OC Register Editors Get It Wrong!

MISGUIDED PRAISE
This morning the editors at the Orange County Register published an opinion on their pages, which can be found online HERE, that postulates that "after decades of attempting to root out several problematic motels through coercion and police action" Costa Mesa stumbled upon a more "novel solution: the free market."

COSTA MESA MOTOR INN
In their piece they refer specifically to the recent decision by the operators of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn, the largest of the so-called problem motels and the one which racked up the greatest number of calls for public safety services in recent years, to demolish their 236-room facility and build a new "luxury" apartment complex with 224 units - 20 of which would be aimed at the "moderate income" demographic.  In Costa Mesa, that would be someone earning north of $100,000.

LOSS OF LOW INCOME HOUSING
One of the impacts of this decision is that it removes from the city inventory a significant number of housing units currently being utilized by very low or low income families and individuals.  Yes, city officials will correctly observe that those rooms were NOT counted as part of their government-recognized numbers, but the fact is that facility has housed many such individuals and families.

YES, THE "PROBLEM MOTELS" HAVE DETERIORATED
Nobody will argue that the Costa Mesa Motor Inn - a place where families headed for a beach vacation would book a room or two for a week or two back in the 1970s when it first opened - and many of it's contemporaries in the motel business in Costa Mesa, currently provide accommodations acceptable to most of us.  They have deteriorated into venues for folks temporarily - and sometimes not so temporarily - down on their luck.  They are the last bastion for many before becoming homeless or the first step up on their way back from homelessness.  Mayor Steve Mensinger has regaled us many times with his personal story of picking up Estancia High School students - young men on his beloved Eagle football team - who lived at that motel because it was the only place their families could afford.

YES, SOME ARE CRIME-RIDDEN
Yes, some of those places have become havens for crime - drugs, prostitution, etc. - which makes the plight of those forced to seek shelter there even more traumatic.  Yes, they need to be cleaned up.  Yes, the photos of some of the units presented in open council sessions shook us to the bone. 

BULLYING WAS THE MOTIVATION
But, please do not be wooed by the Register Editorial writers into going along with the premise that these property owners just magically recognized the free market as a solution.  They did not!  They have been bludgeoned into that decision by our elected leaders and their policies.

TARGETED GOVERNMENTAL TERRORISM
The owners of those properties have been the targets of a specific campaign of what amounts to governmental terrorism, spearheaded by Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer.  Ever since he took a seat on the City Council he has made it very clear, in unequivocal terms from the dais, that his goal was to "help" the owners take a more realistic view of the value of their properties.  He meant they thought they were worth more than his developer-buddies wanted to spend to turn them into high density apartment complexes.

USING HIS POWER
Toward that goal - and he IS a goal-oriented guy - he unleashed the full fury of his position.  He created a brand new Code Enforcement entity, apart from the established Code Enforcement group, and had them charged with specifically making those "problem motels" the focus of their activities.   Police, Fire and Code Enforcement organizations began to pay special attention to those handful of businesses.  Fines were levied and they were publicly called-out for their perceived transgressions.  And yet that was not enough.

TIGHTENING THE SCREWS
So, with the warped "wisdom" so common with bullies, in January, 2014 he and the council majority crafted a special treat for those businesses - Title 14, Chapter VI of the Costa Mesa Municipal Code, HERE, the Excessive Use Of Resources Ordinance.  Those "problem motels" were assigned a specific number of calls for service they were permitted to make.  If those numbers were exceeded, the violating business would be subject to very significant fines.  One could almost feel the screws being tightened.

TOUGH DECISIONS
This forced some of those operators to make some very difficult decisions.  If there was an emergency - say a screaming woman in one of their units - and they had already "used up" their quota of calls, their choice was to either call the police or not, and let the chips - and the screaming woman - fall where they may.  And, of course, they kept their fingers crossed that nobody else would call, because it didn't make any difference WHO called - the penalties were the same.

THE LAST STRAW
Following months of intense focus by public safety organizations the Costa Mesa Motor Inn was the recipient of a special "inducement" a little over a year ago when the city decided to revoke it's Conditional Use Permit for long term occupancy rooms.  Straw, meet camel's back.

"LOCKDOWN"
In the case of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn, they accomplished a dramatic drop in calls for service by creating a virtual - and literal - prison at their establishment.  It is on "lockdown" 24/7/365.  Based on the testimony at the recent Planning Commission hearing where their request was heard, they chose not to become operators of a prison, so they're asking for code changes so they can scrape their property and build apartments - market rate apartments, except for those few designated for moderate income folks.  But don't for a second think that doing this was a voluntary decision.  One can take only so many punches to the gut in the form of fines before you begin to see the light - while you can still see anything.

RELOCATION PACKAGE TO BE OFFERED
And, to their credit, they have planned to offer a "relocation package" to current residents who continue to pay their bill and keep their room in good condition which will include 3-months rent reimbursement plus $1,500 if they stay until given eviction notices - likely to be next June for an August evacuation date.  This could amount to $4,500 - $5,500 each - perhaps enough to secure housing elsewhere, but not likely in Costa Mesa.  In an attempt to abrogate that issue, their consultant, former Costa Mesa Director of Development Services, Don Lamm, told the Planning Commission that only 17% of the current residents of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn are from Costa Mesa.

AMAZING!
I'm astonished that the editors of the most widely-read newspaper in our county would so openly condone the governmental bullying tactics that got the Costa Mesa Motor Inn to this point.  Their last sentence is "Let the market work."  I don't think they actually envisioned the market "working" with brass knuckles, but that's the reality of this situation. 

DEMONSTRATION THURSDAY
Whether you agree with this outcome or not, next Thursday, October 22, 2015, from 5-6:30 p.m., activists from the Costa Mesa Affordable Housing Coalition - distraught at the loss of those affordable units and with no official relief in sight - will demonstrate in front of the Costa Mesa Motor Inn to draw more public attention to this issue.  And, I suspect, they will present themselves to the City Council when this issue is heard before that body. 

WHO'S NEXT?
A final question for you to consider.  Who will be next in the cross-hairs for your elected leaders?  What kind of business will next be found to be undesirable and be targeted for extinction in Costa Mesa?  We already know industrial business owners on the Westside of town are feeling pressure.  We know that Roger MacGregor - one of the most respected small boat builders in the country and an institution on the Westside for decades - saw the handwriting on the wall, retired in 2013 and his daughter decamped much of the business to Florida.  His iconic former headquarters remains a sobering reminder of what an industrial powerhouse the Costa Mesa Westside once was.

Library Plan and General Plan Land Use Updates

BARELY A QUORUM
At a Special Study Session Tuesday beginning at 4:30 p.m. what was left of the Costa Mesa City Council heard staff reports, comments from residents and provided staff direction on each of the two items on the agenda.  Approximately 60 people showed up for the meeting.  Only Mayor Jim Righeimer, Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger and Councilwoman Wendy Leece attended.  Councilwoman Sandra Genis was absent due to illness and Gary Monahan, as mentioned in an earlier post, decided to stay at his pub for a fundraiser instead of attending this study session.  Righeimer, as he announced that fact, suggested that the audience adjourn to Monahan's bar after the meeting to support Kaiser and Woodland Schools.  So, now we're publicizing bars from the dais... nice.

LIBRARY ISSUES
First up was the plan - nobody said where this idea came from - to convert the Neighborhood Community Center (NCC) into a library and convert the nearby Donald Dungan Library into a community meeting venue.  The representative from KAL Architects gave a detailed presentation about how the new facility would be laid out, more than doubling the existing library space.  The staff report is HERE.

PROS AND CONS
Ten residents spoke on the issue.  Members of the Costa Mesa Library Foundation and the Friends of the Library supported the idea.  Others urged caution, suggesting that there was no compelling reason to do this at this time and we had no idea of the costs yet.  One speaker suggested that the Mesa Verde Branch library should not be overlooked as talks of improving library facilities moves forward.  Many spoke expressing concern about the displacement of the organizations which use the NCC for regular meetings.  At an earlier meeting one member of the council implied that the NCC was underutilized.  However, the staff report listed all the current users groups - 42 in all.  Of those one, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, rented space 141 days last year.  Another four groups rented space from 50-74 days, three rented space from 22-32 days, nineteen rented space from 9-18 days and the remaining fifteen users rented space from 1-4 days.  According to CEO Tom Hatch and Assistant CEO Tammy Letourneau, every effort will be made to assist those displaced find meeting quarters.

FAST AND LOOSE WITH NUMBERS
Supporters bemoaned the fact that, due to a perceived lack of commitment by the city, there was an  inability to come up with community financial support and the opportunity was lost to build a new, first-class library near the City Hall complex.  It would have cost an estimated $50 million.  Righeimer said, "If we don't do this now it will never happen."  He then, in one of those stream of consciousness rants for which he is becoming infamous, he said we could do this for "$4-6 million, under $10 million", and that he was all for it.  So, what we have here is a guy who pretends to be a fiscal conservative yet approaches a major project like this like a drunken sailor buying drinks for the house!  I mean, what the heck - four million, six million, ten million - what's the big deal, right?  Geez!  The staff was given direction to come back with a Request for Proposals to spend somewhere in the amount of $100,000 for further architectural work.  For more on this, see Bradley Zint's Daily Pilot article HERE.

LENGTHY GENERAL PLAN UPDATE
After a third of the crowd departed, leaving around 40 people in the auditorium, they tackled the second item on the agenda - the General Plan Update - Land Use Alternatives.  The staff report is HERE.  Consultants from MIG (Hogle Ireland) led the way with a snazzy PowerPoint presentation covering eight (8) separate and distinct areas where changes to the General Plan are recommended.  They emphasized that 85% of the city will be unchanged.  The eight areas are:
 

Area A - Business Park Overlay
Area B - Segerstrom Home Ranch
Area C - Sakioka Lot 2
Area D - Residential Overlay
Area E - Corridor Mixed Use
Area F - Westside Overlay
Area G - Newport Boulevard Mixed Use
Area H - SoBECA

BUSINESS OWNERS ARE CONCERNED
After the presentation more than a dozen folks stepped up to express concerns about some of the changes.  Seven Westside business owners addressed the council, expressing concerns about the probability of being squeezed out of their locations - some of whom had been there for more than four decades - by the implementation of so-called Live/Work housing units contiguous with industrial uses.  John Hawley of Railmakers - a long-time metal fabricator supporting the local boat businesses - led the way.   Also speaking was Roger MacGregor, who built boats that carry his name at his five acre Westside location on Placentia until - anticipating the squeeze - he recently moved his thriving and world-renowned business to Florida,

where it was welcomed with open arms.  He now rents out his space to smaller businesses who also face the specter of being forced out by incompatibility of uses caused by a new, very expensive Senior Living facility next door.

RESIDENTS CONCERNS NOT INCLUDED
Residents also stepped up to complain that, among other things, the sentiments expressed to the consultants who conducted several community outreach meetings last year seemed not to be acknowledged nor reflected in the presentation.  Several of them attended all the meetings - I attended all but one - and I agree.  There seemed to be a major disconnect between what the consultants had consistently been told - no more increased density housing - to what was being presented last night.

BUILDERS LOVE IT!
The final speaker was Mike Balsamo, representing the Building Industry Association - a trade group of more than 1,000 builders. He suggested that Costa Mesa was on the right track - what a surprise, considering the recent developments being considered in the city - and that the "Millennials" want things like Live/Work units because they are marrying later and having families later.  None of that made the business owners very happy, though.

MORE "FUNNY" NUMBERS
During his comments Righeimer said he had attended 4-5 of the outreach meetings - I don't recall that being the case - and he said there were only 10, 12 or 30 people attending and there was no "outcry" about density.  Well, he didn't attend the meetings I attended, because there was, indeed, an outcry about what appeared the plans for more high density housing.  And, once again, he plays fast and loose with the numbers!  He launched off into a rant about the state needing to do more to attract businesses to California - while he was in the process of putting together a General Plan that will squeeze out existing businesses from Costa Mesa!  He cited diminished "trips" in several of the areas discussed, but Gary Armstrong - Director of Economic Development - and Ernesto Munoz - Director of Public Services - acknowledged that the statistics used for those "trips" were estimates, not the result of specific, costly traffic studies.  So, we're now pulling numbers out of the air and basing major planning decisions for the future of the city on them.  Yikes!

WATCH THE TAPES...
I won't attempt to discuss each element in detail.  You can read the staff reports and the proceedings were shown live on CMTV and will be available for viewing in the local outlet rotation and also via streaming video shortly.  Watch it yourselves for the details.

EXPANDING THE PROGRAM
The staff was sent away with instructions to expand the contract of the consultants to do a broader program, to include:

Conservation Element
Safety Element
Noise Element
Open Space and Recreation Element

MORE MONEY - MORE TIME
According to the staff report, this plus Focused Zoning Update and additional Great Reach (outreach) Events will cost nearly $150,000 and the process will stretch into the first part of next year.  The staff will bring back the request for the increase at a future meeting.

LONGER THAN USUAL
The Study Session, normally a couple hours, stretched to nearly four this time because greater opportunity was provided for public comments on each item.  That was a good change on the part of the mayor.... that's "one", for those keeping track.  And, the meeting likely would have run even longer if Genis had been there.  This stuff is right in her wheelhouse and she'd have had significant contributions to make.  As it was, Righeimer read her short prepared statement into the record without comment.