Federal officials have no plans to transfer people returning from the Diamond Princess cruise ship who tested positive for coronavirus to the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, said documents filed with a federal district court late Friday afternoon, Feb. 28.

The government “has made other arrangements for the individuals previously proposed to be housed at Fairview,” said Kevin Yeskey from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in its filing seeking to have dismissed a temporary restraining order won last week by the city of Costa Mesa.

Federal officials had been looking at using the Fairview campus to house California residents who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess to Travis Air Force Base in Northern California and had tested positive for the virus, but didn’t need hospital care.

In the documents filed to the court Friday, state officials said an “unexpectedly small number of passengers” had tested positive and the additional space wasn’t needed.

Initially, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had estimated as many as 50% of those returning from the cruise ship could have tested positive within the quarantine period, which typically lasts for 14 days, state officials said. “In fact, actual results have been much, much lower.”

Calling the decision “great news,” Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said local officials had a three-hour meeting Thursday, Feb. 27, with federal and state officials, “where I think we really asked a lot of important questions the state and federal government could not answer.”

She said the city will remain vigilant because nothing in the court filing says the Fairview Developmental Center wouldn’t be considered for use in the future. The filing only discussed the plans to house the people from the cruise ship, she said.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton had granted the temporary restraining order until a Monday, March 2, hearing so the meeting on the proposal could be held. Foley said Friday she expected the city to move forward with making a case against the use of Fairview at Monday’s hearing.

“We don’t think it is good for patients nor the general public,” she said of the 60-year-old campus.

In the filing, state officials repeated previous arguments for why they considered Fairview, saying it “is the only state-owned site identified to date that is vacant, ready for immediate use, and, we believe, consistent” with the Center for Disease Control’s criteria for a shelter.

They also criticized Costa Mesa for suing the federal and state government: “This litigation has also consumed myriad other state and federal resources, including the attention of key public health officials, at a time when the state is working to marshal every available resource to protect the public.”

Fairview is a multi-building campus on about 114 acres off Harbor Boulevard. The site once housed about 2,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but the state has moved the residents into community homes and other living situations over the last several years.

LuAnn Jalet, a Newport Beach resident whose grandchildren live in Costa Mesa, said she is glad the federal government has dropped its plan. But she said she will still closely watch Monday’s hearing.

“They need someplace to put those people,” Jalet said. “If they win on Monday, that’s where they are going to go because no place in the country would approve.”

The county and several neighboring cities had lent their support to the city’s request in court to block the use of Fairview.

“Newport Beach joined our Costa Mesa neighbors to push back against the federal and state government placing a quarantine zone in the heart of the second most densely-populated county in our state,” said Newport Beach Mayor Will O’Neill. “The state was wrong to suggest the location and we are pleased that the federal government agreed not to pursue the site. The threat of the virus spreading is not done, though. We must all be prepared and we recommend that people daily read information from the CDC, the OC Public Health Agency and Hoag Hospital.”

Staff reporters Erika I. Ritchie and Alicia Robinson contributed to this report.