Plan to be unveiled for Westside work

Lolita Harper

Councilman Gary Monahan said he will introduce tonight a proposed

“action plan” for the committee charged with steering Westside

redevelopment, a move he hopes will correct complaints of “chaos”

within the group.

Monahan said he will address the Redevelopment Agency with a plan

that narrows the focus for the 76-person Community Redevelopment

Action Committee to concentrate only on projects that can actually be

started within the scope of redevelopment.

“This isn’t designed to tell them what conclusions to come to, it

is just a roadmap to tell them how to get there,” Monahan said about

the proposed plan.

In February, the City Council -- acting as the Redevelopment

Agency -- voted unanimously to appoint anyone who wished to

participate on the committee, which is charged with deciding a common

direction for redeveloping the Westside.

Since then, on the fourth Thursday of every month, a conference

room at the Neighborhood Community Center on Park Avenue has been

packed with 10 tables, each seating about eight residents or property

owners who want a say in the future of the Westside. Staff members

from Civic Solutions, who were hired to assist the committee in

building consensus, have said they employ a specific process to

ensure various viewpoints are heard.

After the council was bombarded with complaints from seven members

of the community committee last month, Monahan said, he set out to

develop some parameters for the fragmented group. Dissenting members

claimed Civic Solution group leaders dominated discussion and stifled

debates.

Monahan met with city Redevelopment Manager Michael Robinson, who

in turn met with redevelopment consultants Urban Futures, which had

been hired to guide the city through the legal process of

redevelopment and highlight specific areas to be considered.

The resulting “action plan” was created not to influence the ideas

of committee members but to educate them about redevelopment and the

limitations, as far as the legal aspects of the project, officials

said. The plan guides the committee through a four-step process

designed to get members “on the same page” as the Redevelopment

Agency.

“Urban Futures Inc. believes the Community Action Committee

presents the [Redevelopment] agency with an excellent opportunity to

help in the successful adoption” of the proposed project, the report

reads.

The process is likely to last at least 11 months and suggestions

from the committee can be garnered in a “orderly and meaningful way,”

the report states.

Urban Futures offered to educate committee members on

redevelopment in general, a process that would include a number of

“Redevelopment 101” presentations outlining objectives and

constraints involved in the process. The report also suggests

committee members separate ideas specifically for the Westside and

those for other areas that have not yet been identified in the scope

of the process.

“They can still give their suggestions for those other areas but

those would go directly to the council, instead of to the

Redevelopment Agency,” Monahan said.

Monahan’s proposed “action plan,” as outlined by representatives

from Urban Futures is preliminary and would require a majority vote

from the Redevelopment Agency to be enacted.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.