Council to consider building restrictions

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- Responding to concern about new development on the

Eastside, the City Council on Tuesday will consider putting in

restrictions on construction of two-story homes.

And City Councilman Gary Monahan is worried that nobody knows.

“My concern is that the city has not done a good job of public

notification for these revised standards,” he said. “Every homeowner in

town is having their ability to redevelop, remodel or expand their home

modified, and the homeowners don’t know anything about it. The council

rants and raves about notification to neighbors when a developer builds

near their houses, but here we’re going to affect every homeowner in town

and no one has been notified.”

The new standards will, if approved, affect the design and

construction of two-story homes and second-story additions in all

residential zones throughout the city.

The list of how they would change the look of the city is long.

The revisions would require bigger lots, larger driveways, more

off-street parking, more distance between main buildings in multifamily

developments and a more extensive review process for new developments as

well as for major remodels such as second-story room additions.

The changes also would reduce the maximum allowed building height and

increase the amount of landscaping required.

Finally, developers would have to follow stricter architectural design

standards, including having more variety in building heights and roof

forms, more offsets and building projections in home facades and enhanced

detailing.

In June, the council established a temporary moratorium on small-lot

multifamily developments throughout Costa Mesa in an effort to preserve

the Eastside’s neighborhood character.

In December, the council extended the freeze to give the city more

time to work on the new building standards. The council on Jan. 15

imposed a moratorium on new single-family houses and remodels, as well.

Monahan said his dissatisfaction has nothing to do with the standards

themselves but the moral duty he thinks the city has to get resident

input.

“It’s just that we have new standards going forward without comment

from those it is affecting, which is every homeowner in town,” he said.

The city is required to take out a public notice advertisement when

the council is considering ordinance changes, but is not required to

notify residents individually, said Don Lamm, deputy city manager and

director of development services.

The city has gone beyond its legal duty -- advertising that it is

considering the change -- by taking out a bigger advertisement than

required by law and by making the information available on its Web site,

o7 www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.usf7 , as well as in public libraries.

Former Mayor Sandy Genis is one resident who thinks the city has made

a good effort in notifying people about the proposed revisions.

“I don’t know what more the city could do,” Genis said. “It would cost

an awful lot to send notice to all households in the city, I would

think.”

But some residents, such as Westside resident Joel Faris, who ran

unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in November, agree with Monahan

that too few residents are aware of changes on the horizon.

“The City Council makes it a point to say this is a system with

citizens on top, but this is one more case where I don’t even know about

[what’s being considered], and I read the paper every day,” Faris said.

“The council members need to get input first. Everybody needs the

opportunity to know about all these types of things.”

John Feeney, a Mesa North resident, agreed, saying that more publicity

is needed to make more people aware of the proposal, since it would

affect so many people.

Genis said she takes more issue with the proposed standards

themselves, calling them “overkill.”

“They seem to be a reaction to a couple of projects that everybody

pretty much agreed were hideous, but those were more to do with things

that just fell through the hands of staff,” she said. “So we’re putting

all these rules on everybody and that is putting more discretion in

staff, which is where the problem happened in the first place. We could

have gotten by with a tweaking of the old rules instead of this

onslaught. Personally if I wanted to live in Irvine, I would have bought

my house there.”

Genis, a Mesa Verde resident, said she is concerned the new standards

won’t require enough notification and they will discourage remodeling.

FYI:

WHAT: Costa Mesa City Council meeting

WHERE: City Hall, 77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday

Information: (714) 754-5300.