Santa Ana Approves Huge Development at MacArthur, Main

The Santa Ana City Council on Monday night approved development guidelines for a 20-year, $600-million project that will bring 400 apartments and 4 million square feet of offices, shops and feeder roads to what is now mostly a celery patch.

The development, known as MacArthur Place, is planned for 66 acres northeast of Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard and may include 15 separate buildings of up to 18 stories.

“I think few developers have done anything this big,” said Roger Torriero, president of Griffin Realty Corp., one of the general partners on the project. BCE Development, a subsidiary of the giant Canadian telecommunications firm Bell Canada, is the other general partner, and members of the Sakioka family, which owns and farms 53 acres on the site, are limited partners.

Factory There Now

The Emerson Electric Co. operates a factory on the remaining 13 acres.

The council took several steps Monday that brought the mammoth project closer to fruition. In a single unanimous vote (Councilman Patricia McGuigan was absent), it:

- Approved the final environmental impact report for the property.

- Rezoned the property to allow for residential development.

- Approved a specific development plan establishing building densities, height limits and parking and other requirements.

- Approved tentative tract maps subdividing the 66 acres into 21 lots.

- Approved a development agreement with the partnership, BGS Partners.

The partnership must still sign an agreement with the city’s Redevelopment Agency spelling out the financial agreements for about $20 million of road and other infrastructure improvements, said Cynthia Nelson, director of the agency.

That agreement is still being negotiated and will probably be signed in January, she said.

Huge Hike in Traffic

The project, which would be built in several phases, will generate an enormous amount of traffic--80,150 daily trips, according to the city’s environmental impact report. Traffic improvements planned as part of the project include widening both Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard and extending Alton Parkway and McGaw Avenue over the Costa Mesa Freeway.

Last year, residents helped shoot down plans to build the proposed Westdome sports arena on the Main and MacArthur site.

To avoid a similar defeat, Torriero engaged neighborhood residents in discussions about the project in the early planning stages.

“I think we’ve been very progressive,” Torriero said. “This participatory planning is the wave of the future.”