TWO RESTAURANTS TO REPLACE OLD PASTA CONNECTION--PARKING PROBLEMS EXPECTED
At its regularly scheduled meeting tonight, the no-Planning Commission will consider granting conditional use permits to two restaurants that want to go into the new building at the corner of 19th and Harbor Blvd. that formerly housed the Pasta Connection (you know, the place with the sign with the kid with a bowl of spaghetti on his head). LINK
The problem is that this property is woefully underparked. It has 23 parking spaces and under today's standards 45 are required.
The two new restaurants are Roberto's and Gandolfo's NY Deli. Combined, they're only 447 square feet larger than the old Pasta Connection. So, while they're not doing anything to help with the old bad parking situation, they're not doing much to make it much worse--at least on paper and at least according to the applicant for the CUP.
Here's the rub
Many of the tenants and their customers in the strip center just to the north of the location weren't pleased with the underparking of the Pasta Connection and they're not pleased that nothing has been done to correct the problem with the two proposed restaurants.
The CM PRESS was contacted by some who shop at the strip center just mentioned, and they say that in the past they sometimes couldn't get into their favorite businesses because all the parking was taken up by the Pasta Connection.
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CITY SPENDING $ 1.5 MILLION MORE A MONTH THAN IT TAKES IN?
There's an interesting post over at the DP from jberry who writes that the City of Costa Mesa is spending $1.5 million more per month than it is currently receiving in taxes and fees. LINK
The point jberry is making is that the City Council needs to start cutting expenses right now.
Remember, unlike many cities, Costa Mesa relies more heavily on sales tax revenues to pay the bills than other sources.
In a down economy, sales tax revenues decrease. That's the economy we're in right now, and the sales tax revenues are dropping fast.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
