Home Ranch almost home

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- All signs point to a final vote on the controversial

Home Ranch project Monday, but it won’t come without more talk of change.

Councilman Gary Monahan said he will most likely propose an increase

in the housing on the project by raising the number of homes allowed per

acre from 12 to 14 or 16.

“If there is a serious concern to balance out the jobs and housing

issue, this suggestion will get in a few more units,” Monahan said.

Even with the proposed change, Monahan said he still expects a vote on

the project. The additional homes per acre are within the traffic and

environmental limits outlined by existing reports, Monahan said.

Mayor Libby Cowan echoed Monahan’s desire for a vote but added it was

still unknown which way the decision would go.

“We have heard enough and it really is time for us to have completed

our homework and make a decision,” Cowan said. “I don’t know what that

decision will be, but my interest is to at least get some action taken.”

The relationship between the developer and the city has run its course

and it is time for the council to take action, the mayor said.

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the

project’senvironmental report, a rezone petition, an amendment to the

city’s master plan and a specific plan amendment. The lone item without

unanimous support was the amendment to the general plan, which

Commissioner Bruce Garlich opposed.

Plans for the Home Ranch cite -- bordered by the San Diego Freeway,

Fairview Road, Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue -- call for a

308,000-square-foot Ikea store, 791,050 square feet of office space,

252,648 square feet of industrial use and 192 homes.

Commissioners convinced the Segerstroms to also offer $2 million for

city schools. Other than that change to the development agreement, the

City Council is looking at the same project the Planning Commission did.

After nearly two decades of pitching various proposals to the city

regarding Home Ranch, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons finds itself in a familiar

position. Plans for previous Home Ranch designs have garnered the

approval of the Planning Commission but found themselves stalled because

of an outcry of public opposition.

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

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