City, Home Depot at loggerheads on store

A Home Depot project on Magnolia Street has been brought to a near halt, frustrating developers and residents living adjacent to the retail giant’s proposed store.

Officials in the city’s planning commission are considering requiring Home Depot to complete a more rigorous environmental review process after neighbors complained a current report on the project is inadequate.

Home Depot officials argue the delays are an attempt to filibuster their project, claiming it’s been 15 months since they first applied to build the store and that little progress has been made.

Home Depot aims to build a 126,000-square-foot store on the site of an abandoned Kmart building at the corner of Magnolia Street and Garfield Avenue.

Neighbors living on Lindsay Lane, a street adjacent to the project, said Home Depot will generate excess traffic and noise and are worried about emissions from diesel trucks that bring rear deliveries to the building. One neighbor, Kathy Kliengenberg said she’s also afraid the site will become a meeting place for day laborers following the recent closure of Costa Mesa’s job center.

To address some of the concerns, officials with the city’s planning department have asked Home Depot to scale down its project and eliminate rear deliveries on the site so that residents won’t have to grapple with truck traffic.

Company officials said they’re open to the proposal.

“There’s a whole host of conditions that Home Depot would agree to if this project was allowed to move forward,” said consultant Maurice White.

That conversation can’t begin, White said, until the city makes a decision on what type of environmental review is required of the project.

City Hall authorized Home Depot to undergo a less rigorous environmental assessment of the property that included assessments from traffic analysts, noise experts and air-quality consultants.

Company officials completed the review, only to see it appealed to the Planning Commission by former chairman Steve Ray. Many residents said they felt the numbers on the analysis were skewed and asked for a more lengthy review.

“I don’t see anything in this document that does a good job of properly analyzing noise generated by this project,” Planning Commissioner Tom Livengood said.

Home Depot officials said a more extensive environmental review is unnecessary and won’t generate any new information. After all, they argue, the store is simply replacing another retail giant and will share a similar use.

The Planning Commission will decide at its March 28 meeting whether to require Home Depot to undertake a more lengthy environmental review. If that determination is made, Councilman Keith Bohr will then likely appeal the decision to the entire City Council, which will make the determination.

Eventually, Home Depot will have a general permit hearing before the Planning Commission, and possibly the City Council. Business owners at the Hyde Park Shopping Center adjacent to the abandoned Kmart say the building has become a hangout for vagrants and is an eyesore along the busy thoroughfare.

“The city is refusing to even start the process from Home Depot to replace their existing building with a new environmentally friendly one,” said Hyde Park owner Eric Breen. “The city accepts applications from other business, but is discriminatory toward Home Depot, which denies a business’ civil rights to be provided government services.”