Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Judge Orders Developer to Resubmit Tower Plan

A Superior Court judge has ruled that the environmental impact report on a twin-tower office project was inadequate, a decision that will force the developers, C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, to resubmit the project for city approval.

“It’s a total victory,” said Letty Belin, attorney for the Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth, a citizens group that contested the project’s approval by the Costa Mesa City Council.

In his decision, handed down Tuesday, Judge Tully H. Seymour said a new environmental impact report must encompass the entire 98-acre Home Ranch area owned by the Segerstrom firm, according to Belin.

The previous report considered only the impact of the One South Coast Place office complex planned on 16 acres of that property, near Harbor Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway, Belin said.

After a new report is prepared, it will probably be submitted to Seymour for approval, Costa Mesa City Atty. Tom Wood said. Then the project will be tendered to the city government for reapproval.

The project has been submitted to the city twice. In March, 1986, the City Council asked the Segerstrom firm to withdraw its plan for a single 32-story office tower because of strong community opposition. The firm returned with a scaled-down version of the project, which had a 12-story and a 20-story office tower, and won approval in May, 1986.

The impact report was prepared by the city and not the developing firm, said Chase McLaughlin, managing partner with the project’s developing firm, One South Coast Place Associates, a unit of Segerstrom.

McLaughlin hopes a new report can be prepared quickly so the firm can again request approval. Construction on the site has been suspended since Seymour issued a preliminary ruling in the case Sept. 4.