Council, Planning Commission Hear Land Use Presentation

 (click on image to enlarge)

MOST LEADERS ATTENDED
Tuesday night the Costa Mesa City Council and Planning Commission, in a joint study session, heard a presentation by consultants and city staff on the Land Use Element of the General Plan Update currently underway.  Councilwoman Wendy Leece was absent, recovering from recent surgery, and planning commissioners Rob Dickson and Jeff Mathews were also absent.

PRESENTATION BEFORE A SMALL CROWD
Consultant Laura Stetson from MIG-Hogle-Ireland presented an hour-long PowerPoint presentation to the assembled crowd that included 14 residents and a few developer representatives. Members of the city staff and consultants actually outnumbered residents.  CMTV was on hand to record the meeting for archival purposes.  It's unclear if it will make it into the regular playback rotation.  You can read the staff reports prepared for the meeting, Land Use Alternatives, HERE and Land Use Maps, HERE.  You can read the summary of previous workshops HERE.

ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE CITY
Basically, this report deals with only the 15% of the City for which changes are being recommended.  The other 85% of the City - the residential areas - will remain unchanged.  This report focused on seven (7) areas described by Stetson as:

• Area A - Regional Commercial
• Area B - North Costa Mesa
• Area C - Harbor Boulevard
• Area D - Newport Boulevard
• Area E - Westside
• Area F - SoBECA
• Area G - Airport Business Park

ONLY SEGMENTS...
In fact, those designations can be misleading, since in each case the areas actually discussed are segments segments of those geographical identifiers.  You can see more about them on the Land Use Maps item linked above.  I'm not going to try to provide you with a word-for-word account of the discussion, but will provide you with some highlights.  Again, the exhibits I provided links for will give you details.

AREA A - REGIONAL COMMERCIAL
This is the area north of the 405 Freeway that includes the SOCO center.  It was suggested that consideration be given to expanding that commercial region.

AREA B - NORTH COSTA MESA
Recommendations included introducing residential uses with business park setting and allow small-scale commercial/retail

AREA C - HARBOR BOULEVARD
 The discussion here involved limited residential development opportunities; Increase development opportunities for underutilized commercial sites and motel properties; New buildings sensitive to surrounding low-density residential neighborhoods.

AREA D - NEWPORT BOULEVARD
Discussions included providing greater development capacity to spur reuse of properties and New buildings sensitive to surrounding low-density residential neighborhoods.

AREA E - WESTSIDE
Introduce a divers mix of uses at higher densities than exist today; Goal of creating an integrated, walkable, and complementary balance of creative uses and New buildings sensitive to surrounding low-density residential neighborhoods.

AREA F - SOBECA
Discussion included possible changes in land use for this segment, possibly including an overlay similar to the Westside overlays.

AREA G - AIRPORT BUSINESS PARK
The discussion here focused on what may be a shifting emphasis in that area that may include some high-density residential housing opportunities.

HUMPHREY AND VALANTINE
Following that presentation the public was offered the chance to comment.  Only two speakers, former councilman Jay Humphrey and retired development services executive Perry Valantine, stepped up to the microphone.  Humphrey expressed concern about the increase of 15,000 - 25,000 people anticipated, the need for more parks to accommodate them and the "urbanization" of Costa Mesa as higher density housing is approved.  Valantine was concerned about not having traffic analysis to permit better evaluation of these proposals and minimizing the impact on adjacent properties.

RIGHEIMER TOOK OVER
Mayor Jim Righeimer took charge of the show at this point.  In fact, it was his dialogue that drove much of the discussion, although other officials had a chance to speak.  He read into the record a comment from the absent Wendy Leece.

GENIS CONCERNS
Sandra Genis expressed concern about the high-density housing thread that ran through most of the presentation, indicating that maximizing the development potential of properties doesn't seem consistent with the views expressed by residents in the workshops who were loud and clear in their desire to limit such developments, which overtax streets and other infrastructure elements.  She said she was "concerned for the long-term economic viability as a result of this plan.", meaning the move from our industrial base to high-density housing - mainly on the Westside.  Righeimer later countered that the State of California was causing it to become ever-more difficult for industrial operations to exist in the state, citing the recent move by McGregor Yachts of their manufacturing facilities to Florida.

MOBILE HOME PARKS IN JEOPARDY
Genis also expressed concern that this plan may further threaten the mobile home parks in the city - one of the last bastions of affordable housing available in the city.  Righeimer leaned over and told her that her views may not be shared by others in the room.  THAT message was loud and clear to me... If you operate a mobile home park you'd better start making plans to liquidate and your tenants better think about where they're going to live!

"A RECIPE FOR DISASTER"
Genis also mentioned that, although the focus recently has been on "problem motels" for calls for service, in fact many of the top locations recorded are actually apartment complexes around the city.  She described the plan for higher density housing will create stress on our infrastructure and is "a recipe for disaster".

COMMISSIONERS
Commissioner Colin McCarthy was the only commissioner to speak.  Chairman Jim Fitzpatrick and commissioner Tim Sesler remained mostly mute.  Among McCarthy's contributions was his observation that, "Traffic isn't necessarily a bad thing."  Really?

MONAHAN WAS THERE, BUT...
Councilman Gary Monahan attended, but fought drowsiness as he frequently checked the clock on the wall.  I kind felt bad for him, having to be at the meeting instead of pulling beer taps at his bar.

MENSINGER TWEETS OR TEXTS OR... ?
Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger stopped texting long enough to make a statement supporting one of Righeimer's comments.  He reminds me of almost any teenage kid these days - the attention span of a flea!

RIGHEIMER WANTS MORE...
Righeimer then took over and went down the list with his comments.  He told us that it probably isn't enough to just convert motels - that we needed to snatch up contiguous properties to make a development work.  Swell!  Now those folks adjacent to some of those targeted properties - like the mobile home park next door to the Sandpiper Motel - will start feeling pressure to sell out.  I wonder what kind of pressure the mayor will put on THEM to be more realistic, like he's bludgeoned the motel owners recently with the Nuisance Ordinance and the Excessive Use Of Resources Ordinance.  I guess we'll see...

MOTELS AND ?
He suggested that the section of Harbor Boulevard south of Wilson should be a focus, and that getting adjoining lots for development should be the way to go.  Similarly with the portion of Newport Boulevard that kind of surrounds Monahan's gin mill.

WHAT IS HE THINKING?
Regarding the Westside, he expressed concern about traffic numbers, and particularly the bottleneck at the 55 Freeway/Newport Boulevard location.  Regarding the SoBECA area, he favored some changes and was concerned about traffic issues.  He made a curious comment about there being "B and C properties" and mentioned marijuana stores.  We have only one such place that I'm aware of, so I wonder what he was thinking.  Sometimes what comes out of his mouth seems to just be stream-of-consciousness babble - this was one of them.

BACK TO DRAWING BOARD

At the end, shortly after 6 p.m., the staff and consultants said they will consolidate the Visioning exercise with the input from the council and commission on Land Use and prepare traffic studies and consolidate 2 or 3 land use alternatives for future consideration by both bodies, then perform California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) studies.

MY THOUGHTS...
I came away from this meeting with a few observations.  1) Mayor Righeimer seems determined to find ways to pressure businesses he doesn't like - problem motels, industrial organizations - into making their properties available to developers at a "reasonable price".  And, of course, he's demonstrated just how far he's willing to go to do that with new ordinances and ramped-up enforcement actions.  2) The majority on the council and the planning commission are willing to dance to his tune without any kind of challenge.  3) Sandra Genis continues to demonstrate that her priority is for the residents of the city, not special interest groups or political power brokers, and that she will continue to ask tough questions and demand the answers the voters who elected her expect.

OUT OF CONTROL
I worry that Righeimer will continue to run roughshod in this city, increasing density willy-nilly and permitting his developer buddies to come in and do projects that will have a long-term detrimental impact on the city, both from an economic standpoint and a demand on the infrastructure.

A COARSE, BUT MAYBE ACCURATE, DESCRIPTION
One wag recently observed that it's their opinion that Costa Mesa is now viewed by some in the development community as - in the crudest of analogies - a "cheap lay".  Like a prostitute who just flops on her back and doesn't even make you pay.  Such is the image of our city under the rule of Jim Righeimer, who never misses the opportunity to go before a camera or on radio to denigrate one element or another in our city.