19th Street bridge plan needs study

Robert Graham

One of the major issues confronting Costa Mesa today is how to

improve the Westside.

It’s not just about the perceived fears of an anxious few who live

close to 19th Street. It’s not about what is best for Newport Beach

or Huntington Beach or the Eastside. It’s about the Westside and

solving the Westside’s problems, which entails understanding all

Westside opportunities and pursuing those that best suit Westside

needs.

One opportunity that has never been considered objectively is the

idea of extending 19th Street to the beach.

This requires more than a traffic study. This needs to be an

all-inclusive study, looking at the economic and social benefits,

including employment changes and housing changes, that might result

from 19th Street going through. Many questions need to be asked and

answered before our city leaders should act on this issue, and the

answers can only come from a competent study done by knowledgeable

people.

A vocal few are against extending 19th Street to the beach and the

economic advantages this would bring to the area. In fact, they are

even against a study of the issue. What they advocate is what

presently exists: no connection to the beach, no economic

revitalization, isolation, stagnation and a failed Westside. How is

this the answer to the Westside’s problems?

Does the Westside have a problem? The Costa Mesa Redevelopment

Agency (which is the same people as on the City Council) thinks so.

It is considering increasing the size of the Westside Redevelopment

area by hundreds of acres, authorizing the condemnation of private

property, and rezoning a large area of existing commercial property

to residential.

Before this happens, shouldn’t the City Council know that

extending 19th Street to the beach might relieve the isolation and

stagnation that underlies the Westside’s problems? Could this

significantly increase property values and preclude the need for

massive government redevelopment?

Would 19th’s going through to the beach remove the need to widen

Victoria Street to three lanes in each direction? Would better beach

access increase individual Westside home values $100,000 to match Eastside home values?

Would 19th Street connecting to south Huntington Beach create a

large enough customer base to support a major shopping center with a

Vons or Albertson’s at 19th and Placentia Avenue? All these questions

need to answered.

To suggest that there is not widespread support for extending 19th

Street to the beach is not true. Four years ago, 386 Westside Costa

Mesa residents responded to a mailer regarding extending 19th Street

to the beach and 305 (79%) responded favorably.

Costa Mesa’s own city planning staff wanted a study of the

“implications, both positive and negative, to the Westside of not

extending West 19th Street across the Santa Ana River to Huntington

Beach” to be included in the Westside Specific Plan. Last month, 75%

(25 of 33 members) of the Community Redevelopment Action Committee

voted to ask the Costa Mesa City Council to do a study of the

economic and social implications of extending 19th Street to the

beach.

Many others have expressed support for a study of this issue in

letters to the newspapers and in speaking at City Council meetings.

Fixing the Westside is too important, affects too many people and

will define our city for too many years for us to fail. If extending

19th Street to the beach is one of the options we have that will

contribute to the revitalization of the Westside, it needs to be

understood and acted on.

* ROBERT GRAHAM is a Costa Mesa resident and longtime support of

plans to build a bridge at 19th Street.