City plans kickoff to planning process

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- As the city readies itself for a first attempt to define

its future, community members already are anticipating the issues that

could shape the discussions.

“Part of the overall basic process and problem is starting out with a

conceptual goal,” said John Anderson, member of the Cosa Mesa Cultural

Arts and Historic Resources Committee. “It’s going to be difficult to

find something everybody in Costa Mesa agrees on because, to me, the feel

is a little nonconformist compared to other cities. It’s going to be

harder to come up with something citizens can cling to as a focal point

or a starting point.”

The City Council will open its so-called “visioning” process with a

special session at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.

The meeting is scheduled to include presentations and discussion on

the city’s long-range vision plan, individual council member’s interests

and priorities, a review of current community objectives and the

development of 2001-02 objectives.

Although the goal is to decide on a vision for the entire city, some

residents are taking the opportunity to focus their attention on the

Westside.

“I think almost everything will be brought up,” said Janice Davidson,

chairwoman of Citizens to Improve Costa Mesa. “Of course we will talk

about the Westside and the problems that occur over here. Not everybody

really knows what we want. What we really need to do is decide what’s

best for the Westside and what the best way to redevelop it is. All

citizens should be involved.”

The council in November scrapped its plan to improve the Westside --

the result of two years of work -- and decided to use it only as a

resource for a future plan, which was postponed until after council

members can agree on a vision for the entire city.

Davidson said other issues she expects to be discussed are utilities,

congestion, traffic, lot sizes, the population and the homeless

population.

Tom Egan, a Westside resident, said he thinks the visioning process

should be a “bottom-up” process rather than a “top-down” one.

“A top-down process would be where the City Council members think

about what they think the city ought to do and then tell staff to start

implementing those decisions,” he said. “It’s something that starts at

the top of the pyramid and eventually filters down and affects citizens

and businesses.

“In a bottom-up process, citizens and business owners thrash out what

they would like the city to do and tell staff and the City Council what

they want,” he added. “In Laguna Beach, the visioning process was very

citizen-driven. That’s the bottom-up.”

Bill Turpit, a member of the Latino Business Council, said he thinks

the challenge will be to craft a vision that “respects and acknowledges

the diversity of the community, including the rich, the poor and all the

other variations of people here.”

“When I hear people talking about a vision for Costa Mesa, I am

concerned because there is not just one vision for the city,” he said.

“It depends on what perspective you are coming from, and there are so

many. At the same time, it is nice to know where you are going, so

perhaps this is an effort we will all benefit from.”

Egan said he has high hopes for the process.

“I know our leaders keep their ears to the ground, but how can they

know what the city wants if we don’t know what we want?” he said. “This

helps people think about what we want for the future. I hope the City

Council ends up instituting a process that will allow the community to

start dreaming and planning for the next 20 to 30 years.”