Council gives initial OK to artists loft development
Lolita Harper
COSTA MESA -- The City Council gave preliminary approval Monday to an
innovative future development that offers a mixed-use of retail, office
and housing in the same building.
Council members voted unanimously to allow planning staff to look into
the possibility of the mixed-use project on Randolph Avenue, as proposed
by developer Shaheen Sadeghi.
Sadeghi, who brought the city the Lab/Anti-Mall and more recently The
Camp, is hoping to build an unprecedented project that would combine
traditionally separate land uses. Preliminary plans call for artists
lofts in which residents will live and work out of the same space.
“We have the opportunity to do something different and unique,” senior
planner Kimberly Brandt said.
The 12,000-square-foot project is proposed for a site in the 700 block
of Randolph Avenue -- a small street that runs perpendicular to Bristol
Street, just east of The Camp. Sadeghi owns -- or is in negotiations to
buy -- various properties in the Bristol Street area in the hopes of
creating an alternative downtown area, he said.
“I’m trying to bring products of an artistic approach,” Sadeghi said.
“Projects that are much more diversified and sophisticated. I am
passionate that we create some texture here in Orange County. Not all of
this homogenized surroundings.”
The mixed-use concept is gaining popularity in various Southern
California cities, but it poses challenges for city planners.
Usually, square footage and open space requirements for a proposed
development are based on the effect the project would have in regard to
population, traffic and infrastructure demands. Planners typically
calculate square footage requirements based on different types of
development -- such as commercial, retail, industrial or housing.
In a mixed-use development, no set procedure exists, Brandt said.
She has asked the council to give the Planning Department the
opportunity to research and create some zoning criteria.
Planners likely will look at other cities that have developed
mixed-use projects and analyze what worked and what didn’t.
Brandt said the department could use the results of the studies for
other areas of the city -- such as the Westside -- where artist lofts are
considered a possible solution to existing land-use conflicts.
Sadeghi’s proposed project would still require subsequent review by
the Planning Commission and City Council before it is approved.
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