan
requirements for the site, such as traffic generation and the density of
the industrial park.
“I think the citizens tend to think of the general plan as a limit to
the city, but it looks like it is not being looked at as a limit but as a
jumping-off point or a starting point,” she said. “Overdevelopment
affects our quality of life in a lot of ways. It puts pressure on our
housing, degrades our air quality and affects traffic. As far as Home
Ranch and the Ikea are concerned, there are aesthetic considerations.
There could be a big parking lot and a big blue box at the entrance to
our city.”
The city has scheduled three bus tours of the Home Ranch property.
General information about the project and a discussion will also be
included in the tour, said Kimberly Brandt, associate planner for the
city, on Monday.
“We’re going to go out and look at it, look at what is going to be
preserved, such as the farmhouse, and where the Ikea and industrial park
will go,” she said. “It’s a large project, 93 acres and one of the
largest pieces of undeveloped property in the city. There’s a lot of
community interest in the development, and we want to make sure that
whatever goes out there in the best for the community. We want to
evaluate Segerstrom’s perspective from the field. Sometimes, it’s easier
to see when you’re there than when you’re looking at plans.”
The tours will run from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, 9 to 11 a.m. Monday and
from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. May 12.
The deadline for tour reservations is Wednesday.
For more information, call (714) 754-5610.
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