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.”
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.