Fountain Valley’s Biggest Business Center Gets an OK

The Fountain Valley Planning Commission unanimously approved Wednesday night the largest business development ever proposed in the city, despite opposition from members of a homeowners association who said they were not allowed enough time to study the proposal.

Although most residents had voiced support for the development, known as Southpark, on the city’s southeast side, many from the Green Valley Homeowners’ Assn. wanted assurances that traffic problems created by the new business center would be addressed.

Joel Rosen told the commission that he and others from his group had not been able to review a revised traffic study for the project because the document did not become available until shortly before the meeting.

“I am morally outraged,” Rosen said. “Fire is burning inside of me because of this.”

Several members of the homeowners association walked out of the meeting when Planning Commissioner Betty Wyler said their “mentality” had not helped in finding “solutions” for the traffic problems.

The commission then approved the proposal and sent it to the City Council.

Planning Commissioner Marvin Adler said he hoped building Southpark would help the city as much as proponents have predicted: “I will not say that this is the best thing that ever happened to Fountain Valley. It looks like a good plan . . . and I hope that it will work out.”

City officials have predicted that the 140.5-acre project will generate $1.5 million to $2 million in additional sales-tax revenue to the city each year.

City Manager Judy Kelsey has said the project, which is to be built in phases, ultimately would provide about 14,000 new jobs in the city.

The proposed site, a Sakioka Farms strawberry field, 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 be widened to add turning lanes, and 11 of 14 traffic signals in the area would be adjusted to handle the additional traffic.

The first stage of the construction would be a Price Club commercial center, to be built by two San Diego firms, Price Co. and Kornwasser & Freidman, on the north side of Talbert Avenue.

The center is expected to include a 150,000-square-foot anchor store and 132,000 square feet of other retail space.

Fountain Valley Associates plans to handle the rest of the project, building retail stores and offices.

The homeowners association, which represents 5,500 residents who live in 1,100 homes near the proposed Southpark site, expressed concerns at earlier hearings about traffic problems that the center would cause and about the safety of children crossing Slater Avenue on their way to and from school.

But city officials said any traffic problems arising from the new development would be worked out before construction could begin.