Drive Starts to Freeze New Home Ranch Plan

A Costa Mesa residents’ organization said Thursday that it has begun circulating petitions to place a second referendum on the November ballot opposing the Home Ranch development project proposed by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.

At issue is a controversial plan to build two high-rise structures and other commercial facilities on 94 acres bounded by Fairview Road, the San Diego Freeway, Harbor Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue.

The Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth has opposed all plans advanced for the project. The citizens’ group, citing concern about traffic congestion, succeeded in freezing City Council approval of one Home Ranch development plan by getting enough voter signatures to put it on the November ballot.

After that action, however, the City Council approved a revised, reduced Home Ranch plan submitted by the Segerstrom company.

Jay Humphrey, spokesman for Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth, said the revised plan is unacceptable because it still allows tandem high-rises--one 20 stories and the other 12 stories.

Thomas S. Santley, spokesman for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, sharply criticized the move for a second referendum. “We think the voters are tired of petitions, especially ones that attack reasonable and moderate alternatives,” Santley said. He noted that the revised Home Ranch plan is 1 million square feet smaller than the one challenged by the first referendum.

But Humphrey said there is fear among Costa Mesa residents that the City Council might in the future allow the revised Home Ranch plan to expand back to its originally proposed size. Humphrey also said the first phase of the revised plan still calls for the high-rise towers “just as the other plan did.”

Santley accused Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth of being “a vocal subgroup that wants to control everything in town.”

Humphrey said the citizens’ group has until July 22 to obtain the signatures of 4,191 registered voters in Costa Mesa. If the group succeeds, he said, the new referendum will freeze the revised Home Ranch plan and put it on the Nov. 6 ballot in Costa Mesa.