First Open Space Workshop In The Can

FOUR DOZEN ATTENDEES
Approximately four dozen residents, including two current Parks and Recreation Commission members - Kim Pederson and Bob Graham -  met at the Costa Mesa Senior Center last night for the first Open Space Master Plan Community Workshop.  There were many familiar faces, but also some folks who don't normally attend council or committee meetings.  As previously announced, there will be a duplicate of this workshop next Wednesday night at Lindbergh School.  I'll publish that information again next week.

SMALL TURNOUT, ENHANCED BY BIKE COMMITTEE MEMBERS
The turnout was actually much smaller - maybe 30 or so residents and a half-dozen staff members - when it began shortly after 6:30.  However, the Bikeways and Walkability Committee meeting, being held in an adjacent room, finished quickly so most of the members of that group decamped to this meeting, jacking up the total participation to close to the 50 or so that were anticipated.

ERNESTO'S GOOD-BYE TOUR
The meeting was kicked off by Director of Public Services Ernesto Munoz in one of his final official acts as a city employee.  He leaves to rejoin the private sector after 22 years of outstanding service to Costa Mesa next week. He introduced the concept and the consultant - Zach Mueting from RJM Consulting - who, along with his associate Tamara, facilitated this event.

CONSULTANTS GUIDED THE EVENING
Mueting gave us an overview and described the purpose of this process and showed us the timeline for completion sometime in September.  He then shuffled the deck, scrambling the participants into random groups which would then complete the workshop part of the evening - evaluating questions put to the groups, sifting through their own individual answers to arrive at a group response to each of the questions by table.  This made for some "lively" discussions.

BUT FIRST, SOME HISTORY
Before he launched into the workshop, though, he discussed some of the earlier activities, including a telephone survey they conducted in January.  This slide defines that action.  He then showed us slides comparing the recent response to a similar exercise in 2002.  I think you can make out these charts.  Click on them if necessary.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The following slides show the three questions posed and examples of some of the responses.  There were seven tables and seven responses.

ANSWERS WILL BE FOLDED INTO THE REST
Mueting and his staff will take the results of this work product to their offices and fold the responses in with those from the next workshop.

TWO MORE AFTER NEXT WEEK
Apparently there will be two additional workshops with much more targeted audiences.  We were unaware of those previously, but we're told they will be announced soon and everyone is welcome to attend each of them.