Panel limits testimony on Home Ranch deal

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Although the Planning Commission has repeatedly invited

public input about the Home Ranch project, residents heard a different

message Monday night.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Katrina Foley told familiar faces at

the meeting that public comment would be limited to those who had not yet

spoken or information that had not yet been presented.

As Robin Lessler, president of Costa Mesa Citizens for Responsible

Growth, started to speak, Foley told her public comment would be

restricted to prevent the meeting from lasting too long.

“Late night meetings affect our decision-making process the next day,”

Foley said.

The chairwoman also added that audience members would have a chance to

address the commission again at a study session planned for Sept. 24.

In response, Mesa Verde resident Bryce Beuley spoke against Foley’s

decision and stormed out of the meeting in protest.

Beuley said it was ridiculous and unreasonable to limit public

comment.

“It is their job to be responsive to the public,” Beuley said. “I have

to get up and go to work too, but it is important for me to be here and

say what I feel. It should be important for them to hear it.”

Beuley said he plans to circulate recall petitions in response to the

limitation on public comment.

“Hopefully, next time it will be them walking away and not me,” he

said after he left the meeting.

Foley said she regretted the process made some angry, but noted that

city officials had made every effort to invite public comment and were

trying to reduce repetitive information.

The Planning Commission has held four public meetings about the Home

Ranch project in the past month, including an unusual study session in

which it allowed residents to give a counter-presentation to C.J.

Segerstrom & Sons’ plans.

Foley’s decision was supported by residents Jim Scott and Doug Sutton,

who both commended the commission’s handling of the hot topic.

“I think the Planning Commission is doing everything possible to hear

complete and balanced views about this project,” Sutton said.

The Home Ranch project -- which calls for an Ikea furniture store,

office and industrial space, and residential units on a former lima bean

field bordered by the San Diego Freeway, Fairview Road, Harbor Boulevard

and Sunflower Avenue -- has been revised many time in response to strong

opposition over the last 20 years.

Many of the same residents who were successful in stopping the

development the first two times it was proposed were at the meeting but

did not speak because of the restrictions.

* Lolita Harper covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at o7 lolita.harper@latimes.comf7 .