CenterLine project gets city OK

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Comments from the city on the proposed CenterLine rail

transit system all favored the system, Orange County Transportation

Authority spokesman George Urch said this week.

The 28-mile countywide rail system, if approved by the authority’s

board, will eventually shuttle commuters between Fullerton and Irvine.

The time period for the public to comment on the project, originally

scheduled to end Feb. 1, ended Wednesday.

Several people, including Diane Pritchett, executive director of the

South Coast Metro Alliance, and Ed Fawcett, Chamber of Commerce chief

executive, submitted supportive comments as representatives of businesses

and business alliances, Urch said.

Phil Schwartze, a representative for both McCarthy & Cook’s South

Coast Metro Center and Commonwealth Partners LLC, one of the developers

of the Town Center project approved by the City Council this month, said

both organizations support the project.

“Both feel the project is an important new asset to the cultural arts

district developments,” Schwartze said. “It provides an additional method

to transport people in a very urban environment.”

The only concern both organizations have is the effect the

construction phase of the project will have on the area. But, Schwartze

said, “that shouldn’t be too difficult an issue to handle.”

Henry Segerstrom, head of C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, was the only person

to submit a letter as a Costa Mesa resident, Urch said.

In that letter, Segerstrom wrote: “As we run out of room for new

freeways and freeway expansions, we must necessarily look elsewhere for

new solutions. . . . Creation of the CenterLine will help ensure mobility

in, and therefore the viability of, our county in the years ahead.”

The City Council unanimously voted Jan. 18 to support the CenterLine

project and to recommend that the transportation authority incorporate an

elevated station at Bristol Street and Anton Boulevard and design the

Costa Mesa portion of the system to match the overall architecture of the

surrounding area.

Urch said he isn’t surprised by the lack of comments from residents

because the project mainly would go through business sections of Costa

Mesa.

“There seems to be a good mix of business and government responses,”

he said.

No date has been scheduled for when the authority board will vote on a

preferred route and an initial construction start date for the project.

Further study to lay down preliminary engineering specifics is

expected to take about two years. After that, the board will vote on

whether to begin construction.

For more information, call (714) 560-6282.