Home Ranch goes to Planning Commission

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Residents have a chance to air their opposition to a

proposed office complex and furniture store at the Planning Commission

meeting tonight.

The commission is expected to begin deliberating approval of the project

at a meeting in mid-June.

The 93-acre site of the proposed Home Ranch project is a lima bean field

between Fairview Road and Harbor Boulevard, just north of the San Diego

Freeway.

The city originally designated the land for homes and small industry. But

the developer, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, is asking the city to instead

allow a 17-acre IKEA store and nearly 2 million square feet of office

space there.

A report released by the developer last week estimated the project could

bring the city as much as $2.4 million and the school district $1.6

million in tax revenues each year. The retail and office development also

could bring some 8,000 employees to the area, according to the report.

Homeowners living near the site have been overwhelmingly opposed to the

project, saying cars coming and going from the complex would clog

residential streets and generate smog. They also have objected to the

bright colors proposed for the IKEA store and said a planned nine-story

tower would stand out in the neighborhood and block mountain views.

Segerstrom plans to build an offramp from the San Diego Freeway to Susan

Street, which the developer estimates would divert between 3,500 to 4,500

cars from Fairview Road and Harbor Boulevard each day. The exit would

come off a future offramp of the freeway that would start approximately

at the current South Coast Drive exit and end at Harbor Boulevard.

More than a decade ago, Segerstrom proposed a 32-story high-rise office

building for the Home Ranch site. That project was challenged both in

court and politically by residents.

The Planning Commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight at City Hall, 77

Fair Drive.