OCTA light rail project takes off

Deirdre Newman

It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

That was the overwhelming sentiment expressed by the Orange County

Transportation Authority’s Board of Directors Monday in approving a

route for the CenterLine light rail system.

The board approved the route Costa Mesa city leaders prefer,

despite some reservations about the underground portion along Avenue

of the Arts. Transportation authority staff members will now complete

the final environmental report to submit to the federal government

for approval.

The 9.3-mile route will start at the Depot of Santa Ana and end at

John Wayne Airport with a stop at Santa Ana College. In Costa Mesa,

the route will bypass South Coast Plaza with the nearest station on

Anton Boulevard in front of the Marriott Hotel, city Transportation

Director Peter Naghavi said.

CenterLine has hit a lot of road bumps since the transportation

authority first conceived the idea in 1990 after voters approved

Measure M, the half-cent sales tax to fund transportation

improvements in Orange County.

City officials were elated and relieved that a definitive route

was finally selected.

“It feels good,” Naghavi said. “I think the board actually

recognized and mentioned that this is just a starter [route]. I think

before the starter segment is complete, we will see expansion talk

begin.”

But some business officials whose properties will be negatively

affected continued to express discontent with the route.

“[South Coast Plaza] and the surrounding shopping areas are

significant destinations,” said Tom Smalley, general manager of the

Wyndham Hotel on Avenue of the Arts, at the transportation

authority’s meeting on Monday. “Why are you considering bypassing

them? Who are you trying to please? Certainly, not the people who

voted for you nor the people who will be riding the light rail

system.”

The board’s decision took into account the 1,700 public comments

it received from more than 800 organizations and individuals. The

route approved Monday will cost between $900 million and $1 billion

to build.

CenterLine will enter Costa Mesa from the north, travel down

Bristol Street, go left on Sunflower Avenue for a short distance,

turn right onto Avenue of the Arts, turn left onto Anton Boulevard

and then cross through the Sakioka Farms property into Irvine. The

underground portion on Avenue of the Arts will be 1,100 feet. The

second Costa Mesa station will be somewhere on the Sakioka Farms

property, Naghavi said.

Board member Shirley McCracken said she wasn’t completely

satisfied with the Avenue of the Arts portion.

“I think it has to be looked at again,” she said.

The short underground portion was hashed out between South Coast

Metro property owners and city leaders and accepted by the

transportation authority as a viable option in October. It was the

second route the city approved as a preferred route. The first,

chosen in 2001, was an elevated route along Bristol Street and Anton

Boulevard, with a station at South Coast Plaza.

In between these two city approvals, city officials and major

stakeholders pushed for a longer underground route with an

underground station at South Coast Plaza. The transportation

authority rejected studying that idea last April based on a lack of

confidence about obtaining federal funding for construction.

Paul Freeman, spokesman for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, which owns

South Coast Plaza, said that the company has supported the concept of

CenterLine from the start, but that company officials had some

concerns with the elevated route, Freeman said.

“When faced with the elevated [option], with a stop in our sea of

free parking, and no environmental analysis, and given the option of

this versus the Avenue of the Arts [route], it was an easy choice,”

Freeman said.

The Segerstroms were also apprehensive about how an elevated

station would mesh with future expansion, since that was never

clarified, Freeman said. The only room for the plaza to grow is on

the Bristol Street side, Freeman said.

City transportation staff members will now work with authority

planners and business owners in the South Coast Metro area to refine

the route and minimize the negative effects, Naghavi said.

One property that has already been adversely affected by

CenterLine is the Lakes Pavilion on Anton Boulevard, said property

manager Eric Strauss. When the Avenue of the Arts underground route

was first publicized, it looked like the entire Lakes Pavilion would

be subject to eminent domain and have to be demolished because it was

in the way. Now, that might just be the worst-case scenario, Naghavi

said. It may only require the building to be modified, Naghavi

explained.

The pavilion is asking the transportation authority for

reimbursement of rent for its vacant spaces retroactive to Oct. 1,

when the worst-case scenario was first reported, Strauss said. The

pavilion has been at 25% vacancy since then, which owners are

attributing to the dark cloud of complete eminent domain, Strauss

added.

Strauss is also trying to obtain working drawings from the

authority so the owners can see exactly how the light rail tracks

will affect the property.

“As property owners, we’re in a limbo period,” Strauss said.

“Because we don’t know, does it take out all of the property, half

the property, a quarter of the property? It’s hard for tenants to

understand the whole concept without having the drawings.”

The final environmental study on CenterLine should be completed

this spring, said transportation authority spokesman Michael Litschi.

It will then go through a public review period and be considered by

the authority board.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].