After three years of review, the Santa Ana City Council voted in favor of of South Coast Plaza’s redevelopment project proposal for The Village on Sunflower Avenue.
“Our city needs quality economic development and that’s what this project will deliver,” Santa Ana Councilmember Phil Becerra said in support of the proposal to replace the aging South Coast Plaza Village on the north side of Sunflower Avenue.
The unanimous vote was held at a public hearing Tuesday night, Sept. 16, in the first of two council meetings, with a final vote expected on Oct. 7. The project previously received unanimous support from the city’s Planning Commission in August, which recommended the City Council approve the project proposed by South Coast Plaza and its owners, the Segerstrom family.
“The Sergerstrom family only wants to build timeless quality, and they’re going to build what they think they can deliver, nothing more and nothing less,” said Justin McCusker, senior executive at South Coast Plaza.
Envisioned as a mixed-use urban community village with retail and commercial space at ground levels and residential towers up to 25 stories tall, The Village would replace the 17.2 acre shopping center known as South Coast Plaza Village, located across Sunflower Avenue from South Coast Plaza.
The proposal the council supported builds 1,583 homes, 80,000 square feet of retail and 300,000 square feet of office space, as well as 14 acres of parks and open space, with around 7.5 acres accessible to the public.
With South Coast Plaza and the Sergerstrom Center for the Arts nearby, the property lies at the busy corner of Bear Street and South Plaza Drive. It is considered a major entry point to one of Orange County’s most prominent shopping and cultural art scenes.
At the hearing Tuesday, at least 200 members from the Western States Regional Council of Carpenters and LiUna! Laborers’ Local 652 filled up the rows of seats to show support and spoke in favor of The Village construction at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The project is part of a transformation underway of the city’s south Bristol Street corridor, where Related Bristol’s redevelopment of the neighboring shopping centers was approved last year as one of Santa Ana’s largest redevelopment projects in history.
Developers say it will take roughly a decade to complete the project, with construction for the Village estimated at up to 20 years.
A 42-acre, two-block development, the neighboring Related Bristol project will replace two aged shopping centers on Bristol Street, across from South Coast Plaza. It will feature nearly 4,000 apartment units, 13 acres of parks space, a 250-room hotel, a 200-unit senior living tower, and up to 350,000 square feet of restaurants and shops, including a grocery store.
For both projects, developers opted to pay the city an in-lieu fee instead of including affordable housing onsite. Related Bristol will be paying $18 million into the fund, and an estimated $7.1 million will come from The Village to support the construction of affordable homes elsewhere in the city.
The city would also receive a $9.3 million community benefit payment for The Village project, with the City Council deciding where funds are allocated. Related California, the developers behind the Related Bristol project, will pay $22 million in community benefits.