By Claire Wang
Staff Writer
A proposal to convert the former Trinity Broadcasting Network headquarters, a landmark off the 405 freeway, into a 142-unit residential development got initial support from the Costa Mesa City Council this week.
Led by developer Meritage Homes, the project would replace the 6.12-acre campus on Bear Street, near South Coast Plaza, with 122 townhouses and 20 single-family homes. At least seven units would be reserved as very-low-income housing.
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission in a July meeting approved a request to rezone the property from commercial use to high-density residential.
The multifamily townhouses would be built in eight four-story structures, separate from the single-family residences. Proposed floor plans range in size from 1,062-square-foot, two-bedroom units to 2,364-square-foot, four-bedroom units. Each home would come with its own tandem, two-car garage.
The City Council approved the project in a 6-0 vote Tuesday night, Aug. 5 (a second final vote will be needed), but public comments were decidedly more mixed. Residents raised concerns about pedestrian safety, overflow parking and traffic impact, with a few calling for the application to be shelved.
One resident, who spoke on behalf of 17 other families in her Yellowstone Drive community, said she worried the new development would decrease home values. Others said 142 housing units is too dense for an area with limited street parking, and would be likely to create quality of life issues for those living in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Some who generally approved of the project took issue with a proposed pedestrian gate connecting the development to the homes on Olympic Avenue, saying it would increase congestion that makes the streets less safe for children to play around.
“This project offers a pittance in community benefits and will put pressure on the already stressed, soon-to-be more stressed, streets in this area,” one long-time resident said.
Despite concerns from the public, the City Council voted in favor of the proposal to create more homeownership opportunities in a city where 60% of residents are renters.
“The way we get folks out of poverty is giving them a chance to create equity, and this project allows folks to build that equity,” Councilmember Manuel Chavez said.
Vanessa Scheidel, a planning manager at Meritage Homes, told the City Council that access from the pedestrian gate to the Olympic Avenue side can be fixed, along with some other parking and safety issues residents raised.
Scheidel said the development is designed for young, working-class people looking for a chance to buy their first home. Meritage Homes branded the project as urgently needed “middle for-sale housing” in the city, according to a letter the company submitted to the Planning Commission.
Eligible buyers of the seven very-low-income residences in the development would be households making 50% or less than the median area income, Scheidel said, which is just over $136,000 a year. The rest of the units would be market rate.
Meritage Homes would first have to demolish the ornate complex of buildings on Bear Street that were once home to the largest Christian media company in the world.
Trinity Broadcasting Network founders Paul and Jan Crouch purchased the property for roughly $6 million in 1996 and built the company’s Trinity Christian City International campus, which housed a 65,000-square-foot, three-story building, manicured grounds and an ornate rotunda — its brightly lit holiday displays were well known.
In 2017, the network sold the property. The global education company EF Education First proposed using the campus for an international language school before the property was sold for $22 million to real estate mogul Manuchehr “Manny” Khoshbin. It’s been used most recently as an event space.
Developers said the project could have model units ready by May 2027.