Costa Mesa watches and wonders as decision nears on neighboring Banning Ranch

As the California Coastal Commission prepares to decide the fate of a hotly debated proposal to build homes, a hotel and retail space on part of the 401-acre Banning Ranch in Newport Beach, neighboring residents in Costa Mesa are waiting to find out whether their lives are about to be altered.

Costa Mesa officials have said they have little, if any, way to stop Newport Banning Ranch LLC from developing the fenced-off site, which sits on the southern border of the city’s Westside.

But city leaders and residents have had the project on their radar since roughly 2010.

At that time, the proposal was more expansive, featuring 1,375 homes, a 75-room hotel and 75,000 square feet of retail space on about 95 acres. That plan was approved by the Newport Beach City Council in 2012.

More recently, with prodding from the California Coastal Commission and its staff to reduce the project’s scope, Newport Banning Ranch has proposed 895 homes, a 75-room hotel, a 20-bed hostel and 45,100 square feet of retail space on 62 acres.

The Coastal Commission will consider that proposal Wednesday morning during a public meeting at the Newport Beach Civic Center. Commission staff has recommended the project be reduced even further, to about 19.7 acres, to help protect habitat and foraging areas for burrowing owls.

The Banning Ranch environmental impact report, which studied the larger version of the project in 2011, indicated that the west side of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa would experience congestion at more than seven intersections, including Newport Boulevard and 17th Street; 18th and 19th streets; Newport and Harbor boulevards and Superior Avenue and 17th Street.

According to the report, Newport Banning Ranch was required to pay about $1.7 million to Costa Mesa for the inevitable traffic stemming from the development. Newport Banning Ranch proposed giving Costa Mesa about $4.4 million in 2012 to make street improvements, but the City Council could not reach a consensus on the agreement.

Now that the scope of the project has changed, the city will have to study the effects of the final development on Costa Mesa streets before pursuing another agreement with the developer, said city Transportation Services Manager Raja Sethuraman.

The final decision on whether to do that rests with the City Council, Sethuraman said.

Wendy Leece, a Costa Mesa resident and former council member who lives next to Banning Ranch, said that while she’s pleased with the Coastal Commission staff’s recommendation to further scale back the development, she’s uncomfortable that Costa Mesa doesn’t have an agreement with the developer to improve city streets.

“I’m disappointed that the city of Costa Mesa has done nothing to get a dollar amount,” she said. “The traffic that is expected to come through on 17th Street is going to take millions of dollars to mitigate. I’m disappointed the City Council hasn’t demanded more from the developer.”

Councilwoman Katrina Foley said the project will have a significant impact on Costa Mesa residents for the benefit of Newport Beach. She estimates street improvements in the area could cost $11 million.

“I think it’s frustrating that we have very little control over what is going to be thousands of traffic trips on our city,” Foley said. “Since we don’t necessarily have any control over whether or not the project is built, we should have negotiated something better for Costa Mesa.”

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer said the city has been waiting until the Coastal Commission makes a final decision before approaching the developer about funding street improvements.

“It’s pretty much been ‘You guys have a lot of approvals you need to get, and when you know whether you have a project, we’ll talk,’” he said.

However, Foley contends the city should already have nailed down such funding from the developer.

“It seems to me, strategically, the time to get more is before they get their approval, not after,” she said.

Righeimer said he sees potential in the project in the form of direct beach access for Costa Mesa’s Westside residents if the Coastal Commission approves Bluff Road, a thoroughfare that would run north-south through the Banning Ranch property to connect West Coast Highway with West 17th Street. In the commission staff’s most recent report, it recommended conditions to eliminate Bluff Road.

Despite the possibility of more traffic, Righeimer said the project brings the potential for increased open space for residents of Westside Costa Mesa, an area the city has been working to revitalize for years. As part of its proposal, Newport Banning Ranch has set aside about 329 acres as preserved, natural open space with public trails.

“The 55 Freeway brings us 100,000 cars per day; Adams [Avenue] and Victoria [Street] bring between 50,000 and 60,000 a day and we don’t get anything out of it,” Righeimer said. “Here, we’re going to get 300 acres open to our city that we don’t have now.

“To have all those rusty fences removed and have some interconnection will really be a benefit to the improvements we’re making on our Westside.”