Q & A -- Lance Thompson-Hailstone

The Mesa Del Mar area has been quite the focus of Costa Mesa City

Council decisions lately.

At the last meeting, the council amended the home lot sizes to

accommodate a project that will replace the El Camino shopping center

with homes and opted not to enforce additional parking restrictions in

the Mesa Del Mar residential tract during street sweeping.

On Thursday, Daily Pilot Assistant City Editor James Meier sat down

with Lance Thompson-Hailstone, the president of the Mesa Del Mar

Homeowners Assn., at his home to discuss the issues affecting these

residents.

Q: Which do you find more satisfying -- the home-lot decision allowing

the El Camino project or the street-sweepingdecision?

A: I would have to say the El Camino shopping center. We’ve been

trying to get something done with that project for as long as I’ve lived

here. There are two reasons I became involved with the homeowners

association. One was traffic on El Camino Drive. And fight to get speed

bumps.

When I moved in here, the traffic, on average, was around 45 mph in a

residential zone here. And there were times, especially if they were

doing work at Baker and Fairview, and people knew we were a cut-through,

you could not get out of your driveway on El Camino. I sat, time after

time, for 45 minutes, and that sounds ridiculous, but people would not

let you out.

So we and a lot of the neighbors on the street fought long and hard

and got these speed bumps in, and then the shopping center began to

deteriorate.

The market there was called Country Cousins, and people came from Los

Angeles to buy meat at this place because it was choice. It was

beautiful. Their vegetables were great. And wonderful prices. John Wayne

used to come over here and buy his stuff. The Duke. It was a nice

shopping center. There was a Mexican restaurant there that we went to

almost every week.

But then they started changing hands. As can happen in real estate

when people are buying a shopping center, they’re looking for it as a tax

loss. They buy it, they’re getting rent, but it’s a nice little

write-off. They don’t have to do much, and they didn’t. And we would talk

to them, and we would invite them to come talk to us, and they would just

think, “Who are you people? We don’t need to talk to you.”

But now, the place has deteriorated to the point where El Camino

Partners can’t, economically, do anything more to it. It’s just kind of

lost its usefulness. It’s usefulness has been served, economically and

for the neighborhood. And I really think that, by having homes in there,

it will not only be an asset to the neighborhood and to the city, but to

us as homeowners. I think it’s going to help our property values and

everything.

In your opinion, how long has the El Camino shopping center been

past its prime?

A good 10 years, easily. And I continued to shop there for as long as

I could because it’s convenient. It’s nice to have a little market that I

can walk to, but I can walk to Stater Bros. It’s not a problem, but I’m

just more comfortable walking down there because it was really nice.

But going there at night, I wouldn’t chance it. I went there one night

and there were 20 of the toughest guys I’d ever seen hanging around the

parking lot. And I have seen drug deals going down in that parking lot. I

mean, little envelopes being handed into a car and cash coming out of the

car, I don’t think they’re handing out samples of Cheerios or anything.

It’s tough.

So that’s one of the beauties about this if Jeff Pratt is allowed to

proceed is having a police substation there. That is -- wow! When they

told us about that, people were really excited about that. And I have

friends over on the Westside, and having that police substation there

near Lions Park made a big difference to them. They really noticed a

lessening in gang activity and of other problems they’re having there.

And I’m sure it’ll do the same thing here.

I think Chief Dave Snowden and his crew do a great job for this city.

I really do. They’re always polite. They really work hard.

The nearby apartment complexes have wanted the shopping center to

remain at the site while the homeowners association has favored the home

project. How’s the association’s relationship with the nearby apartment

complexes these days?

For the owners who live within our tract, like Joan Ting (who owns one

apartment complex in Mesa Del Mar) and some other folks, it’s excellent.

As a matter of fact, Joan tried to create an association of apartment

owners down there a number of years ago. She’d love to see the other

places cleaned up because that can only help her too. And I tell you,

when she has a vacancy, it gets filled almost instantly because her

places really look nice.

The response she got was just a big, resounding “no” from all the

absentee landlords. But all the people fairly local were all very

enthusiastic about it. So that was really frustrating for her.

So, we really don’t have a relationship with those others.

Were the parking restrictions going to be that much of a hassle for

Mesa Del Mar?

All of us want clean streets. We really do. That wasn’t the thing we

were upset about, at least most of us. Reading the thing that Peter

Naghavi (transportation services manager for the city) put out was they

weren’t just talking about two signs per street. I mean, I have two or

four signs on El Camino Drive right now because we get ticketed if we

park, and they don’t do alternate sweeping.

But the big thing was closing down the whole tract, initially. And

then, when we went there the other night, they had revised it and done

alternate sides. And I can live with alternate side parking, but it was

the ticketing that really got to me. You have to have some enforcement.

Otherwise, people are not going to move. Some people couldn’t care less.

But there are times when it’s difficult to get out and move your car.

For example, if you’re ill or if my daughters are home from college and

their cars are in the garage and in the driveway, where am I going to put

mine? Luckily I have a neighbor who lets me share her driveway. Or if you

have guests, where are they going to go? Or if they had done the whole

tracts, where were we going to go?

And this tract has notoriously small driveways. Fortunately I don’t,

but in some of these cul-de-sacs, you cannot get a full-sized car in. So

I thought that was really unfair. I mean, I would like to see the street

sweeping continue but without the ticketing, if at all possible.

Are there any other issues that we should expect to pop up in Mesa

Del Mar any time soon?

Yeah, I think the same things that concern the rest of the city.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon made a comment that I really support that we

really need to be concerned about our water quality, not in the city, but

in the oceans as well. I am a tree hugger, I admit it, and that’s one of

the reasons I want street sweeping to continue. Water quality is

something we all need to be concerned with.

Traffic will continue to be a big issue and, of course, the airport.

If they expand John Wayne Airport, that is really going to get to us.

We do need an El Toro airport.

What do you think of the current state of the City Council?

The Chinese have a curse, and it says, “May you live in interesting

times.” And I think the City Council is a very interesting City Council.

We have some very diverse views there, but I get a kick out of it.

I like the amounts of discussion that go on, and I think it’s very

well balanced. The opinions of everybody are really diverse, and yet it’s

obvious that everybody really cares. And that’s a tough job. I wouldn’t

want to do it. And I admire what they do and have gotten done.

I like the meetings and, if I can’t be there, I have them recorded

because my Blue Grass Gospel Group rehearses Monday nights. And I love

the fact that they do that. I think the City Council does a good job.

BIO INFORMATION:

Name: Lance Thompson-Hailstone

Age: 60

Occupation: Customer service specialist at Best Buy in Metro Pointe

for five years

Education: Associate’s degree in industrial psychology from College of

San Mateo

Family: Wife of 25 years, Jean, a curriculum specialist for Anaheim

Unified School District; and three daughters, Kristin, 33, Rachel, 23,

and Jemma, 21

Residence: Mesa Del Mar, Costa Mesa, for 21 years

Hobbies: Music and gardening

Groups: Blue Grass Gospel Group, president of Mesa Del Mar Homeowners

Assn. and Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Orange