Noguchi garden gets 50-year deal

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The City Council approved a deal with Commonwealth

Partners by a 3-2 vote Monday to preserve Isamu Noguchi’s California

Scenario sculpture garden for 50 years. Councilwomen Linda Dixon and

Karen Robinson objected.

The council had previously requested the garden be kept up for 25

years, and then some council members sought to require the developer to

maintain the garden “in perpetuity.”

“I think what we have done is put protection that, according to the

Isamu Noguchi Foundation, goes far beyond any protection on any garden by

Noguchi and we can be a model,” Mayor Libby Cowan said.

The garden is part of the Town Center project that seeks to transform

South Coast Metro into a pedestrian-oriented cultural arts district

bordered by Bristol Street, Sunflower Avenue, Avenue of the Arts and the

San Diego Freeway.

The project is a collaboration between Commonwealth, the Orange County

Performing Arts Center and South Coast Partners, the owner of South Coast

Plaza.

The South Coast Partners and the Center’s portions of the project were

approved earlier this year.

Commonwealth’s portion has been delayed because of disagreement about

the length of time the developers would be required to maintain the

garden. The rest of Commonwealth’s portion of the project, which includes

office space and restaurants, is scheduled to be reviewed by the City

Council on June 4.

In other council business, the public comments portion of the meeting,

which last two hours, focused on the controversy surrounding Councilman

Chris Steel, who is facing charges of election fraud for submitting two

false signatures on his nomination papers in the 1998 and 200 elections.