Coastline selects Newport campus

The Coast Community College District took an important step in solidifying its agreement to buy a 3.4-acre piece of land in Newport Beach to use for a new school campus, despite protests from a competing property owner who says the district is wasting millions of dollars of taxpayer money by not buying his land.

The district plans to relocate Coastline Community College’s Costa Mesa campus, at the intersection of Mesa Verde Drive and Baker Street, to a site that it agreed to purchase on 15th Street and Monrovia Avenue for $12.8 million.

Cory Alder, president of Nexus Development Corporation, offered the city 3.4 acres of land a couple of blocks away on Monrovia, between 16th Street and 17th Street, for $7.8 million.

Aside from the $5-million price difference, Alder offered to pay for the equivalent of the $250,000 in design work that the district already spent on the Newport Beach site, and said that he had already done environmental tests and cleanup that haven’t been done on the Newport Beach site, which still houses some buildings.

All the district would be paying millions extra for is a Newport Beach address instead of a Costa Mesa address, Alder said.

Even in light of his most recent offer, the district refused Alder’s overture. The five-member board of trustees voted unanimously in a closed-door meeting to go forward with the Newport Beach site, making it virtually impossible for the district to back out of the deal.

Before the meeting, board members said that they were much further along in the process of planning for the Newport Beach location.

“There are a number of issues with the Costa Mesa property that have not been resolved,” said board member Walt Howald.

The district plans to put up a 66,000-square-foot facility at 15th and Monrovia that offers community college classes, as well as a program for high school students who opt out of regular high schools. The district also plans to relocate its art gallery in Huntington Beach, at Adams Avenue and Brookhurst Street, to the new facility.

Alder said that essentially the same facility could be built on his property, not far away, with about 50% more parking and for much less money.

“It’s almost like they’re trying to ramrod this thing home and we keep trying respectfully to get noticed. It just seems to me that if you stack up all of the facts, someone there has a personal agenda and they just want to get this Newport Beach thing through,” Alder said.

The chairman of Costa Mesa’s Planning Commission, Jim Righeimer, also spoke on Alder’s behalf at the meeting, saying that Costa Mesa would love to have the campus and approving the necessary permits would not be difficult.

“We want you there. We want you there badly. We’ll do whatever it takes to get you there,” Righeimer told the board.

Board members went directly from their closed session to the regularly scheduled open meeting, and were unavailable to comment on the decision before press deadline.