Local News in Brief : Costa Mesa : Home Ranch Measure Cleared for Referendum

Slow-growth activists have qualified a referendum vote on the city’s approval of the Home Ranch project.

Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth collected 4,966 valid signatures, 800 more than needed, City Clerk Eileen P. Phinney said.

The City Council will consider the referendum at its April 4 meeting, Phinney said. The council could decide to put the referendum on the November ballot, call a special election or overturn its earlier approval of the general plan amendment, she said.

Tom Santley, spokesman for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, developers of the 94-acre, $400-million Home Ranch, said Friday: “We are disappointed . . . after processing this project for four years that once again we face another delay.”

The project, to be built in phases over the next 20 years, includes in its first phase the 16-acre One South Coast Plaza complex with two towers--20 and 12 stories high.

Diane Goldberger of the resident’s group said: “We’re very pleased we qualified (the referendum.) It’s nothing against Segerstrom and what the city is trying to pass, but it shows that people here definitely don’t want this.”