WHAT TO WATCH IN 2007:Year of resolutions?

SQUARED AWAY?

Where the Costa Mesa Freeway (55), 19th Street, Harbor and Newport boulevards meet stands a shopping center that has been plagued with vacancy and parking problems. In 2006, Triangle Square was finally purchased in a deal that the city and the mall’s tenants consider positive.

Although no terms of the agreement between the seller, Triangle Square Investments LLC, and the new owner, Greenlaw Partners, have been released, there has been talk about transforming the center into a live-and-work area, with a combination of residential units, restaurants and shops.

Despite the center’s parking situation, plan on watching as the Newport Beach company and its Santa Ana-based managers work to make Triangle Square a revitalized hub for shoppers and, possibly, residents.

Greenlaw Partners representatives have remained tight-lipped, but Triangle Square’s newest tenants, Keith Scheinberg and Daniel Biello, owners of Chronic Cantina, have said they see good things happening.

DRAMA ON KOCE

For a while, the average spectator could be forgiven for losing track of the ongoing court battle over KOCE-TV. In 2004, the Coast Community College District rejected a cash offer from the Daystar Television Network and sold the public channel to its fundraising foundation, which had bid mostly in credit. Daystar sued, and over the next two years, the rulings, appeals, petitions and more appeals kept piling up.

In May, however, the case finally appeared closed, as an appellate court ruled that the sale of KOCE to the foundation was invalid. The state Supreme Court refused to hear the district’s and foundation’s appeals in August. Now, as the turmoil enters its third year, attorneys for the district, the foundation and Daystar are busy trying to work out a settlement.

“It’s a tough deal, with three parties like this,” said Milford Dahl, an attorney for the college district. “I’ve had each party accuse me of being on the side of the others.”

When the district sold KOCE to the foundation, it spent most of the foundation’s $8-million down payment — and now, Dahl said, the district would have to dig into its own pockets to pay it back. Meanwhile, Daystar has demanded immediate ownership of KOCE, although the court only ordered the district to take the station back and did not mandate selling it again.

So for the coming year, expect plenty of proposals, negotiations and gnashing of teeth — and in the meantime, enjoy the usual programming on KOCE, which hasn’t changed through the many courtroom battles.

SCHOOL PROJECTS

In January, $282 million worth of school construction is set to begin with a single shovel in the dirt.

In November 2005, voters narrowly passed Measure F, the most expensive bond in the history of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. Early this year, the district formed a committee of parents to ensure that each area of the district received equal attention. Finally, in November, Deputy Supt. Paul Reed announced the first project: a stadium at Estancia High School. Officials expect to break ground shortly after New Year’s.

Next on the docket are a gymnasium at TeWinkle Middle School and a replacement for Robins Hall, the closed administration building at Newport Harbor High School. With the district having ordered up to $75 million in bonds in November, Newport-Mesa has a number of other projects waiting in the wings, including elementary school science classrooms and planning for an Olympic-sized swimming pool at Costa Mesa High School.

When the first dust flies at Estancia, it will mark the beginning for Measure F — and also a long-awaited dream for Costa Mesa United, the nonprofit group that formed a decade ago to raise funds for the stadium and pool. With Measure F now covering the expense, the nonprofit intends to stay together and cover additional costs for Costa Mesa youth athletics.

REAL ESTATE

Compared with the bottoming out or cooling off of the real estate market in 2006, real estate professionals are looking to 2007 as a year for positive gains.

As home prices have become relatively steady and buyers get more picky looking at homes, people may have the confidence to get back into the market.

Costa Mesa officials are embarking on their Westside revitalization project, and proposed new developments and condo conversions abound. A few of the condo-conversion projects are aiming at a younger demographic and first-time buyers.

MURDER TRIALS

Last year marked the first trial and conviction related to the 2004 deaths of Tom and Jackie Hawks, but 2007 is looking to be the year nearly everyone accused goes to trial.

On Jan. 29, Skylar Deleon and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, respectively called the “brains” and “brawn” of the Hawkses’ killings by Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckus, are scheduled for a jury trial.

Prosecutors say Deleon and Kennedy pretended to be interested in buying the Hawkses’ boat, Well Deserved; the men are accused of killing the couple for financial gain while on a test drive of the boat. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both men.

Expect testimony in the case to be dramatic. In the trial of Deleon’s wife, Jennifer Henderson-Deleon, the courtroom heard the eyewitness testimony of Alonso Machain, also charged with murder. Machain spoke in detail about the way he said he, Kennedy and Deleon killed the Hawkses. He testified that they took the couple out on a test-drive of the boat, overpowered them, forced them to sign over title to the boat, tied them to an anchor and threw them overboard to drown. Machain spoke without having made any bargain with prosecutors, and he will face trial separately from the other two men.

In that same trial, Deleon also faces accusations that he killed Jon Jarvi, an Anaheim resident found with his throat slashed on the side of a road in Mexico in 2003.

On Feb. 27, Henderson-Deleon is scheduled to be sentenced for her first-degree murder conviction. The maximum sentence she can receive is life in prison without parole.

Then, in early March, Deleon will go before a judge for a preliminary hearing on charges that he attempted to arrange the deaths of his father, John Jacobson Sr., and his cousin, Michael Lewis. If the case goes forward, a date for a jury trial will be set at that time.

HIGH-RISES IN COSTA MESA

All eyes will be watching for more demolition and construction near South Coast Plaza and the Orange County Performing Arts Center in the coming year, as five upscale high-rise condominium projects go before the Costa Mesa City Council Jan. 16.

Council members postponed their vote so they could get more feedback regarding the airport commission’s negative review of the plan.

Segerstrom Town Center is planned at 3400 and 3420 Bristol St. and would require the demolition of movie theaters and an office building. Developer South Coast Plaza Partners has proposed to have no more than 275 residential units combined with office space.

If the plans are approved, the Orange County Museum of Art will pack up shop at its Fashion Island location for a new building at 605 Town Center, which also has 80 residential units in the building.

The Californian at Town Center will be built at 580 Anton Blvd., if approved, and will tower 25 stories with 250 residential units along with square footage set aside for retail.

The Symphony Towers at 585 Anton Blvd. will require that two restaurants be demolished. The proposed plan has two high-rise buildings and two mid-rises with over 480 residential units proposed. Symphony Towers officials also have proposed retail space in the buildings.

The Pacific Arts Plaza was proposed at 675 Anton Blvd. and would include about 180 units.

The developers also plan on creating an urban, park-like setting, which would be open to the public.

NEWPORT BEACH CITY HALL

Will they or won’t they? Newport Center or the Balboa Peninsula? After dawdling for more than two years over whether to build a new city hall and where to put it, Newport Beach officials likely will make 2007 the year they start the project.

An appraisal of the Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club parcel is due this month, but with one of the owners adamantly against selling, expect the city’s interest in it to wane. Instead, the council probably will take a harder look at the police station property in Newport Center and figure out a way to phase in a replacement of the cop shop and the city hall over the next few years.

The other alternative is keeping city hall on the peninsula, but with the difficulty of housing workers while rebuilding and residents’ desire for a more central location, the current site is probably one whose time has passed. Wherever they decide to build, this year council members probably will get off the dime, commit to a location and start turning dirt.

MARINA PARK

Plans to build a public park and marina probably will sail forward in 2007, after the city in November agreed on a design firm for the project. It was two years ago that Newport Beach residents voted down plans for a hotel on the city-owned, waterfront property, and it’s taken since then to get supporters of a park, city officials and members of the adjacent American Legion post to agree on a plan.

Everyone’s tentatively consented to a preliminary design that includes a tot lot, a sailing center and public boat slips, but Legion members may continue to be skittish until they’re sure they won’t lose any amenities by the change. The next phase of park design should take six to eight months, and the public will be asked for ideas.

Just don’t expect bulldozers yet — the city hasn’t found funding for the $12-million-plus project, and Newport’s legal counsel is still dealing with lawsuits by the hotel designer who lost the 2004 election and tenants of mobile homes now on the property.

ANNEXATION

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach twice failed to talk out their differences over four unincorporated areas between the two cities, but officials in November optimistically asked for six more months to chat before they face the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, which decides annexation issues.

In 2007, the cities probably will come back to the commission without any better solutions. The problem is that all four areas more or less want to be part of Newport Beach, and three have formally requested annexation. Those same three areas, however, are under Costa Mesa’s aegis, and that city has the first right to try to annex.

Costa Mesa officials wouldn’t mind loosening their grip, but they want an incentive like a piece of Banning Ranch, a 400-plus acre, largely undeveloped parcel. Newport has already thumbed its nose at that idea.

The wild card is new members on both city councils and the county board of supervisors as well as the commission. But new council members aren’t likely to be any less territorial, so the hope of a peaceful compromise is slim.

IMMIGRATION

The story on the tip of everyone’s tongue during last year’s election cycle was illegal immigration.

Controversial debates about local police enforcing federal laws swirled as Mayor Allan Mansoor proposed to train local law enforcement to check the immigration status of people who police arrest, which drew a dividing line between some residents.

And although the issue will not be tossed aside this year, the approach will be slightly different.

Instead of Costa Mesa Police officers undertaking the task, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was placed at Costa Mesa Jail on Dec. 4 and has begun interviewing each person who’s booked in the jail to assess his or her immigration status.

What remains to be seen is the program’s effectiveness. In the early stages of the program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have not disclosed how many people the officer has interviewed. But as time goes on, the numbers will come out, and the data will show whether the program has reduced crime in Costa Mesa.

In other areas of Southern California, some illegal immigration opponents proposed punishing landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, but legal challenges will likely warn other cities away from such measures.

At the Orange County Jail, sheriff’s deputies will be taking over immigration screenings from federal agents after Dec. 20.

Because Democrats took control of Congress, federal legislation concerning immigration control will likely fall by the wayside unless the proposal has components like what President Bush favors, which includes a guest-worker program.