Daily Pilot
Officials Wednesday broke ground on an office building that will be the first component of a 15-acre emergency operations center at Costa Mesa’s Fairview Developmental Center, signifying a new chapter for the historic state-owned site.
Buildout of the Southern Regional Emergency Operations Center is expected to take two years. Once complete, a 39,000-square-foot office and 21,000-square-foot warehouse will accommodate 24/7 personnel, public safety communications operations, a radio maintenance shop and emergency vehicle storage.
As a backup to the state’s primary center in Sacramento County, the center will provide a collaboration and meeting place in times of crisis and disaster for first responders, elected officials and staff, serving 23 million people across 11 counties and 226 cities.
California Office of Emergency Services Director Nancy Ward called the start of work a significant day for public safety and a continuation of the state’s mission to help Southern California residents.
“This is the largest population hub in the state of California and a very high-risk disaster area,” Ward said. “Whether we’re coordinating personnel or equipment through our fire and rescue mutual aid, our law enforcement support or just responding to disasters of any size and magnitude, the need for a CalOES southern campus is so [clear].”
Built in 1959 as a 114-acre state-owned residential hospital for individuals with disabilities, Fairview Development Center bid farewell to its final patients in 2022, following a shift to house clients in more community-based settings.
Pete Cervinka, director of the California Department of Developmental Services, said the state plans to retain a few acres of land at the Costa Mesa site to house individuals with complex needs and expand into the nearby Harbor Village Apartments to create housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The remainder of the parcel will be developed for multifamily housing under an agreement between the state and the city of Costa Mesa, the latter of which is creating development standards for the property.
“All of these new uses are bringing us closer to closing the chapter of California’s use of institutionalized care,” Cervinka said Wednesday. “We are thrilled … to celebrate this modernization of the Fairview site’s use to better support our community, while respecting the historical experiences of thousands of people who called this location home.”
Orange County Supervisor and former Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley, who worked with state Assemblymember Cottie Petrie Norris (D-Irvine) and other state and city officials to facilitate the transition, recalled having to set up a makeshift emergency operations center at Orange Coast College in 2021 to respond to an oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach.
Foley said having a permanent crisis response center will benefit local communities.
“The new CalOES campus strengthens our ability to respond to wildfires, coastal incidents and any other unexpected disasters our region might face,” she said in a statement after Wednesday’s event. “I’m thrilled to welcome CalOES and our first responders to their new home.”