Costa Mesa in line with urban rail proposal

Elise Gee

COSTA MESA -- A CenterLine route that would enter Costa Mesa via

Main Street has emerged as the city’s preferred alternative for the

Orange County Transportation Authority’s urban rail project.

That sentiment emerged at a Tuesday public hearing on a report that

details the environmental effects of the 28-mile system from Fullerton to

Irvine with proposed stops in the South Coast Metro area of Costa Mesa.

The report outlines four alternatives: not building the project, an

elevated rail line, a street-level line entering Costa Mesa from Bristol

Street and a street-level line that would enter Costa Mesa from Main

Street. Engineers have estimated construction costs to be between $592

million for the street-level options to $1.4 billion for the elevated

alternative.

City staff and major stakeholders in the South Coast Metro area expressed

support for the Main Street alternative, which would start at Main

Street, travel west into the South Coast Metro area via Anton Boulevard,

backtrack on Anton and proceed south to Irvine via Main Street again.

“That would bring it into what will ultimately be the center of the

entertainment and cultural core geographically for the South Coast Metro

area,” said Paul Freeman, head of government and community relations for

C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. “It also avoids some problems that are otherwise

pretty serious coming down Bristol.”

The Segerstrom organization believes alignments on Bristol Street could

diminish street capacities and possibly worsen traffic flow in the area,

Freeman said.

Freeman’s preference was echoed by Costa Mesa’s Transportation Services

Manager Peter Naghavi.

Naghavi said the Main Street alternative posed the least disruption for

Costa Mesa and gave riders much more direct access to the South Coast

Metro shopping and entertainment center. The other street-level

alternative would require giving up two lanes of traffic on Sunflower

Avenue, Naghavi said.

The elevated alternative would be too expensive and unsightly, Naghavi

said. However, he said that the street alternatives could end up costing

nearly as much, considering the land that would need to be bought up for

those alternatives.

Tuesday’s meeting in Costa Mesa didn’t draw the numbers that meetings in

Fullerton and Anaheim did, mostly because the Costa Mesa portion of the

CenterLine project runs through commercial and retail areas rather than

residential areas.

Virginia Holte, who lives in the Lakes near some proposed stations, said

she came to see how the project would personally affect her.

“I had concerns about noise,” Holte said. “One of the alternatives comes

pretty close, but to be honest, I wouldn’t have a problem with any of the

alternatives.”

Holte added that she has believed for years that Orange County needs a

rail system.

Freeman concurred, saying it would be hard for him to imagine Orange

County 20 years from now without a rail system.

And if any community can reap the potential benefits of such a system

without the negative impacts, it would be Costa Mesa, Naghavi said.

The Sakioka farmland that would surround the rail system in Costa Mesa is

now undeveloped.

“We’re one of the only cities that has an opportunity to develop around

the system and complement it,” Naghavi said.

ALL ABOARD?

Which alternative do you prefer for the county’s proposed light rail

project through Costa Mesa? Call our Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086 or

send e-mail to o7 dailypilot@latimes.comf7 . Please spell your name and

tell us your hometown and phone number (for verification purposes only).