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.