Westside redevelopment area set for designation

Lolita Harper

Planning commissioners are expected to designate almost half of

the Westside for possible redevelopment Monday following the

recommendations of consultants who studied blighted regions of the

city.

Commissioners are charged with the preliminary task of outlining

specific boundaries to be added to the existing Downtown Costa Mesa

Redevelopment Project Area, originally created in 1973.

City-hired consultant Urban Futures Inc. has recommended a jagged

border that encompasses 434 acres along the length of West 19th

Street and portions both north and south of the major thoroughfare

between Anaheim and Whittier avenues, according to a staff report.

Commissioners must give the initial endorsement for the proposed

added territory, before passing it on to the Redevelopment Agency --

also known as the City Council -- for official approval.

Planning Commission Chairwoman Katrina Foley said it is likely the

commission will follow their suggestions.

“It is our impression that there is support on the council level

and it is our job to move the process along,” Foley said.

At the direction of City Council, consultants surveyed almost the

entire Westside -- 1,008 acres -- in introductory steps to the

redevelopment process.

Properties were scrutinized for blight, which includes

deteriorated structures, residential overcrowding, poor maintenance

and lack of parking.

“It is a very limited area if you consider the entire survey area

that was studied,” Foley said. “If the preliminarily proposed area is

approved to proceed, that is as big as the redevelopment area can

get. “It can get smaller, but it can’t grow.”

Some residents have pushed for the redevelopment area to include

the entire Westside and parts of north Costa Mesa, but officials warn

the process is stringent and exact.

Areas that were not studied in the initial “survey” cannot be

included without starting the entire process over, experts said.

Also, properties that are borderline blighted, or on the cusp, are

problematic because they could be legally challenged.

“It is somewhat subjective, but they are trying to make it

withstand legal challenge,” Foley said.

If just one owner succeeds in proving his or her property is not

truly blighted, it would invalidate the entire redevelopment process

and city leaders would have to start from square one, officials said.

Judging by the number of calls that have been flooding city

Redevelopment Manager Mike Robinson’s office, property owners will

fight tooth and nail to make sure their properties don’t get taken

over by the city.