Contentious Fountain Valley Crossings retail-residential project seeks environmental OK Wednesday

The Fountain Valley Planning Commission will consider the environmental impact report for the city’s contentious Fountain Valley Crossings development on Wednesday.

Certifying the roughly 450-page report is a major step in moving ahead with the mixed-use development.

Dozens of resident comments on the report, collected over several weeks in January and February, show a continued distaste for the project, and specifically, an anticipated glut in traffic. They also show concern about light pollution, water demands, the burden on nearby schools, and generally urbanizing the bedroom community.

At 162 acres, the Crossings is being viewed as basically a smaller version of Huntington Beach’s multi-use Bella Terra center, with retail, entertainment and high-density housing.

If approved, it would be built in the southeastern part of the city, an industrial area on Talbert Avenue between Ward and Euclid streets. Land would need to be rezoned to allow for more business and residential units, with the ultimate goal of creating a money-generating downtown area for the city.

Kim Constantine is a regular Crossings critic. In a lengthy response to the report, she wrote that she challenges “each and every” section of the report, from traffic and land use and planning to noise and greenhouse gas emissions.

On traffic, she wrote:

“Tremendously increased traffic to cause congestion and further delays in residents’, business’ and visitors’ access to the 405 Freeway. How can the city of Fountain Valley justify this and have our residents, business owners and visitors to our city see it as a positive?”

Ginetta Giovinco, a lawyer representing the Fountain Valley United citizens group, detailed residents’ wide-ranging concerns and criticisms of the environmental report in an 18-page letter. The letter said many of the claims and explanations in the report are incomplete, opinions or circular.

Many commenters referenced the city’s slogan.

“Fountain Valley is a nice place to live,” one wrote. “I hope it stays that way.”

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