Council sends developer back to drawing board

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- The City Council on Monday told a local builder to go back

to the drawing board with its plans for a 90-home development before

taking them to the Planning Commission again.

The commission last month rejected the proposed project in the Mesa Verde

neighborhood, but development company Standard Pacific came before the

council with a revised layout, eliminating a gate, creating a right-turn

lane on Adams Avenue and Mesa Verde East and eliminating one home from

the plan to create more open space.

But some council members and more than two dozen homeowners said the

changes did not address the most profound neighborhood concern -- the

density of the homes.

“I have three children,” said Councilwoman Heather Somers, who does not

live in the neighborhood, “and they need yards to play on. I don’t want

to see this development turn into a place where kids play in the street.

That’s not what makes a nice development.”

Mesa Verde homeowners told the commission last month that the gated

development did not fit the character of the neighborhood. They

complained that the project would flood the streets with cars and flood

its nearest school, Adams Elementary, with children.

Developers objected, saying that the project wouldn’t be profitable with

fewer homes.

Scott D. Stowell, president of Standard Pacific -- one of Orange County’s

largest developers -- asked the council late Friday evening to hold off

on discussing the project. In a letter to the city, Stowell said the

company’s revisions addressed homeowners’ concerns.

Stowell said he wanted the Planning Commission to look over the revisions

before the council decided whether to approve the project.

On Monday, the council directed Standard Pacific to redesign the

development with fewer homes before resubmitting the plans to the

Planning Commission, which is scheduled to discuss the project again at

its April 10 meeting.