NMUSD relocates Estancia High theater project, sparing a lawn and ending a lawsuit
A new chapter in the ongoing saga of where to build a performing arts complex at Estancia High School was penned Tuesday, when school district officials narrowly approved relocating the project and sparing a senior lawn slated for demolition.
Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustees voted 4-3 to shift construction plans from “Site 2,” a northeast portion of the Costa Mesa campus along Placentia Avenue, to a parking lot area on the site’s northern end used by students, athletic spectators and the general public, dubbed “Site 3.”
District officials must now resubmit design plans to the Division of State Architect (DSA) and arrange for the relocation of 136 parking spaces to the south end of the school, underneath a solar panel installation that can accommodate up to 150 stalls.
That will take time and money, facilities director Ara Zareczny said Tuesday. Securing DSA approval could delay plans another eight months, meaning ground would not be broken until at least mid-2023.
The additional work will also add another $550,000 to the project’s price tag — originally slated to be paid for with $27 million from the Measure F bond passed by voters in 2005 — bringing the grand total to $41.4 million, Zareczny estimated.
Relocation of the project also ends a legal battle between NMUSD and the city of Costa Mesa, which claimed in a 2021 lawsuit the district approved plans, obtained state approval and declared the project exempt from environmental review without providing adequate opportunity for public input.
Though a judge declared the city had missed a crucial deadline in filing its complaint, city officials appealed the decision, halting construction plans at Estancia for the immediate future.
In a town hall meeting Thursday, Newport-Mesa Unified School District officials reexamined where to build a new theater on the Costa Mesa campus — a matter some say was decided without enough public input.
District officials used that time to reconsider five potential locations and discuss with students, staff and community members the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Many decried placing the theater on Site 2, which would have displaced a nearly 1-acre senior lawn enjoyed by Estancia students as a respite from a mostly indoor school day. Others maintained the need for a new theater, a promise made decades earlier, outweighed the loss of trees.
Board members were split Tuesday on which location best fulfilled that long-proffered promise. Some said Site 3 would make the theater too disconnected from the rest of campus and questioned the security of students’ walking to the parking lot after nighttime theater rehearsals.
“I personally feel that Site 2 is still the way to go. That’s where we should break ground,” Trustee Karen Yelsey said ahead of the vote. “The city of Costa Mesa is spending, I’m sure, hundreds of thousands of dollars to file this lawsuit and appeal this. I know we’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars defending it. I blame the city for holding this up.”
Supporters of the new location said it caused the least disruption to the campus and maintained an important greenspace at Estancia.
“We don’t have to have a theater and not have the senior lawn,” said Trustee Ashley Anderson. “I would like to have a win-win [situation], where we choose Option 3, and we build where there is literally a parking lot and nothing else there.”
Anderson, along with Board President Michelle Barto and trustees Leah Ersoylu and Krista Weigand approved relocating the work. Yelsey, Vice President Charlene Metoyer and Trustee Carol Crane were opposed. Now that the project has been moved, Costa Mesa officials are willing to dismiss the lawsuit, City Atty. Kimberly Hall Barlow confirmed in an interview Thursday.
“The entire goal was to get public input and review and the consideration of alternative sites,” she said. “Now that the board has actually undertaken that and picked an alternative site, we’ve accomplished what we determined to accomplish and will be dismissing the case.
“We’re very glad the trees aren’t going to be gone,” Hall Barlow continued. “I hope the city and the district can now continue their productive and cooperative relationship.”
Board member Leah Ersoylu, whose Trustee Area 1 includes Estancia, said the lawsuit was unfortunate but provided district officials an opportunity to reevaluate the project and the wisdom of prior actions.
“It gave us space to have more of a public process,” she said Thursday, adding that what happened afterward was an example of good governance. “[That] really is, to me, a model of positivity for our district moving forward.”
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