On the road again — AAA’s plans to grow Costa Mesa hub may resume after long hiatus

Costa Mesa planning commissioners have given an ostensible green light to a plan by the Automobile Club of Southern California to continue expansion plans approved in 1994, but never fulfilled, at AAA’s 30-acre Fairview Road headquarters.

The commissioners were asked to consider extending a 30-year development agreement with the city that entitled a two-phase building plan to add more than 500,000 square feet of new office and warehouse construction, as well as a west end parking structure with 1,840 spaces.

The proposals outlined in the document, due to expire Nov. 1, were never fully completed, though the organization built a 235,000-square-foot office building and improved a 9.7-acre parking lot accessible internally by a 40-foot bridge spanning a flood control channel that bisects the property.

Assistant city planner Christopher Aldana explained during a July 22 meeting that AAA officials may be looking to consolidate their Southern California regional operations to the Costa Mesa facility and seek to add another 20 years to the agreement to build out the site, located at 3333 Fairview.

A housing development built in 2003 puts residents near a 29.5-acre parcel run by AAA for decades. The organization aims to resume expansion plans approved in 1994 and set to expire in November.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

In addition to increasing the average daily vehicle trip calculation, applicants sought to update and increase the city’s traffic impact fees and move a setback for the proposed four-story parking structure, from 20 feet to 60 feet away from the property line.

The extra distance will provide a buffer for a residential development built near the northwest corner of the property in 2003, nearly a decade after the club’s agreement with the city was signed.

All other entitlements granted in the original document will still apply, Aldana told the commissioners.

“The proposed use, size and intensity of the project is consistent with the existing development within the general area located north of the 405 Freeway,” he said. “[And] the scope of work does not differ from that previously approved development agreement.”

AAA representative Anita Lorz Villagrana told planning commissioners the automobile club has striven to be a public asset to the wider community since moving its Southern California headquarters to Costa Mesa in 1980.

“Our Costa Mesa facility plays a key role in everything we do as an organization,” she said. “Our request for a time extension will provide our staff and facility professionals with the needed time to carefully plan and deliver the remaining facility enhancements that will continue to attract employees to both work and, for some, live in our great city.”

While one individual — a resident living in the development adjacent to the AAA campus — submitted a written comment wanting to learn more about the impact of future building plans, no one from the public spoke out at the July 22 meeting.

Commissioner David Martinez shared his own concerns with the idea of building a four-story parking structure on a parcel that happens to fall within an area being eyed by Costa Mesa officials for future housing under the city’s Measure K, passed in 2022.

“Adding more parking to this site, which is already a 9.7-acre parking lot is, quite frankly, unacceptable,” he said. “ I just can’t believe that in this huge site that is in a Measure K parcel, we’re just going to say, ‘Hey, let’s put more parking here.’ To me, that’s not OK.”

An outspoken proponent of bicycle and pedestrian safety and policies that promote active transportation, Martinez attempted to remove the parking structure from the covenants contained in the original development agreement and not approve its construction but got no backing from fellow commissioners.

Instead, the panel agreed to forward to the Costa Mesa City Council its recommendation to extend AAA’s development agreement to Oct. 31, 2044 in a 4-1 vote. Chair Adam Ereth recused himself due to a conflict of interest, and Commissioner Angely Andrade Vallarta was not present for the discussion.

The council will hear the matter at a future meeting.