Candidates Split Over Bixby Ranch Meeting

Bixby Ranch Co. development plans are fulfilling expectations that they would become a key issue in the March 26 City Council election.

Council candidate Patty Campbell said a community meeting Tuesday to review two development plans was timed to influence the election. Bixby Co. representatives were invited to a community meeting organized by the College Park East Neighborhood Assn., a homeowners group in the northern section of the city where the company had proposed a 223-home residential and commercial development.

Campbell, chairwoman of the city Planning Commission, was part of a 3-2 majority that rejected the plan in July. The commission is an advisory body to the City Council, but the company withdrew the project, predicting the council would not approve it either.

Bixby representatives said they would pursue a smaller-scale all-commercial development, and on Tuesday they applied for the necessary city permits. But Campbell said the company is still trying to build support for the mixed-use plan and for her opponent, Phillip Fife, who supports the plan.

Ron Bradshaw, Bixby senior vice president of real estate development, was unavailable for comment, but he issued a written statement, saying the community would be “best served” if the two development plans were compared by community members.

Campbell is seeking the seat now held by Councilman Frank Laszlo, who must step down because of term limits. Laszlo, a slow-growth advocate, has endorsed Campbell.

Fife, an attorney and former Seal Beach planning commissioner, said he supports Bixby’s mixed-use development plan, but he was not involved with the community meeting.