Condo Conversions - One More Time

It's that time again. Tuesday night the Costa Mesa City Council will, once again, consider the new ordinance for conversion of apartments to condominiums, or "common interest developments", to use their terminology.

OOPS! FORETHOUGHT FORGOTTEN
You will recall that this council has botched this process almost from the beginning, when they launched their much ballyhooed Westside plans without giving sufficient thought to the guidelines to be followed. In their haste to reverse Costa Mesa's "upside-down" housing market - 60% renters vs. 40% owner occupied units - and with images of gleaming, new common interest developments popping up like mushrooms throughout the Westside, they neglected to make sure proper rules were in place to make it happen. The many proclamations by council members and citizen activists about letting "market forces" drive the redevelopment on the Westside became words served for lunch as those "market forces" began taking the renaissance of that part of town in a direction the "improvers" hadn't anticipated. So, the brakes were put on condominium conversions of any type, anywhere in the city until they could finally get the horse back in front of the cart.

WHERE'S THE PEA?
This issue has received much press - commentaries and letters to the editor on this and related issues by residents and council members have graced the pages of the Daily Pilot for a couple months. Most recently columnist Byron de Arakal provided his usual insightful analysis last week (here), which has generated some very interesting comments on the Daily Pilot blog and will likely provoke a rebuttal by one or more members of the city council majority. The council, in it's attempt to "improve" our city, has played a shell game with the rules, attempting to force developers to adhere to rules not yet in place. On the agenda for the meeting, in closed session, is an item about "pending litigation". It looks like this sleight of hand will almost certainly cost the city coffers some settlement dollars as they stare down the barrel of litigation once again. Can you say "Barry Saywitz?

CAN THEY GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME?
So, tune in to the council proceedings Tuesday. In what will likely be a short meeting, the council majority will once again have the chance to demonstrate their leadership and wisdom - or lack thereof - on this issue. The city staff has provided several alternatives from which the council may choose a solution to this issue. I expect we'll see members of the public representing property owners throughout the city, and on the Westside specifically, address this subject. We'll have a chance to see if, in fact, this council will "listen to the community". I've got my fingers crossed.

Changing The Rules Midstream - Righeimer's Retribution

While the debate about where to place the next skate park occupied a big hunk of the Costa Mesa City Council meeting Tuesday night, there was an equally interesting item on the agenda. That item, the appeal of the Planning Commission's decision to chop developer Barry Saywitz' proposed condo conversion of a twelve unit apartment complex on Victoria Street on the Westside of town by 25%, will likely result in legal action by Mr. Saywitz against the city.

PRE-MORATORIUM RULES APPLY
The project in question was in the pipeline before the City Council imposed a moratorium on any such projects and, based on the general understanding of the rules, was not restricted by the pending rules changes. Saywitz was not asking for any special treatment - he requested no variances from the guidelines. Regardless, during several sessions before the Planning Commission and City Council Saywitz was forced to agree to an extraordinary number of "conditions of approval", several of which would prove costly to him as he attempts to help chip away at the renters/owners housing imbalance in this city. However, that apparently was not enough for some city officials.

RIGGY ON A RAMPAGE
You will recall that I've reported a couple times in the past that Saywitz has been harangued and harassed by rookie planning commissioner James Righeimer - the carpetbagger who landed his job on the commission in what certainly looked like pure political pay back because he's a pal of Congressman Dana Rohrabacher - a huge supporter of our young jailer/mayor and his barnacle, Wendy Leece, during the campaign last year. Riggy, as his GOP buddies call him, took Saywitz to task several times in a manner that was more inquisition than information gathering. At one point during a recent meeting his antics incurred the wrath of the commission chairman, curmudgeonly ex-mayor Donn Hall, who looked like he was ready to take Riggy out to the woodshed for a good whuppin'.

PULLING THE RUG OUT
It certainly does look like our city officials, Righeimer in particular, have changed the rules on Saywitz in the middle of the game. From all appearances, through all the harassment and appeals, he seems to have kept his head and tried to meet every demand made of him - regardless how unreasonable they might have been.

COURT OF LAST RESORT
I, for one, will not be surprised if he seeks a legal remedy to this situation. If he does, the result can be laid squarely at Righeimer's feet. What ever personal problems exist between Righeimer and Saywitz, they should be left outside the chambers. We, the tax payers of this city, should not be expected to foot the bill for Righeimer's personal vendetta.

RIGGY'S TWO LEGS UP
Righeimer is a tough guy to figure out. First he's handed a plum job on the Planning Commission even though he'd lived in our city for a few months. Then he somehow manages to land a coveted assignment as a weekly front page columnist on the Daily Pilot, in which, we were told, he would provide a "conservative" view of the world in our area. Each of these roles provides him with a tremendous vantage point from which to present his philosophy and display his skills, not to mention a double spring board to whatever office he seeks to attain next year.

DROPPING THE BALL - TWICE
In my view, Righeimer has bungled both of these jobs so far. On the Planning Commission he has demonstrated a propensity to bully applicants - Saywitz is a perfect example - and a willingness to forego the common courtesy expected by a commissioner on the dais. From his bully pulpit (so to speak) of the Daily Pilot column he has managed to anger residents in both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach - not smart for a guy who expects to have a future in politics. He actually acts like a guy who thinks he's got that next step on the political ladder locked up. I would urge restraint on his part - the electorate can be fickle.

LEGAL BUCKS
In the meantime, I hope the City of Costa Mesa has set aside a war chest for legal matters - it looks like they may have to dip into it very soon.

Riggy Slips The Leash - Again

It was like a night at the Bark Park in the council chambers last night. Those of you who chose to miss the Costa Mesa Planning Commission meeting last night because you thought it would be brief and boring missed some post-July 4th fireworks.

Whenever I see developer Barry Saywitz's name on the agenda I make it a point to watch the proceedings because he and carpetbagger Commissioner Jim Righeimer have this little feud going that makes for some fun viewing. Last night was no exception.

DOWN, BOY!
You may recall that Righeimer went after Saywitz like an unleashed pit bull when Saywitz was attempting to get a condo conversion project approved. This time, during a re-hearing of the same project, old Riggy was back at him again, trying to micro manage the project by questioning every line item in the project to see why Saywitz felt he couldn't make sufficient profit if he was forced to delete three of the twelve units.

SIT! STAY!
This time, however, crusty Chairman Donn Hall wasn't having any of it. He stopped Righeimer in his tracks as he began tenaciously interrogating Saywitz, told him he had embarrassed the commission previously with that kind of nonsense and that he, Hall, wouldn't put up with it this time. Riggy fired back, saying he was appointed by the city council to do exactly what he was doing. Hall persisted and prevailed after threatening to muzzle Riggy on this subject. I must admit that I enjoyed watching Hall cuff Righeimer around as he barked at him on the dais.

Saywitz was the loser, though. His project was denied, as commissioner Clark and Vice Chair Fisler joined Righeimer in voting it down.

Righeimer has demonstrated again that he's a dangerous guy to have angry at you. Watching him in action against Saywitz, it's clear that he has a burning animosity toward him. One suspects there may be more here than meets the eye.

WALKIES?
In any event, Righeimer's conduct on the dais should cause any developer planning to do business with our city to take pause. An earlier speaker, a developer with a long history of doing business in our city, virtually said as much during his comments. If the city is serious about re-vitalizing the Westside of our city it needs to, in addition to developing reasonable development standards, work hard to make the Planning Commission a whole lot more "user friendly" and much less adversarial. Somebody needs to get a trainer for Riggy, to teach him to sit, stay and heel on command.