Meeting draws unexpected crowd

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- City officials got a surprise this week when more than

60 homeowners stuffed a tiny meeting room to discuss city plans for

widening East 17th Street.

The monthly meetings have drawn fewer than 10 people since they began

in January.

“I wish I had known there would be so many people,” said Mayor Gary

Monahan, who ran Tuesday’s meeting. “I would have moved it to the Council

Chambers.”

The meetings began after the city formed a committee of merchants and

homeowners in January to discuss its plans for widening East 17th Street

from four to six lanes.

But in a string of contentious meetings with city transportation

officials, the committee overwhelmingly opposed the plan. The group

instead has pushed for bus turnouts and new landscaping.

But the city could potentially lose $4.5 million in federal grants if

it does not widen the road, Peter Naghavi, the city’s director of

transportation services, has said.

Naghavi predicts even more traffic will flood the area in the next 20

years.

Since the initial discussions began, Naghavi and transportation staff

have created a compromised plan -- one they say would not necessarily

preclude the grants.

The “hybrid” plan calls for six lanes on East 17th Street from Orange

Avenue to Santa Ana Avenue only.

Monahan on Wednesday said the hybrid plan shows transportation staff

and the committee are moving closer to an agreement.

“It solves the traffic flow problem and would have much less of an

impact on merchants and businesses there,” he said.

But Dan Perlmutter, who owns the shopping center that includes

Mother’s Market, said the compromise still doesn’t work for business

owners.

“It would create more problems,” said Perlmutter, who said he is

afraid a six-lane thoroughfare would destroy the street’s “mom-and-pop”

feel. “It destroys something beautiful, and that’s not going to fly.”

Despite his differences with city officials, Perlmutter still dropped

by Monahan’s recently opened restaurant for corned beef and beer after

the meeting.

“We made niceties,” he said. “And agreed that two gentlemen can

disagree and still shake hands.”