Action Delayed on Fountain Valley Shopping Center, Crowd Told

An overflow crowd of Fountain Valley residents, disgruntled over plans for a business and shopping center on a strawberry field, appeared at a Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night, only to be told no decision would be made on the project until later this month.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Zita Wessa told the crowd of about 120 inside the council chambers--and 30 peering in from outside--that the commission was waiting for the report of an independent traffic consultant, hired by the city to critique the developer’s plan. The consultant’s report will not be ready until the commission’s June 17 meeting, she said.

The developer’s traffic engineer, Weston Pringle of Weston Pringle and Associates, told the commission that 10 of 13 neighboring traffic intersections would have to be altered to accommodate the extra traffic and that bordering streets would have to be widened.

But Susan Crandall, spokeswoman for the Green Valley Homeowners’ Assn., whose members live near the project site, had questions about traffic plans. She said residents want the developer to be required to complete the traffic alterations before being allowed to begin builing.

She said her group is concerned about the safety of children crossing Slater Avenue to and from school and is worried about the possibility of traffic congestion in front of Fountain Valley Regional Hospital delaying emergency vehicles. She wants the residents to see scale models of the buildings because “we don’t want tilt-up, bland structures.”

Another Green Valley resident, Maria Cook, asked the commission to “ease our emotional anxieties” before allowing the project to proceed.

City officials have estimated that the 140-acre business park and shopping center, when completed, could mean $1.5 million in tax revenue for the city and could create about 14,000 new jobs.

The proposed site, a Sakioka Farms strawberry field on the city’s southeast side, is bounded by Slater Avenue on the north, Talbert Avenue on the south, the Santa Ana River on the east and Euclid Street on the west. Talbert and Euclid would probably be widened to add turning lanes, according to city officials.

The development would be the city’s first major shopping center.

The first phase of the project, a Price Club commercial center, is to be built by the San Diego--based Price Co. and Kornwasser & Freidman and is expected to cover 15 acres on the north side of Talbert Avenue. The center is expected to include a 150,000-square-foot Price Club anchor store and 132,000 square feet of retail stores.

Newport Beach-based Fountain Valley Associates would develop the remaining 110 acres with retail stores and business offices.

There would be a cap of 35 feet on buildings bordering residential areas, although the structures on the interior part of the project could reach eight stories, according to the proposal.

A 30-foot border of landscaping with a “parklike theme” would face residential areas, said Bob Langston, chairman of the Fountain Valley Associates board of directors. He said the project would take 10 to 20 years to complete.

The project is scheduled for a second public hearing on June 17 before the Planning Commission. If approved, it would then go before the City Council for consideration.