Triangle Square LED Lights Withdrawn!

LED SIGNS REQUEST WITHDRAWN
Costa Mesa planning officials confirmed to me this afternoon that Greenlaw Partners, owners of Triangle Square, and their consultant - former mayor Peter Buffa, under whose watch Triangle Square was built - have withdrawn their request for LED lights at that beleaguered shopping mall.

RIGGY APPROVED, LEECE APPEALED
You will recall that the Jim Righeimer-led Planning Commission approved the LED light displays, but their decision was appealed by Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Leece. The hearing on that item was recently continued to the first meeting in October on the 5th. Apparently the applicants can withdraw this request without the restriction of having to wait at least 6 months before re-submitting it for consideration again.



JOY ON THE EASTSIDE TODAY
This news will certainly make my Eastside neighbors happy. No issue since the discussion of expanding Newport Blvd. has energized my part of town as much as this one has - and correctly so.

WIND SHIFT CAUSED DECISION?
We don't know what precipitated the decision by Buffa and his clients, but it may have been due to the tremendous outpouring of resident opposition PLUS the recent negative press being heaped upon Righeimer personally for his actions a week ago at the DUI checkpoint. Buffa is a very, very savvy politician who can read the political tea leaves with the best of them. Aways with his finger in the wind, Buffa likely knows trying to jam through a very unpopular issue immediately before a election where several of the decision-makers are deeply immersed in their own campaigns could doom the project.

WATCH FOR IT IN JANUARY
I won't be surprised at all to see this plan re-surface in a less-onerous version following the elections - perhaps the first of the year when the new city council and planning commission members are seated. Personally, I agree that Triangle Square needs SOME kind of signage to draw folks to it. I just think the planned 10X96 foot sign overlooking the terminus of the 55 Freeway at 19th Street and Newport Blvd. was overkill.

KUDOS, EASTSIDERS!
Regardless, kudos to my neighbors in the Eastside of Costa Mesa for their activism on this issue.