Large furnishing store planned

Deirdre Newman

The city may be tempted to change its motto to “Home Furnishings

Central” now that a proposed 20 1/2-acre campus devoted to home

furnishing companies and their showrooms is in the works.

The development is set to occupy 340,000 square feet at Hyland

Avenue and South Coast Drive, just a tea light’s throw from IKEA.

Birtcher Development of Laguna Niguel plans to tear down State Farm

Insurance Company’s regional office and automobile claim center to

make way for the campus.

Birtcher officials submitted their plan last week. They did not

return calls for comment.

City Councilman Mike Scheafer said he thought the project meshed

well with the area.

“The plans that I saw look really good,” Scheafer said. “I think

it’s a natural fit for that area.”

The project will need to get the approval of the Planning

Commission and the City Council because Birtcher is asking the

property to be rezoned from a manufacturing park to an industrial

area. This change would allow it to develop a wider range of uses,

planner Willa Bouwens-Killeen said.

Whether the company will be successful in getting the zoning

change primarily depends on traffic, Bouwens-Killeen added. Planning

staff members will prepare an environmental report that analyzes how

much traffic the campus will cause before it gets to the Planning

Commission, Bouwens-Killeen said.

Former Mayor Sandra Genis, one of the opponents of the Home Ranch

project that housed Ikea, said she believes the project’s proximity

to the freeway could ease traffic worries.

“It’s right near the freeway onramp, so that might help alleviate

some concerns, but to get there, [customers] might have to get

through the South Coast Drive-Harbor Boulevard intersection, which is

pretty hideous,” Genis said.

Scheafer said he believes the project will decrease the amount of

traffic in the area since the State Farm building employed 1,400

people at its peak.

Scheafer, who has been a State Farm Insurance agent for almost 31

years, said he will be sad to see the building go. His work group was

one of the first to occupy the building when it opened in 1974.

“It’s kind of a melancholy feeling that they’re going to tear my

building down,” Scheafer said. “But as long as they get me a souvenir

or something ... “