New housing standards may jeopardize home project

James Meier

COSTA MESA -- A project that would replace the El Camino Shopping

Center with a couple dozen homes may be in jeopardy after a City Council

decision Monday night to require larger minimum home lot sizes.

The council voted 3 to 2, with Mayor Libby Cowan and Councilman Gary

Monahan objecting, to establish a 4,000-square-foot minimum lot size for

single-family homes, with an average lot size of 4,500 square feet.

The new guidelines don’t bode well for El Camino Partners LLC, which

was set to build 19 to 29 single-family homes at the site of the rundown

shopping center in Mesa Del Mar.

Jeff Pratt, one of the owners of the triangular shopping center, said

the new lot sizes will make it impossible for him to build his proposed

medium-density housing, which neighbors such as the Mesa Del Mar

Homeowners Assn. supported.

“I’m absolutely amazed,” Pratt said Tuesday. “I’m just kind of

devastated. I’ve been very candid from the beginning to the council about

what I need to do this. I don’t understand why the council would do this.

“I think the council came up with a blanket statement for the entire

city,” he continued. “If there’s ever an ideal site for

medium-residential zoning, this is it. It’s an island of itself between

low- and high-density housing.”

The Planning Commission recommended the council adopt guidelines

calling for minimum lot sizes of 3,000 square feet and average lot sizes

of 3,500 square feet. At Monday’s meeting, Councilwoman Karen Robinson

recommended the council go with the larger lot sizes, which had been

discussed in earlier meetings. The proposed codes had been in the works

since June.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon said Tuesday that she was concerned with the

commission’s recommendation and preferred the sizes Robinson suggested.

“I thought [the commission’s sizes] were too small,” Dixon said. “They

started at 4,000 [in previous meetings], and I didn’t see any reasons

they should go lower. It was definitely a concern of mine.

“Lots that small when you’re looking into your neighbors’ windows --

that bothers me,” she continued. “There are too many of those offered.

There’s a need to preserve the open lots. . . . I think the council’s job

is to come up with standards for the city.”

Dixon added that she looks forward to the El Camino project and would

be disappointed if it falters.

Councilman Gary Monahan was surprised by the decision and said unless

the council retracts it, the shopping center will stay.

“I don’t think the issue is a done deal,” Monahan said Tuesday. “I

don’t think the folks knew the ramifications of the decision. But I have

a funny feeling that somebody will bring it back in some way, shape or

form. Or at least I hope so.”

Monahan said the new guidelines also will make improving the city’s

Westside that much more difficult and, as a result, it will be left

untouched.

Cowan said Tuesday she was not surprised by Robinson’s suggestions

because the lot sizes were part of the original discussions. Nonetheless,

she said much of the city’s work force will not be able to afford such

homes.

“It prices everyone out of being able to live here,” Cowan said. “But

I support the council. I think they have done a good, thorough job. This

enables us to protect, in particular, the Eastside and [avoid repeating

projects like] the Kleenex-box housing that’s been built over there.”

Pratt said the city will also probably lose out on a temporary police

substation if his housing project goes by the wayside.

“I agreed with the police to allow them to occupy vacant space for

free until the home development was ready to be built,” Pratt said.

“Instead, I might just have to leave it as a shopping center and then

sell it. I’ll have to go to another city that encourages development to

build the homes.”

Neither Robinson nor Councilman Chris Steel could be reached for

comment Tuesday.

The council Monday also voted to continue its discussion of realigning

East 17th Street. The item was incorrectly labeled as regular business on

the agenda rather than as a public hearing.