CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION TODAY--IMPORTANT FOR WESTSIDE
At its study session today, the City Council will discuss possible changes to our zoning codes regarding the conversion of residential and non-residential buildings to condos.
The important part of this discussion, especially for the Westside, is about the non-residential conversions.
It is an axiom among Improvers that the Westside will never be revitalized unless owner occupied residences start being built in the 60 acre industrial area on our Westside Bluffs.
Because of their closeness to the Ocean and Newport Beach, these Bluffs should be the best part of our city, not the worst. They're not the best part now, because of the industrial buildings.
Most coastal cities have expensive homes on their bluffs that take advantage of the ocean oriented geography. By contrast, Costa Mesa has factories on its Westside Bluffs. See anything wrong with that picture? Wonder why the Westside is having a hard time moving away from its crime and slum related problems? Ever hear of highest and best use of land and wonder why our Bluffs aren't being allowed to transition to homes? Curious about how and why some in local government seem to be acting to protect the industrial uses and kill off residential development?
With properly designed residences, the Westside Bluffs will be able to attract and hold upwardly mobile people who will see the Bluffs as a less expensive alternative to Newport Beach.
Their disposable incomes will then attract upscale merchants to the Westside to serve their needs. This will cause W. 19th Street, W. 17th Street, Placentia Avenue and the area around Triangle Square to take on new, vibrant life and contribute to the improvement of Costa Mesa.
Anything that tends to slow down or stop residences from being built on these Bluffs is bad for the Westside and for the city as a whole.
Some people, including many from out of town, who want to keep the Westside Bluffs mired in industrial buildings, are pushing to allow the conversion of industrial buildings to industrial condos. The problem for improvement is that this will head off any realistic chance to change these sites over to residential uses.
As it is now, a residential developer often only has to negotiate with a single owner of a large piece of industrial property that would be a good site for homes, but if the industrial properties are split up into smaller industrial condos, a developer would have to deal with many owners of small pieces of the formerly one big piece, and this would effectively kill off any possibility of having the Bluffs evolve to residential uses.
The meeting starts at 4:30 p.m. in conference room 1a at City Hall.
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USUAL CRAP AT THE SANITARY DISTRICT MEETING
The CM PRESS and a former director of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District were the only two non-involved parties who showed up at the Sanitary District Meeting last night.
From this lack of attendance, we assume that readers aren't interested in the doings of the district and don't mind that our rates are going up. So, we won't bother to write anymore about this matter at this time. Enjoy your newer higher rates which the District will probably raise again next year.
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Here's the link to our site. We don't email all copies of the CM PRESS, so if you're on our email list, but don't check our site, you've missed many exciting issues. If the link to our site is not live in your email, you can cut and paste it: http://cmpress.blogspot.com/
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
