Home Ranch changes being worked out

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- City planners are working diligently to provide the City

Council with details on a suggestion to once again change components in

the Home Ranch proposal, but said they will not have concrete details by

Tuesday’s meeting.

Planning Manager Mike Robinson said he and his colleagues are busy

running new traffic models and noise studies to get the results ready to

report to the council at its Nov. 19 meeting.

“There’s no way we will be done by [Tuesday], but we will give both

the council and the community an update,” he said.

Last week, Councilwoman Linda Dixon asked Paul Freeman, the spokesman

for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, if the developer would be willing to add more

housing to the project and move the current industrial site farther

south.

Freeman said Dixon’s scenario was plausible as long as the details can

be worked out quickly and a decision can still be made this month.

“We have an obligation to use our best efforts to move the project

along. We have prospective tenants, and we don’t want to lose them,”

Freeman said last week.

Plans for the possible additional housing are still being reviewed by

the Segerstrom team. More details can be considered after city planners

present their findings, Freeman said.

If altered, the new proposal would accommodate 12 homes per acre on

the parcel of lima bean farm that backs up to the Los Angeles Times

building and is bordered by Susan Street, South Coast Drive and Sunflower

Avenue, Freeman said.

Additional noise studies are being done by independent consultants to

determine decibel levels for the potential residents, Robinson said.

Dixon’s proposed change calls for homes to built where the 1990

General Plan already calls for residential land use and increases the

number of homes from 192 to 366 -- also recommended in the 1990 plan. The

environmental report for the General Plan -- analyzing both the number

and placement of houses -- was approved in 1992.

Townhouses would be more dense against the Times building, where

builders would add a sound wall, a berm and landscaping to reduce the

noise from the printing presses and the rail spur, Freeman said.

A mix of detached, single-family homes and triplexes is still planned

for the 16-acre plot of land east of Susan Street and north of South

Coast Drive. Standard Pacific, chosen as the builder, has designed the

homes around a recreation center and community park.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .

FYI

What: Special meeting of the City Council

When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday

Where: City Hall, 77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa

Information: (714) 754-5223