BETWEEN THE LINES -- Byron de Arakal

The jungle is echoing with the drums of war. And the reference here is

not about the thunderous blasts spilling through the streets of downtown

Kabul and Jalalabad. The battle cadence I’m hearing is careening through

the otherwise fair and bucolic environs of Costa Mesa, where a ragtag,

but nonetheless impassioned, platoon of slow-growthers are said to be

laying plans for a bruising clash over C.J. Segerstrom & Sons’ embattled

Home Ranch development.

Now for those who have sworn off newspapers, neighborhood chatter or

the idea of merely venturing outside, Home Ranch is that 94 acres of

furrowed farmland north of the San Diego Freeway between Harbor Boulevard

and Fairview Avenue. As the Segerstroms would have it, the property is an

ideal spot for roughly 190 new homes, a smattering of commercial office

campuses and an Ikea furniture warehouse that can only be described --

fairly -- as huge. And I don’t mean to use the adjective as a judgment on

whether the store will be good or bad for the city. Nevertheless, a

308,000-square-foot building is huge.

Until recently, the signs were encouraging that the city could get

through the vetting of the Home Ranch development without overt

hostilities and figurative bloodshed. A certain detente and civility had

been achieved, after all, by the deft handling of the public debate and

deliberations surrounding the project by the Costa Mesa Planning

Commission.

Indeed, it seems to me the commission engaged in a remarkable degree

of contortionism to preserve the fairness and civility of its Home Ranch

public hearings. It not only allowed and endured painfully redundant

arguments from both sides for hours on end, it sanctioned an

unprecedented public presentation from Costa Mesa Citizens for

Responsible Growth (the Home Ranch project’s chief opponents) at one of

its study sessions.

In so doing, it dispatched its work with respect to Home Ranch without

having the whole affair blow up in its face and with little or no mud on

the chamber walls.

The problem is that Costa Mesa Citizens for Responsible Growth lost

the debate. On a 5-0 vote, the commission blessed the project, sending

this live grenade up to the City Council, where it will be tossed around

likely through November and perhaps into December.

Now, according to some of its leaders, Costa Mesa Citizens for

Responsible Growth is hoping for -- but not banking on -- the council’s

rejection of the project. That’s why it appears that some among its

leadership are laying the groundwork for battle beyond the City Council

chambers should Home Ranch receive a blessing there.

Consider that Sandy Genis -- a former Costa Mesa mayor and the Costa

Mesa Citizens for Responsible Growth’s planning guru -- filed a public

records request with the city Sept. 21 asking for the entire

administrative record of the Home Ranch project dating from Jan. 1, 1999,

through the Planning Commission’s approval of the project in September.

The request, said Costa Mesa Development Services Director Don Lamm, is a

massive undertaking involving thousands and thousands of pages, and

hundreds of staff-hours in both his and City Atty. Jerry Scheer’s office.

Now my nose has always told me that public records requests of this

magnitude -- particularly when they surround controversial subjects --

are a sure sign of a battle brewing, legal or otherwise. Genis said she

merely wished to ensure that she is in possession of all the Home Ranch

documentation the city has in order to adequately debate the project

before the City Council. But in the event the council approves the

project, she did say that legal action or a referendum would be likely

and that the project’s administrative record would be useful on either of

those battle grounds.

Robin Leffler, a Costa Mesa resident and spokeswoman for the citizen

group, confirmed that legal action or a referendum had been discussed

among the members of Costa Mesa Citizens for Responsible Growth as

possible actions to be taken in the event the council approves the

project. While no decision has been made, she said, the group has not

ruled out a courtroom battle or a referendum.

Indeed, Phil Arst, one of the key ringleaders behind Newport Beach’s

Greenlight Initiative, said he has received roughly a half-dozen calls in

recent weeks from Home Ranch opponents wanting to pick his brain about

ways to battle developers at the ballot box.

Meantime, San Francisco attorney Mike Wall is watching the Home Ranch

battlefield “very closely,” he said. His firm represents the Service

Employees International Union, which carries a large membership of

custodians and janitorial workers in Orange County.

The union lodged written objections to several elements of the Home

Ranch project’s environmental-impact report. Among other things, Wall

expressed concern that the city had insufficient affordable housing to

accommodate the number of new employees the Home Ranch project would

bring to Costa Mesa.

Nevertheless, Wall says he couldn’t comment on the Service union’s

legal intentions if the council approved the Home Ranch project. He said

only that the union is taking the jobs-housing balance issue “very

seriously.”

Understanding all of this, I had hoped for better. That this city

could have a good, hard and even raucous debate about Home Ranch. But

that once the City Council had cast its vote, up or down, we could be

satisfied that the system worked and we could move on. But it looks to me

now that the Costa Mesa City Council won’t be the last battle ground over

Home Ranch.

* Byron de Arakal is a writer and communications consultant. He

resides in Costa Mesa. His column appears on Wednesdays. Readers can

reach him with news tips and comments via e-mail at o7

byronwriter@msn.comf7 .