HOUSING OPPORTUNITY WORKSHOP - 7/30/25

 WHAT AND WHERE?

Wednesday evening around 60 of your friends and neighbors attended the first of what is supposed to be 10 opportunities for us to express our preferences on the types of new housing being planned for Costa Mesa.  It began at 6:00 p.m. and was scheduled to run a couple hours. Seating was available for 70 and, when counting city staff and consultants, there may have been 90 souls in the Norma Hertzog Community Center.  I left shortly after 7:00.

GRUB AND KID-FRIENDLY

Refreshments were provided and there was a little table with coloring supplies for children attending.  I did see a couple children last night.

PHOTOS MAY HELP

I’ve included several photos of the evening, which might help give you a sense of the event.

THE THEME

The evening was themed “Neighborhoods where we all belong.”  

CARRIE KICKS IT OFF

Carrie Tai, our new Director of Economic and Development Services, kicked the evening off, then handed the proceedings off to representatives of the Dudek organizations - consultants for this process.  In addition to their team there were many members of the Development Services staff on hand to answer questions.  And, for the most part, there was good outreach to non-English speakers via translators - a very welcome change from years past.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS, PLUS

As anticipated, many of the usual resident activists attended this meeting to learn and opine.  I will list a few I recognized.  I saw council members Arlis Reynolds and Jeff Pettis, Planning Commission Chairman Jeffrey Harlan and current commissioners David Martinez and Angely Andrade Vallarta. Arts Commissioner Charlene Ashendorf and her hubby, Dennis were there.  Former councilman Jay Humphrey and his wife Sally were in the crowd, as was former councilwoman Wendy Leece and former Planning Commissioner Diane Russell.  Major property owner George Sakioka and current FIPAC committee member Ralph Taboada attended. Uber activists Cynthia McDonald and her hubby, Rick Huffman attended, as did my pal and super-blogger Jenn Tanaka of Goat Hill Rodeo fame.  I also saw Daily Pilot ace reporter Sara Cardine chatting with attendees and taking notes.  There were also a couple photographers scampering around, but I didn’t recognize them.

MANY NEW FACES

I was encouraged by the number of new, young faces in the small crowd last night.  After all, this will be their city and they need to express their wishes in this kind of setting.

SHORT VIDEO

Following the presentation of a short video which explained why we were there - too many people, not enough housing, and expensive housing when it is available.  We learned that Costa Mesa has 100,000 jobs, and that 7,000 were added in the last 10 years.  We were told the average home price exceeds $1,000,000 and that the average monthly rent is over $2,400.

BREAKOUT!

Following the video we were permitted to scatter around the room, view the various display boards and either affix “dots” where we could indicate choices or scribble post-it notes with suggestions/preferences.

WHAT DID THEY WANT?

Many attendees carefully crafted Post-it notes asking for things like "Affordability", 

"Safety", "Schools", "Affordable Senior Housing", "Pathway to Home Ownership", "More Light At Night For Residential", "Trees For Shade", "Mixed Use", and more.

WHAT THEN?

I was told that the information provided will be homogenized and blended with information for the remaining 9 similar opportunities for community members to gather and opine scheduled for the rest of this year.  Those meetings will take place throughout the city at different venues.  The data will then be compiled and presented to the Planning Commission and City Council sometime next year.

OBSERVATIONS

I noted with great interest that there was no mention of the Fairview Developmental Center property as an “Opportunity Site”, even though that more than 100 acre site could resolve many of our housing needs.  I also noted that only slight mention was made of the State-mandated RHNA numbers - 11,760 housing units demanded by the state for our city.  That, of course, is the prime motivator for this entire exercise.

BEEN THERE - DONE THAT

I came away with the feeling of deja vu - like we’ve been here before.  Yes, the folks from Dudek are bright and professional and have a proven system for gathering public opinion on these kind of issues.  Yes, the City Staff was helpful answering questions.  I’m concerned that this has been a long time coming and that it could get mired in the “process”, as has been the case many times in the past.  Several of us have gone through these kinds of exercises before, only to find the “progress” seemed to be slogging through quicksand.  We shall see.

AWAITING THE GOAT WRANGLER’S TAKE

I expect my pal, the Goat Wrangler, will provide us with a much better, more thorough account of this meeting.  When she does I will share the link to it on my Facebook page. 

MY OPINION?

Well, because we’re a 99% built-out city, Measure K authorizes us to re-zone certain commercial and industrial areas to accommodate housing and the ONLY way to make that work is to go UP!  (The image shown here shows those areas, although they should have used darker colors.)  Yeah, I know -  “Up” is a nasty word, but it’s a fact of life. We’re just going to have to figure out how to carefully plan for nearly 12,000 new dwelling units and the nearly 30,000 new residents they will accommodate.  Our neighbors in the City of Irvine have figured it out, which you can see in the Jamboree corridor north of the 405 freeway.  And, they’ve managed to soften the impact of big complexes by using lots of large trees! Traffic and parking will be HUGE considerations, too, as will the need for more schools, shopping areas, fire stations and police officers to keep us all safe.

FINGERS CROSSED FOR PROGRESS

In the meantime, I will keep my fingers tightly crossed that this process will move forward with quickness and, by this time next year, we will have some sense of what our city leaders plan to do on our behalf.  Of course, that will be in the middle of the runup to the 2026 municipal elections, when the balance of power on our city council could change dramatically.  As I said… we shall see.  

WATCH FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

Be alert for future similar meetings, where details can be fleshed out with consultants and staff.  It’s a chance for you to voice your opinion on what our city will look like downstream.