Costa Mesa looking at redevelopment areas

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The City Council unanimously agreed this week to take

the first step toward redeveloping rundown areas in the city.

“There are a lot of variables that have to be looked at and, quite

frankly, we’ll need to consider where we can get the best improvement for

the limited funds we will see that we have,” Councilman Gary Monahan

said. “With the economy the way it is and the conditions we know of in

certain areas in town, I personally believe now is the time to pursue

this.”

The council, acting as the city’s Redevelopment Agency, asked city

staff to come up with four or five target areas that could benefit from

redevelopment.

Such redevelopment could include the city using the area’s property

taxes specifically to improve the area and taking over some of the land

using eminent domain.

Laws governing eminent domain, the city’s right to take possession of

land, would require the city to reimburse owners for any property it

takes and to relocate occupants.

Monahan, who is the Redevelopment Agency’s chairman, said he supports

using eminent domain if it turns out to be feasible.

“If we were to go forward with forming a redevelopment area without

the authority of eminent domain, there isn’t much we can do,” he said.

“It would just focus the revenue of taxes from that area into that area.”

Mayor Libby Cowan has previously said she does not support eminent

domain on the Westside and thinks there are other ways to improve the

area.

Westside residents are split on the issue. Some say eminent domain

could be the only way to really clean up the area; others say they are

concerned they might be displaced.

To qualify to be redeveloped, areas must be considered blighted.

At the next meeting, tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m. March 12, the

agency is expected to review the recommended areas and to consider hiring

a redevelopment expert to analyze the costs and benefits of redeveloping

the different areas, as well as to determine if the areas fit the legal

description of blight.

Monahan said he expects city staff to figure out “where the city can

make a difference, how much it’s going to cost and what we can get out of

it.”

Although the study could include areas anywhere in the city, Monahan

said the majority of the target areas are on the Westside.

Since 1998, the city has focused on the aging, rundown Westside for

intense revitalization.

After two years of meetings and studies, the council voted in November

to use the Westside Specific Plan as a resource for developing a new one

-- which could be put on hold until the council can first agree on a

vision for the entire city.

Eleanor Egan, chairwoman for the Westside Improvement Assn., said the

agency’s unanimous move is a good sign for the future.

“I’m in favor of considering redevelopment,” she said. “We need a

plan, and that is one way of getting a plan.”

Cowan said she sees the agency’s decision as the beginning of an

“educational process about what redevelopment really means.

“It is the first step of many that must be taken to establish a

redevelopment project area,” Cowan said. “We will be making decisions

about whether to go forward at various points along the way, but right

now everybody on the council seems willing to learn more. I think it will

be a really interesting process to hear everyone out as we decide whether

to go forward with it.”

Councilwoman Linda Dixon said she is eager to learn about the

redevelopment process because the council “may have to resort to

redevelopment to move forward with the expectations that we’re looking

for on the Westside.”

Council members Karen Robinson and Chris Steel were not available by

press time.