Community Commentary: Residents: Come out and help shape new vision of Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa is undergoing a difficult transition from which we will emerge better equipped to handle the crisis and capitalize on opportunity.

The transition was necessitated by economic conditions that Costa Mesa responded inadequately to due to a lack of strategic planning and foresight.

Heated rhetoric regarding the city’s outsourcing proposals has obscured the basic truth that the city is a service business, and our business is suffering badly, with dramatic reductions in services and the elimination of valuable programs.

In just a few years, Costa Mesa has spent most of the cash reserves it carefully built over decades. Critical infrastructure and capital improvements have been neglected, further delaying economic recovery and development. The actions being taken by the City Council are necessary to reverse these damaging trends.

I was appointed to the Planning Commission to be proactive and to help implement the goals of the City Council. The Planning Commission is undertaking a comprehensive review of the plans, policies and procedures that govern planning and development in Costa Mesa.

We will work diligently on identifying and implementing what is needed to make Costa Mesa one of the best places to live, raise a family, run a business, play, shop, go to school and enjoy the arts. We will increase the walk-ability and bike-ability of our neighborhoods, identify areas that need improvement and specific actions to achieve that improvement, and we will provide clear and measurable goals to the City Council for incorporation into a comprehensive strategic plan.

As part of this process, we will develop specific strategies and goals for the Westside, enhancing and implementing the excellent plans developed by the Westside Revitalization Oversight Committee and adopted by the City Council in 2005. The overlay zones allow an organic, market-driven evolution toward a residential, mixed-use area while respecting the historic industrial zoning. Increasing residential ownership in the overlay zones is critical, and will lead to new retail and business opportunities, parks and a true neighborhood on our bluffs. We will also address circulation and infrastructure issues to better accommodate the evolution from industrial to residential.

The Westside Urban Plans have been in place for five years, and not much has happened in that time. The time for action is now. At our May 23 Study Session, starting at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, we will be reviewing the 19 West, Mesa West Bluffs and Mesa West Residential Ownership Urban Plans. I encourage everyone to attend and help us shape the vision of the future of the Westside.

The City needs the input of residents, businesses and the development community in order to determine what is working and what is not working since the adoption of the Westside Urban Plans.

My wife and I just purchased a home in the Freedom Homes tract, and I am personally invested in the future of the Westside. The Westside presents our city’s greatest opportunity for real change and improvement, and its improvement will benefit the entire city.

We cannot accomplish real improvement without investment in infrastructure and capital improvements. Fortunately, Tom Hatch, the city’s chief executive and the City Council, are working to address our budgeting and strategic planning shortfalls.

The Planning Commission is approving projects which will create both short and long term jobs and working with the superb staff of the Development Services Department to quantify job creation and streamline the planning and development process to further encourage private re-investment in Costa Mesa.

I truly believe that all of these efforts will ensure that Costa Mesa will get through this tough spot and emerge stronger and better than ever.

ROBERT DICKSON is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner.