Resident petitions against Home Ranch

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- After hours of precise mathematical calculation, he

produced sketches depicting a yellow monolith hovering over his

neighborhood’s quiet nest of cul-de-sacs and lawns.

Brent Neumeyer, an erstwhile trigonometry and geology instructor, hopes

the drawings will convince his Halecrest Hall of Fame neighbors to fight

the nine-story office building and IKEA furnishings store proposed for a

nearby bean farm.

“I don’t want sickos looking down from the offices with a telescope and

watching me watering my tomatoes in my underwear,” he said, standing next

to a rose bush in front of his ranch-style home. “I should be able to

have some privacy in my backyard.”

The city’s two-volume, eight-pound draft report outlines the proposed

Home Ranch project’s impacts on the neighborhood, but does not include

studies about how a nine-story building might block views or, perhaps,

compromise residents’ privacy.

“There must have been somebody who lead somebody else to believe it

wouldn’t be a factor there,” said Perry Valantine, the city’s development

services director. “But we will have the consultants check the diagrams

and see if they’re accurate. If they are, we’ll definitely submit them to

the final report.”

Paul Freeman, a spokesman for developer C.J. Segerstrom, said Neumeyer’s

sketches on the whole did appear accurate.

“Maybe the dimensions were a bit off,” Freeman said, “but it would be

totally reasonable for him to submit them and I’m hoping to meet with him

myself.”

The property is designated for homes and small industries, but the

Segerstroms are asking the city to make an exception.

Neumeyer and the Halecrest Hall of Fame Homeowners Assn. -- in addition

to many homeowners surrounding the proposed 93-acre project site -- have

vociferously opposed the Home Ranch project. They say cars going to and

leaving the development would flood their quiet streets with traffic and

pump smog into the air. They have also complained that the office

buildings would block views.

Neumeyer said he spent more than 40 hours creating the 10 diagrams, which

illustrate the proposed buildings from 10 different angles from various

points in the neighborhood -- including his and his mother’s frontyards.

He is circulating the diagrams, along with petitions, to other homeowners

in the area.

Costa Mesa residents have until mid-May to request information about the

project from the city’s planning department. The city’s consultants are

required to respond to the requests before the Planning Commission and

City Council vote on the project.

Neumeyer said he hopes the fruits of his labor make it into the final

report.

“I just want to make sure people can’t see into my mother’s backyard,”

Neumeyer explained.