Judge Orders Halt to Segerstrom Project in Costa Mesa

An Orange County Superior Court judge Friday ordered construction halted on the huge One South Coast Place commercial development planned by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons on 98 acres east of Harbor Boulevard and north of the San Diego Freeway.

The ruling was a major victory for Costa Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth, a citizens group that organized just three months ago to fight the city’s May 3 approval of the project, on which preliminary grading has already begun.

Late Friday, Judge Tully H. Seymour issued a writ of mandate “directing the city to set aside and vacate approval” of the project, which includes office towers of 12 and 20 stories, a parking garage, a child-care center and a 50,000-square-foot pavilion.

Seymour also issued a permanent injunction barring the city from issuing construction or development permits, pending full compliance with state environmental and zoning laws.

The judge also ruled that the city provided no restrictions on the density of the development, as is required.

“The Segerstrom Company cannot proceed with that project at this stage,” said the group’s attorney, Letty Belin.

“We’re delighted. We felt we had very strong grounds in our case. I wouldn’t say we are surprised. It’s very difficult at this moment to speculate as to what they can do.”

A jubilant Sandy Genis, vice president of the residents group, said she “almost cried” when learning of the ruling:

“I’d heard stories that it’s very hard to win environmental cases in Orange County. The intent of most of the people within the organization is Costa Mesa really needs to take a deep breath and stop approving things all over the place until all the vacant land is committed . . . and consider whether the infrastructure can handle all this stuff.

“And if it can’t, who is going to pay for (the necessary new) roads for skyscrapers we’d just as soon not have anyway?” Genis said.

“Basically, we want to see the city take some reasonable steps to coordinate growth and . . . roadways, sewers, flood control, public services. Are the emergency services going to be able to get there quickly enough to save peoples’ lives?”

Essentially, Seymour’s ruling determined that the city’s general plan is inadequate because it does not set density standards for the site and that the project is inconsistent with commercial zoning for the area.

Advised of the ruling Friday night, Harold T. Segerstrom, Jr., managing partner in C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, said: “That’s thefirst news we’ve had of it. All I can say is we will leave it to our attorneys to make any response.”

City Manager Allan Roder, who said he was not familiar with the details of the ruling, also declined to comment “until I speak with the city attorney.”

“Until I see the details of it . . . I’m not sure it’s a definitive won-lost situation,” he said. “It’s difficult to ascertain the situation.”

City Atty. Don Woods, who picked up a copy of the ruling in Seymour’s courtroom late Friday afternoon, could not be reached for comment.

“I won’t be surprised,” Genis said, “if the city and C.J. Segerstrom & Sons appeal this. But for now the project is no longer.”

Still pending is a ruling on the group’s allegation that the city did not conform to the California Environmental Quality Act when drafting an impact report for the project. Seymour wrote that because of “the need for an expedited decision,” he had not yet addressed the environmental issues, “but will do so in a supplementary minute order.”

Seymour’s five-page ruling found that “at the time of the project approval, the land-use element of the general plan failed to include a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity (for the area.)”

He also found that the city’s traffic “circulation element of the general plan does not comply” with state law.

The residents’ group had complained that traffic would increase and that the mall primarily consisted of 600,000 square feet of office space, with retail uses amounting to less than 10% of the project, Genis said. Zoning for the area calls for primarily retail uses.

The group’s “overall concerns are concerns about traffic and the quality of life in Costa Mesa,” Belin said. “Their underlying concerns are these issues be addressed and adequately provided for.”

However, City Manager Roder said: “(Planned traffic) mitigation measures were adequate. They (company planners) had in fact a traffic plan that not only mitigated the traffic impact but improved the circulation in the area above what it is today.”