Signatures trucked into City Hall

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Opponents of the proposed Home Ranch project turned in

boxes of signatures Wednesday that could force a citywide vote on the

controversial development.

Now, the burning question is: Did they gather enough?

At 4:08 p.m. Cindy Brenneman, Paul Flanagan and Sally Humphrey, all

members of Costa Mesa Citizens for Responsible Growth, trucked a small

dolly into the City Clerk’s office, loaded with three boxes of petitions.

It took Deputy City Clerk Ruth Delaney almost 20 minutes to officially

stamp about 125 packets of signatures. Each packet was 50 pages but

included only three pages of signatures because the city’s resolution

approving the project -- which had to be included -- was so long.

About 33 names fit on those three pages, so conservative estimates say

about 4,125 signatures were turned in.

It is not clear yet what standard the opponents must hit to qualify

the referendum for a vote. Figures range from 4,970 -- 10% of registered

Costa Mesa voters -- to 2,700 -- 10% of Costa Mesans who voted in the

last gubernatorial election.

The official figure of valid signatures will come from the Orange

County office of the registrar after the petitions are delivered. There

is no set timetable for that tally. In the meantime, the packets will

remain in a vault in the city clerk’s office.

Brenneman said about 40 people toted packets of the 50-page petitions

throughout the city in an attempt to overturn the city’s approval of the

Home Ranch project.

Brenneman estimated a total of 180 hours were spent in the process.

But she would not speculate about the number of signatures collected.”We

were not required to report how many signatures we gathered,” Brenneman

said.

Her only other comment was: “To thank all the people who spent long

hours, walking and gathering signatures.”

Two representatives from C.J. Segerstrom & Sons also showed up at City

Hall to get an initial count of the signatures. But the petitions were

not available to the public, City Clerk Mary Elliott said.

Paul Freeman, a spokesperson for the Segerstroms, said he was very

anxious to know the outcome. The fate of the third incarnation of the

Home Ranch project, which would develop the 93 acres of former Segerstrom

lima bean fields just north of the San Diego Freeway, lies in large part

on the success of the referendum campaign.

A previous project got the approval of both the Planning Commission

and City Council but ended up on a 1988 referendum in the form of two

measures on two different designs. The voters voted both down.

This Home Ranch design calls for a flagship Ikea furniture store, 192

homes and a mix of commercial and industrial land use.

Freeman said he is left with only speculation at this point.

“We know nothing and understand even less,” Freeman said.

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

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