ORANGE : Change Planned for Town & Country Site

A consultant for Orange Town Ltd., owners of the Town & Country shopping center, announced plans to redevelop the 15-acre property into one of the county’s major commercial centers.

Jim Beam, a former mayor of Orange, said Orange Town, a Burlingame-based partnership, intends to file an application for the $500-million project next week.

Preliminary plans, Beam said, include a 500-room hotel, a high-rise condominium tower and four office buildings with lower levels that could accommodate 400,000 square feet of retail space. The plans also include two six-level garages, he said.

“We’re still fine-tuning the plan, and there could be changes,” Beam said.

John Godlewski, a city planner, said that Orange Town Ltd. would have to apply for a site permit. It also must seek a revision to the city’s General Plan, because the developer’s plans may exceed a city limitation for square footage.

One of the major concerns, in addition to commercial office space, was the traffic that such a shopping and business center would create.

Just across the street is Santa Ana’s Main Place shopping mall, and nearby is the site for a proposed hotel, retail center and high-rise buildings, that has been proposed by Orient Finance Co., a Japanese credit firm.

Orange Mayor Don E. Smith noted that Santa Ana and Orange have an agreement enabling both cities to work together on such issues as potential traffic problems.

Smith, who did not say he favored the high-rise idea, acknowledged that the county is becoming “more urban,” with a tendency to put high-rise structures in its central core.

“I’m not saying you can put up high-rise buildings anywhere in the city, but there is a tendency now to allow them in certain areas like the central area,” he said.