McCarthy Muscles Mozayeni, And More

The Costa Mesa Planning Commission meeting Monday night lasted only 90 minutes, but it could have been much shorter.

DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP - NOT!
The agenda was thin, but Chairman Jim Fitzpatrick apparently felt the need to hear himself talk, so he yammered on and on about motels - his pet project.  When he was finished he congratulated himself by stating "Excellent!"  Geez!  His mirror must be his best friend.

REALLY?
One of the things he told the half-dozen of us in the audience was that on September 4th the Planning Commission is taking a little road trip.  Seems they're going on an "affordable housing tour", but they're going to Irvine for the tour!  Guess we don't have any such housing in the city.

PENDING ORDINANCES
Commissioner Jeff Mathews told us that there are many pending new ordinances in the works.  He listed one for Excessive Use Of Services Ordinance, Nuisance Ordinance,  a Shopping Cart Ordinance, a Hooka Lounge Ordinance, and a Group Home Ordinance.

SHORT EXTENSION
Public Hearing #1, the request from developer Al Mozayeni for a one-year extension on his proposed project on Anaheim street - to be piled on top of the three previous such requests.  Commissioner Colin McCarthy was ready for him, though.  He might just as well have stepped down from the dais and slapped him around a little, because that's kind of how it looked from the cheap seats.  Even after a compromise motion to extend his opportunity to develop his project for only 6 months was made, McCarthy was merciless, flat-out stating that we'd never see that project completed.  I must say that I understand his anger, but NO commissioner or councilman should EVER berate an applicant standing before them.  His behavior last night is only one symptom of the character deficiencies so many of the council sycophants demonstrate every day.  Finally, after nearly an hour of discussion, the commission voted 3-1 - McCarthy voting no - to extend his opportunity for six months. 

CONTINUED
The second Public Hearing, Peter Zehnder's project on Santa Ana Avenue, was continued to the meeting on September 9th.  Zehnder, who was outside the auditorium before the meeting, did not attend this one.

AH, OK...
The commission agreed with an unidentified resident that the freshening of the Smart & Final store on West 19th Street should receive the nomination as the recipient of the Planning Commission Design Award.  Seems like we have a low threshold for that award.

SOFTER APPROACH - FIRST
The final item on the agenda found Code Enforcement Officer Fidel Gamboa, who described recent changes in the way Code Enforcement approaches violators.  New violators - folks with a first time offence - are just given a slap on the wrist and asked to fix the problem.  Should they fail to do so a citation may be issued.  Repeat offenders are treated more severely.

DISCRETION?
Gamboa described a significant level of discretion that the officers exercise.  I need to know more about this, because if we have rules they should apply to everyone, right?  I'll report back later.

BIA ON GENERAL PLAN
So, one down, two to go.  The next meeting I plan to attend is the meeting of the Building Industry Association meeting tomorrow with city staff to provide input on the General Plan.  It will be held in Conference Room 2 at City Hall at 2:00 p.m.  I'll report on that one tomorrow.

 

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