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.

Bike Committee Had A Full Meeting

NOT A FULL TEAM AGAIN
The Costa Mesa Bikeways and Walkability Committee met again Wednesday evening at City Hall and managed to fill the time provided with productive discussions.  The committee membership is down to twelve (12), plus Brent Stoll and Dr. Kirk Bauermeister.  Two members and Stoll were absent last night.  Three positions will be filled with the current recruitment effort for this and several other city committees.  Applications must be received by 5:00 p.m., Friday, February 19th.

TAXING CARS FOR BIKE INFRASTRUCTURE
Member James Kane did more work on an analysis of Senate Bill 1183, HERE, which theoretically provides for up to $5.00 per vehicle annually to be assessed by cities, counties or other park districts to fund bicycle enhancements within their boundaries.  The following slides outline what he found out.

Apparently, there are NO jurisdictions who have taken advantage of this bill.  It would apparently take a local vote to enact the process and there are few politicians willing to impose a new tax.  It's an interesting concept, though.  According to the data Kane provided, it could provide net revenue of more than $400,000 annually for such efforts.

WEST 19TH STREET BIKE TRAIL PROJECT
There was a presentation by Min Zhou, Project Manager for KOA Corporation, the consultants working on the 19th Street Bike Path project.  They gave an overview of the project to the committee and answered several questions.  This plan will be presented as a community outreach effort in the near future, so members of the community nearby or with special interest can attend in a larger venue to hear the plans and offer comments.

 PRESENTATION OF GOALS, OBJECTIVES AND.... "RECOMMENDATIONS"
Chairman Ralph Taboada and Vice Chair Cynthia McDonald briefed the committee members on their presentation of the Goals, Objectives and Policies presented to the City Council at a recent meeting.  Much discussion revolved around the negative reception their work product received, and the demand by Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer that the "policies" be modified to be called "recommendations", even though the format is the preferred style for the General Plan update.

I sat through most of the meetings where this committee met and hammered out this excellent piece of work on a rushed timetable.  I, too, was surprised and disappointed with Righeimer's reaction to it.  Yes, there were a lot of words, and, yes, it took some time to carefully craft the document - but that was their charter.

RIGHEIMER'S MOTIVATION
Personally, I think there's more at play here.  I think that Righeimer realizes - although he didn't say it - that the "rules" provided by the "policies" might negatively impact some future developments by his pals.  By calling them "recommendations" the staff can be instructed to simply not enforce those Righeimer finds objectionable.

THE REVISED MAP
There was also a lengthy discussion of the completion of the Bicycle Map for the Master Plan.  An example of a conceptual map was reviewed and, after discussion, it was agreed unanimously to put that map forward.  There was significant discussion about the method of presenting this map, with some members favoring approaching individual members of the council, while others strongly suggested to not use that tactic.  The committee will present the map to the council as a whole.

 NO TAKERS FOR CICLOVIA SUBCOMMITTEE, BUT...
Also on the agenda was a opportunity for the creation of a ciclovia subcommittee.  I wasn't at the meeting where this was proposed as an agenda item, but it seems like the plan was to form a smaller group to move forward with all elements of a possible ciclovia event similar to others held elsewhere.  When it came time for volunteers for this committee nobody stepped up.  The subsequent discussion resolved that it may be too soon for such an effort for this fledgling committee.

...AN OUTREACH SUBCOMMITTEE WILL BE FORMED
So, the conversation then turned to the creation of a broader Outreach Subcommittee, to begin with smaller steps.  Four members stepped up for this group - Chairman Taboada, Vice Chair McDonald, Rick Huffman and Jim Erickson.  The committee will wait until the next meeting, when a couple more members may be present, to fill out the five-person subcommittee and tighten the focus of its activities.  Discussions revolved around creating a presence at currently-existing programs in the city - like the Fish Fry and the Community Run - to launch greater awareness of this group and their efforts to improve bikeability and walkability in the city.

LOCKED GATES ON GREENVILLE-BANNING CHANNEL TRAIL
There was a brief slide presentation requested by Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bob Graham, who was in the audience last night, regarding the possibility of finding a way to open two locked gates on the trail that parallels the Greenville-Banning Channel on the Westside of town to provide access to walkers.

NEXT MEETING IN A MONTH
The next meeting will be held on March 2, 2016 at the Costa Mesa Senior Center, which is undergoing termite treatment.  The meeting adjourned at 9:07 p.m. and the 9 members of the public in attendance departed.

Smart Growth Initiative Petitions Submitted To City

MORE THAN 6,900 SIGNATURES
Early this afternoon representatives of the grass roots organization Costa Mesa First trekked to Costa Mesa City Hall to turn in 427 Petition pages bearing more than 6,900 signatures in an attempt to qualify their so-called Smart Growth Initiative for the November, 2016 ballot.  Fighting a cold, I chose to stay home rather than attend and spread that "wealth", but you can read Bradley Zint's first person account in the Daily Pilot HERE.  And, you can read the entire initiative plus the City Attorney summary on the Costa Mesa First website, HERE.  (Photo credits to Mary Spadoni)

HUMPHREY MEASURES THE STACK
Former City Councilman Jay Humphrey, one of those very busy activists who created this initiative, was on hand for the event and presented the pile of paper - 11 inches - to City Clerk Brenda Green.

TIRELESS CREW
The signature gathering process has taken months and the deadline was this week.  The husband and wife team of Rick Huffman and Cynthia McDonald plus the tireless Mary Spadoni were also on hand.  According to Zint, and others, a total of 6,918 signatures were presented and 6,908 will be delivered to the Orange County Registrar of Voters Tuesday so he can begin the certification of the signatures.  4,995 were required to qualify for the ballot.

STUPID COMMENTS FROM POLITICIANS
As you read Zint's article you'll find quotations from Mayor Steve Mensinger and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.  Perhaps the funniest one was attributed by Zint to Mensinger.  He apparently said, "It's bad for public safety".  Really?  This from a guy who has made life miserable for the Costa Mesa Public Safety family ever since he took office, teaming with Righeimer to create such a toxic work environment that many seasoned police officers have bailed out.

DEVELOPER GRAVY TRAIN
Both Mensinger and Righeimer are developers themselves, and have made life easy for their pals in the development business by creating a Small Lot Ordinance which codified many variances to normal projects - making it easier for their pals to put up projects that would have been questionable in the past.

KUDOS, AND NOW THE FUN BEGINS
Kudos to those mentioned above, plus the dozens of other volunteers who walked neighborhoods and set up tables on street corners to gather signatures.  We should know later this month just how many of those signatures made the cut.  If there are more than 4,995 then the initiative will appear on the November ballot.  If it qualifies you can expect a full court press by Mensinger, Righeimer and their sycophants on the Planning Commission, PLUS a ton of money coming into the city from developers to fight this.  It's going to be especially interesting for Mensinger, who will likely run for re-election.  It will be interesting to see how he fabricates the "facts" of this initiative while trying to get people to believe him.  It's going to be an interesting year, for sure.

Citizen Group Calls For Initiative On Development

QUALITY OF LIFE
The Costa Mesa citizens group, Costa Mesa First, today announced the first steps in the initiative process to place on the ballot the question of whether residents of this city should have the power to decide if major changes in allowable land use is worth the impact on their quality of life.  You can read the entire press release below.  (Click on the image to enlarge for easier reading)

IN THE HANDS OF CITY ATTORNEY
The text of the initiative is presently in the hands of Costa Mesa City Attorney, Tom Duarte, who will provide the title and summary necessary to proceed with the next step.

GATHERING SIGNATURES FOR NOV. 2016 BALLOT
At some point in the very near future, depending on how the rest of this process moves along - probably near the middle of July - the proponents of this initiative will begin collecting signatures to authorize the placement of the initiative on the General Election ballot in November, 2016.  According to the information provided to me, collection of signature may take up to 180 days.  The proponents will need at least 5,000 valid signatures according to City Clerk Brenda Green.  The proponents will likely try to gather 7,500 signatures, just to be sure.

CONTROVERSIAL AND CONTENTIOUS
This initiative is similar to Newport Beach's Greenlight measure - one of the most contentious measures in the history of that city.  This one has the probability of also being controversial, since it potentially has the capability of slamming the brakes on "excessive development" throughout the city.  We'll know more when the actual initiative is available for reading.

HEADS, NOT FIREWORKS, EXPLODING
I can hear developer-oriented politican's heads exploding all over Mesa Verde as folks become aware of this initiative.  And you thought they were only M-80s!

OH, BOY...
It's going to be a very interesting summer and fall.

Bikeways & Walkability Committee Off And... Peddling

A GOOD START
The new Costa Mesa Bikeways & Walkability Committee held it's first meeting - delayed a week - last night, Wednesday, and it was a terrific start.

ALL MEMBERS PRESENT AND ENTHUSIASTIC
All 15 of the appointed members, whose names appear on the agenda for the meeting, HERE, showed up for duty right on time.  There were no members filling the two additional slots recently approved by the City Council from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District nor the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce, although Kyle Woosley from the Chamber was present.  The Chamber Board will designate a future member.  Unfortunately, the Pension Oversight Committee meeting that occupied the same venue ran long, so the new committee didn't get started until about 6:10 p.m.

 MUNOZ KICKS IT OFF
Director of Public Services Ernesto Munoz took the lead for the meeting and the new (they're all new) members of the committee introduced themselves and gave a little history about why they wished to be part of this group.  I must admit that we have a pretty darn good cross-section of the community.  We have engineers, parents, grandparents, folks who are active on other committees, politicians and more.  Clearly, all bring a special expertise to the mix that should produce some very good analysis and discussions on the issues that will face them.

TABOADA AND MCDONALD LEAD THE GROUP
Ralph Taboada was chosen as Chairman of the committee.  He is currently Vice-Chair of the Pension Oversight Committee. Activist  Cynthia McDonald was chosen as Vice-Chair (Her husband, Rick Huffman, is also a member of the committee), so the leadership of the group seems to be in solid hands.  Katrina Foley is the Council Liaison for this group and seems to be providing direction to it early-on.  We'll see if that changes as the meetings progress... I hope so.  This committee, like all other committees, should be given their head to fulfill their charter once that is clear in their minds without micro-managing by council members.

THE BROWN ACT
Fortunately, there was a very brief discussion of The Ralph M. Brown Act and a short informational piece was distributed to keep the members out of trouble until the next meeting, at which time there will be a full orientation on this important issue.

ORANGE COUNTY BICYCLE COALITION
During Public Comments one of the speakers was Pete Van Nuys, who represents the Orange County Bicycle Coalition, a group headquartered in San Clemente apparently devoted to making bicycling safer in Orange County.

BICYCLE MASTER PLAN
Raja Sethuraman, Transportation Services Manager, presented an overview of Bicycle Master Plan, which was last updated in 2002 and is expected to be updated within the next 6 months.  Helping in that process is one of the reasons this committee was created.  The following images capture his presentation visually.

GRANTS PENDING

Then Sethuraman's associate, Pritnam Deshmukh, led the discussion of the Active Transportation Grant Applications that might apply to issues this committee will consider.  They are shown in the images below.  I've shown the amount of the grants in approximate numbers being requested for each beneath the image.

 ($900,000)

 ($2.8 million)

 ($800,000)

 ($2.2 million)

($250,000)

$6.95 MILLION
So, there you have it.. nearly $7 million in grants applied for to improve transportation that will affect the bikeability in Costa Mesa.  It is assumed that we will know about those grants early in the fall.

INFLUENCE IS IMPORTANT TO THE COMMITTEE
During the presentation several committee members expressed concern for some of the features and asked some excellent questions.  Several members expressed concern about not having input on these projects, but it was explained that these were already in the pipeline.  Chairman Taboada emphasized his opinion, and those apparently of many other committee members, that they signed up so they would have a voice - that they would be able to provide influence to the City Council.

TANAGER TRAIL CONCERNS
Member Flo Martin provided a brief Power Point presentation for the group showing the bad condition of the Tanager Bike Trail and her concerns for the safety of that route.

GETTING THEIR SEA LEGS
Both Foley and Munoz suggested that the committee take a couple meetings to get acclimated to the current status of issues to get the sense of where things are already headed.  The next meeting apparently will be held the 2nd Monday of each month at the same venue, but will start later - at 6:30 p.m.  That should provide the Pension Oversight Committee time to finish it's business.

A GOOD GROUP
A couple observations... Again, I was very impressed with the backgrounds of many of the members of the group and their eagerness to begin the process.  And, their specific interests began to show through during the discussions in this 90 minute meeting.

WALKABILITY?
Interestingly, there was virtually NO discussion on the "Walkability" side of the equation.  In fact, there seems to be no champion for that subject on the committee based on the short discussions we heard last night.  In my minds-eye, "Walkability" includes not only our ability to hoof it around the city streets safely and efficiently, but also should probably include a discussion of our mobility through areas that are not as precisely delineated - like Fairview Park, for example.  We'll see how that shakes out in the future.

STOLL
And, I was impressed that Brent Stoll, the young man from Santa Monica who was first appointed (in error), then un-appointed, showed up last night to observe and make notes.  His wife is fully immersed in bicycle issues in Santa Monica and he has business interests in Costa Mesa.  I suspect he may have insights to share as these meetings progress and hope he will continue to attend.  He was one of 8 members of the public attending the meeting last night.