Costa Mesa Council OKs Arnel Plan 3-2

Despite opposition from some angry residents, the Costa Mesa City Council Tuesday night voted 3 to 2 to approve the Metro Pointe project--a $90-million commercial development that would include construction of three large office towers along the San Diego Freeway.

Council members Dave Wheeler and Mary Hornbuckle cast the no votes. Voting for the project were Mayor Donn Hall and council members Peter Buffa and Orville Amburgey.

Wheeler, the only council member to vote last week against amending the city’s general plan to allow C.J. Segerstrom & Sons to build its $400-million Home Ranch project, said the Metro Pointe development would increase crime and traffic in the neighborhood.

Hall, in explaining his support, said it would benefit the community. “I see tremendous positive benefits from this project.”

Most of the residents who came to the meeting spoke against the proposed development. They said the project would damage the underground water table and also increase noise, pollution and traffic.

Some of the opponents also charged that their neighborhood was being turned into a “residential island,” surrounded by massive commercial development.

At issue was the second phase of Arnel Development’s proposed three-phase Metro Pointe project. The second phase calls for the three office towers to be built on 12 acres of farmland bordered by South Coast Drive, Bear Street and the freeway.

The project’s first phase, which is now completed, included construction of the Cape--an apartment complex just west of the development site--and a pair of two-story office buildings, immediately north of where Metro Pointe would stand.

Plans for the third and final phase of the project are expected to be submitted to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission later.

Among those speaking against the proposal on Tuesday night was Stephen Eakin, a 14-year resident of the area. He told the council that the Metro Pointe traffic analysis prepared by Austin-Foust Associates last July and completed in December is not accurate.

“The study is invalid because of when it was done, which according to both the Chamber of Commerce and the Orange County Visitors Bureau, is the month of the highest number of vacations in the county . . .,” Eakin said. He called for a new traffic study before the plan is approved.

The proposed project includes a 4-story, a 6-story and a 12-story structure totaling 460,000 square feet. A four-level parking structure and a six-level facility also would be built, according to the plans.

Proposed conditions of approval call for Arnel to pay a one-time fee of $668 per daily “trip end.” A trip end is based on projections of the number of times cars will enter and leave a project. For example, a project with 100 daily trip ends would pay $68,800 in fees.

In addition, the proposed conditions call for Arnel to refurbish and restripe the Bear Street and Paularino Avenue intersection; add a second westbound left-turn lane at the same intersection; add another westbound through lane and a fourth southbound travel lane at the Fairview Road and Baker Street intersection, and provide northbound, westbound and eastbound right-turn lanes at the intersection of Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue.

Conditions also call for Arnel to pay for the installation of a traffic signal at the entrance to its parking structure on South Coast Drive.

Arnel Development is one of four developers who have been seeking approval of massive commercial development projects along the San Diego Freeway between Harbor Boulevard and the Costa Mesa Freeway. The three other developers are C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, Sakioka Farms and Curci-England/Transpacific Development Co.