Segerstrom Firm Lays Off Workers, Blames Loss at Polls

The development firm of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons has laid off about 10 employees, blaming voters’ rejection last year of a proposal to build a big office complex in Costa Mesa.

That project, called the Home Ranch, was approved by the Costa Mesa City Council but was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in a November referendum.

In a prepared statement issued Thursday, Segerstrom said that because of “severe restrictions on its development activities resulting from the elections last November, (the company) had instituted an approximate 15% reduction” in its work force.

The company declined to discuss the layoffs or the number of people it employs. But sources familiar with the company said that eight to 10 employees were recently notified that they would be laid off.

Segerstrom said in the statement that only employees at its South Coast Plaza shopping center were “not affected by the reduction.”

The $300-million Home Ranch project--already reduced in size once by Segerstrom--would have included two big office towers near Harbor Boulevard and the San Diego Freeway.

Costa Mesa residents anxious about the traffic the big project would generate put two referendums on the ballot last year, one blocking the older, larger Home Ranch plan and one blocking the smaller compromise plan Segerstrom put forward.

Segerstrom sued to keep both measures off the ballot but was denied by an Orange County Superior Court.

Voters then overwhelmingly rejected the project, despite Segerstrom’s reported spending of nearly $200,000 in an effort to win at the ballot box.

The project appears to be dead until Segerstrom comes forward with a new plan. The company has not yet made a new proposal, according to the Costa Mesa Planning Department.

The company, a big landholder in Costa Mesa, owns and operates South Coast Plaza as well as office buildings and a hotel near the mall.