City Council keeps to deadline

Lolita Harper

COSTA MESA -- Despite a misunderstanding about the starting time of

the City Council meeting Monday, the city’s new, self-imposed midnight

deadline was successful in its initial run.

“We did it,� Mayor Libby Cowan said. “We were out of here with an hour

to spare.�

Largely because of lengthy discussions over the proposed Home Ranch

project, the council voted at its last meeting to push up the starting

time by an hour, from 6:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., to enforce the mandatory

midnight curfew and increase public comment time to four minutes to

accommodate more public testimony.

In addition, discussion of the controversial Home Ranch development

was to be moved to the end of the meeting to get other city business

accomplished in a timely fashion, officials said.

However, the change did not go without a few hitches.

General public comment -- scheduled to start about 5:30 p.m. -- was

pushed back because of a lack of people in the audience. Also, a

presentation to Mirna Burciaga and others members of the Latino Community

Network in honor of National Hispanic Month was also postponed because

nobody was there to receive the accommodation.

Mesa Verde resident Cindy Brenneman said she was upset with the

inconsistency regarding the public hearing and asked that the meeting

time be moved back to 6:30 p.m.

“It’s really difficult for people who work an inflexible 9-to-5 work

shift to get here,� she said. “Also it makes it impossible to attend the

study sessions.�

The public hearing for the project that seeks to develop the former

Segerstrom lima bean farm off the San Diego Freeway started at 9:30 p.m.

Nearly every speaker, from staff to members of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons to

members of the audience, made mention of keeping their comments short in

the interest of saving time.

Director of Development Services Don Lamm said he cut his regularly

prepared presentation from 30 minutes to about five and then let the

Segerstrom team explain the proposed development.

“I’m not sure we asked you to [cut your presentation time] but, OK,�

Cowan said.

The Home Ranch project proposes a 17-acre Ikea furniture store,

791,500 square feet of office space, 252,648 square feet of industrial

and 192 homes.

Only a handful of residents spoke about the project and just half used

all of their allotted comment time. The public hearing on the Home Ranch

project item was postponed to the special meeting of Oct. 29 and the

meeting was adjourned by 11 p.m.

“I think we really designed a process for maximum effectiveness for

community input,� Cowan said.