Editorial

It would be a shame if a Costa Mesa City Council decision on Monday

puts an end to a housing project that would have replaced the rundown El

Camino Shopping Center.

When the council voted Monday to require that all home lot sizes be a

minimum 4,000 square feet and an average 4,500 square feet, the project

may have bit the dust.

In March, with no opposition present, the council paved the way for

Jeff Pratt to build 19 to 29 homes at the site. Monday’s decision,

however, may have jeopardized that.

Pratt, owner of the triangular shopping center in Mesa Del Mar, said

the new guidelines will kill his project. After all, when the council

rezoned the shopping center from that of commercial to medium-density

residential, his homes were to be built on minimum-sized lots of 3,000

square feet with average lots of 3,500 square feet.

Pratt told the Planning Commission in January that it would be

impossible for him to go forward with his project if the commission

adopted codes calling for 3,500-square-foot minimum and 4,000-square-foot

average sized lots. So, it recommended the council adopt standards

requiring lot sizes of 3,000 square feet and 3,500 square feet.

Councilwoman Karen Robinson suggested those numbers be upped, and

Councilwoman Linda Dixon and Councilman Chris Steel followed suit with

their approving votes. Not once at that meeting did the council, nor

anyone, discuss the El Camino project. That in itself is a shame.

However, a day later, Steel learned that the council’s decision could

kill the El Camino project, and he told the Daily Pilot he would ask the

council to rectify its decision to somehow allow the project to continue

with the smaller lot sizes.

Surrounding the El Camino Shopping Center are both low- and

high-density residential areas. Those neighbors looked forward to the new

project, knowing all too well that the shopping center’s days are

numbered. Now, they may be stuck with their rundown neighbor, as Pratt

says he’ll skip town and build his project in a city that doesn’t turn

around and approve a decision contradictory to the previous one given

him.

In the past, we at the Pilot approved of Pratt’s housing project and

we continue to do so. It would be a shame if the council doesn’t rectify

its decision in a way that would allow Pratt’s homes to be built on the

lot sizes he desires. After all, the shopping center has indeed seen its

days.