Costa Mesa Council Asks Segerstrom to Rethink Tower Plan

Angry opposition from Costa Mesa homeowners Monday night led Costa Mesa City Council members to ask C. J. Segerstrom & Sons to withdraw its proposal for a 32-story skyscraper and major office project and come back with a plan more acceptable to community residents.

The 5-0 vote came as a blow and a surprise to Segerstrom officials.

Asked his reaction to Councilman Donn Hall’s motion to withdraw, a sullen Malcolm Ross, a Segerstrom official, said: “I’m tired. I guess we have to start thinking about a new project.”

A long line of speakers, most of whom strongly opposed the project, were still waiting their turn to speak when Hall interrupted to make his motion near midnight. The council had already listened to nearly five hours of testimony.

Residents Claim Victory

“I would hate to see a project like this divide the community; that’s why I’m saying, ‘Take this away, Mr. Ross.’ ” said Hall, who had intended before the meeting to vote for the project. Hall has long been one of the more pro-development members of the council.

Costa Mesa residents viewed Monday night’s action as a victory.

“I think we have won this battle, but not the war,” said Jim Aynes, a spokesman for Mesa Action, a political group that had opposed the Segerstrom project.

Ross said the firm will return to the council with a new project, but he did not know how soon that would be.

“It was clear that there isn’t community support for this project,” said Vice Mayor Mary Hornbuckle, who had said previously that she was leaning toward voting against the project.

She, like others on the council, was surprised to hear Hall’s motion, in view of his earlier enthusiasm for the project.

“It was not the way I thought the evening would end up,” Hornbuckle said.

Councilwoman Arlene Schafer said she was “shellshocked” at Hall’s motion and the ultimate vote for Segerstrom to withdraw.

Most of the crowd of more than 300 that jammed into the 176-seat room were vehemently opposed to the commercial development of about 100 acres off Harbor Boulevard and just north of the San Diego Freeway. But the developers drew some applause.

Residents lined both aisles of the council chambers, waiting their turns to speak.

The 32-story tower, if it had been approved, would have risen 500 feet, nearly twice the height of the county’s tallest building, the 285-foot Center Tower--also a Segerstrom project--near the Performing Arts Center.

The developer’s proposal for the tower complex included a $700,000 day-care center, an art gallery and 15 acres of open space. The rest of the development would have included five low-rise office buildings, a parking garage with ground-level shops and a 400-room hotel and restaurant. The total development was expected to take 15 years to complete.

“I feel that this project is a monument to Henry Segerstrom, and it shows a blatant disregard for the community,” said Denise Curry, president of Mesa West Homeowners Assn., during the council hearing. “All eight homeowner associations oppose this project. I want to know who those five council people are going to represent--the people of Costa Mesa or the developer.”

Councilwoman Schafer, who is up for reelection in November, had said during a break in the hearing: “It’s been so tough; in eight years on the council, I have never had this type of situation before.”

Many residents questioned the features that the Segerstrom firm has been pushing as the main selling points of the project--the day-care center for 120 children, the gallery and open space. Despite the Segerstroms’ pride in the day-care center, residents argued that it would be inadequate for the 2,400 employees that developers said would work at the center.

One resident in opposition, Peter Similuk, referring to Segerstrom’s plans to relieve traffic congestion through lane widening and car pools, said, “I say phooey to that. . . . You can’t even get car pools now on the freeway.” He urged the City Council to “do what’s good for the people as a whole, and a high-rise is not that.”

Richard Herman, another resident who spoke in opposition, said, “The average Costa Mesan would gain nothing from this. Approval of this project would be masochism and would turn our city into another downtown Los Angeles.”

But not everyone was opposed. One resident in favor of the project, David Bergland, told the council, “Your job is to do the best you can for the city; you can make me proud by approving this project.”

Hall said that after listening to the testimony, he concluded that the three votes necessary for passage weren’t there.

“After all this time in the council, you know how your fellow council members are thinking,” he said after the meeting. “I could see that it would be denied.”

Moreover, he said, his suggestion to have the tower complex withdrawn “gave the developer an opportunity to save face and got the proposed project off the backs of the community.”