Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : BUSINESS : Doubts Over New Segerstrom Plans

Hoping it won’t attract the controversy a proposal for a 32-story skyscraper did four months ago, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons announced that it will soon unveil plans for development of a 100-acre site north of the San Diego Freeway in Costa Mesa.

While the new plan reduces the 32-story office building to 22 floors, it adds a 10-story building next to it.

Two city council members said they doubted, however, whether the new Segerstrom proposal will be any more acceptable to either the community or the council than the earlier project.

At issue is whether the new plan would create fewer traffic problems than those envisioned for the first one.

“It looks to me like they just lopped off the top of that other skyscraper and set it on the ground beside it,” said Councilman David Wheeler, a leading opponent of the first plan. “The floor space is the same, and to me that means it’s still going to create the same traffic problems.”