COSTA MESA : Council to Vote on Art to Line Freeway Walls

Oak trees, great blue herons, gray whales, the prickly pear cactus--all of these, or at least some of them, could appear on the freeway walls in Costa Mesa under an art project spearheaded by the California Department of Transportation.

The City Council will meet at 6 tonight to decide whether to accept the symbols, which were conceived by an ad hoc committee.

If approved, the suggestions will be sent to the Orange County Transportation Authority, which is working with the California Department of Transportation on the freeway art project that will include other cities in the county.

The symbols, which represent the history and essence of Costa Mesa and the outlying region, will be part of a fiberglass mural that will, in different places, line the Costa Mesa Freeway from Fairview Road to 19th Street and the Corona del Mar Freeway from Bear Street to the San Diego Freeway, according to a committee report.

Caltrans is developing art concepts, according to the report, for various freeways in the county and the project is federally funded.

The art will consist of a double row of three-foot-square panels depicting local symbols and stretching for blocks.

“I think it’s a good idea; it’s an effort to make the freeways more pleasant,” said Libby Cowan, a planning commissioner who sat on the committee.