Planning Commission Agenda For Tonight
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission, under the direction of Chairman Colin McCarthy - also president of the Costa Mesa Taxpayer's Association and main shill for the OC GOP attempt to take over Costa Mesa government - has an agenda that could generate some interesting discussions and evoke comments from the public, too. You can read the agenda HERE. The meeting begins at 6:00 p.m. in City Council Chambers.
MORE ALCOHOL TO BE DISPENSED AT "THE TRIANGLE"!
In the Consent Calendar there is an item requesting yet another liquor license for The Triangle (formerly known as Triangle Square). You can read the request for the transfer of this license from another location just down the street to this location HERE. In my opinion, we have more than plenty of places where a person who wants to get soused can do so, including just a stone's throw up the street at a pub owned by a current council member. I'm hoping that a city council in the future will seriously look at the proliferation of liquor stores and bars in our city. There's a reason members of the CMPD consistently rank high in the number of DUI arrests they make each year.
RECYCLING CENTER REQUEST CONTINUED
The first Public Hearing deals with a new Recycling Center on the Westside. The applicant has requested a continuance until the May 14th meeting.
STARBUCKS AND MORE
The second Public Hearing is a request to convert an existing building at 450 17th Street into a drive-thru Starbucks coffee dispensary plus something described as "another food use". It's my understanding that many of my Eastside neighbors are not happy with this and may show up tonight to speak against it. You can read the staff report HERE. As an aside, I have a question... Just how many Starbucks stores do we need in a two block stretch? This would be the third in basically three blocks! Yikes!
TWO FOR ONE
The third Public Hearing is a request to convert a residential lot at 164 Flower Street into two parcels so a two-unit common interest development can be constructed and each sold separately. The variances for this one seem minor. You can read the staff report HERE.
NEW WESTSIDE DEVELOPMENT
Finally, the fourth Public Hearing deals with a request to build a six-unit common interest development at 2070 Maple Avenue - another attempt to upgrade the Westside one development at a time. The staff report, including all the requests for variances, can be read HERE.
MORE PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS LATELY
In case you've not noticed, our Planning Commission has begun to have more meetings lately. That's a very good thing. That means that folks with money have finally decided to spend some of it developing and re-developing properties in Costa Mesa.
SPECIAL NOTE:
My blog host has apparently has had a temper tantrum and is refusing to let me post most images in locations I want. So, for the near term, I'm just going to have to deal with it the best I can. Some of you who come here for the fun images are just going to have to suffer along with me until we get this sorted out. I don't know how this will affect comments or other features. Please be patient. Sorry...Labels: Colin McCarthy, Planning Commission, The Triangle, Triangle Square
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 4/23/2012 02:42:00 PM
13 Comments:
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v401/tqwilcox/images.jpg[/IMG]
testing.
So you have an image issue? Isn't that what Tom Johnson was pointing out the other day? LOL
Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.
Regarding the license at Triangle Square for the Black Knight/Olive Branch Pizza - the current location of the business on 17th Street is in the same basic neighborhood, and they have a loyal following (of which I am one). I don't think it makes a big difference one way or the other, and it will certainly help draw local traffic to 'The Triangle.'
The Harriman family has run that since the 70s, and I hope Erik has the opportunity to run it for many more years in an expanded concept.
Ah, Bruce, that didn't take long! ;-) Darn technology bite me in my prodigious fanny once again!
Mike M.,
I wasn't suggesting that the PC NOT approve the request, just observing that this will be one more of many at The Triangle. We assume (dangerous word, that one) that he is abandoning the location down 17th Street.
I agree that we need more reasons for folks to visit The Triangle, although I'm not sure I'm going to be following some of them as they navigate up and down and around that parking lot.. ;-) Valet parking seems to be a GREAT idea for that venue.
Frankly, I think they should burn it down and scatter the ashes. Its too large for the area, no foot traffic, hence, but businesses can't make it there, and the parking is a huge pain. Its just a huge white elephant.
I always hoped for a bridge across Harbor from the escalator area in front of the theater so that there would be cross foot traffic from the shops west of Harbor to Triangle (Square). I hear the shop owners don't want one though. Short sighted IMO.
Geoff...you might get your wish. Rumor has it Fitzpatrick was angling for the valet service there.
Triangle square, as it now sits, has a fatal flaw: Foot traffic cannot easily reach it. Ideally there would be parking across Harbor, in the CVS etcetera lot, with a bridge crossing Harbor for pedestrian (and maybe bike) traffic, in lieu of a street-level pedestrian crossing there. But there seem to be some issues with Triangle customers parking in that lot -- and there is no other convenient entrance: the one on Newport cannot be accessed except by crossing Harbor at Newport, or, even worse, by crossing 19th at Newport -- unless you are coming from the commercial area behind the Goat Hill Tavern, and there you must cross Newport. The lights are none of them pedestrian-friendly.
Foot traffic is the lifeblood and livelihood of a shopping mall; without it, as we have seen so often with Triangle, businesses fail. I live three blocks from the place; but the most convenient way to get there is to drive!
I'd advise anyone contemplating hanging a shingle there to think twice, and also to demand that the pedestrian situation be remedied. As it stands, it is just poor design, unless you want a design for failure.
Thanks, Terry... I could almost hear you humming one of your ditties as you typed your observations. ;-)
Has anyone recently counted the number of establishments on W.19th St. that sell alcohol? You'll be amazed -- and appalled. The winos who hang out in the area used to gather recyclables, sometimes from residential trash barrels on collection days, turn them in for cash at the recycling business that was next to Smart & Final, then get lunch at the soup kitchen, then go to the liquor store across the alley and use their profits to stay drunk till the next morning, and then repeat the next day. Now there's a proposal for a new recycling business on Placentia, as well as more alcohol sales in the area. How bad does it have to get before this City says NO?
Yeah, I agree with the amount of alcohol places, there are way too many for the amount of people we have here. I know we have OCC, but it can't be that many college kids sucking down booze. For the Triangle, I thought creating two to three stories of condos, with small shops below, would be cool, but we already have too many unsold condos. Why not raze it and create a park ? Also, instead of a bridge, how about some tunnelled walk ways to and from the triangle ? I know you might have homeless people camping out at night, but you would get a lot more foot traffic.
Guys, you all understand that alcohol sales do not increase, they simply transfer, right? The Triangle license was transfered from another facility on 17th. The City does not grow licenses, the business must obtain a license from another location.
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