Still planning after all these years

Deirdre Newman

When Perry Valantine and Mike Robinson first started at City Hall,

beans were growing on the north side of Costa Mesa and there was a

Woolworth’s at South Coast Plaza.

Between the two, they have more than 60 years of planning

experience and three general plans under their belts -- all with the

city of Costa Mesa. Valantine started as an intern in 1972 and is now

the assistant development services director. Robinson started in 1973

as an assistant planner and is now the planning and development

manager.

This past year has tested the city’s planning limits as the City

Council approved a downtown condominium project with double the

density allowed in the general plan and considered adding a huge area

to the redevelopment zone. But it’s just par for the course for the

bustling planning department these days, Valantine said.

“If we compare it to 20 years ago, just about any year is unusual

now,” he said. “I remember when we used to have time to sit in the

office and read a planning magazine. [Those days are] long gone.

Probably Mike and I are the only ones who can remember that time.

It’s so busy that you don’t even have time for that now.”

On Feb. 17, the council recognized Valantine and Robinson for

their 30 years of service.

Their dedication to Costa Mesa is a testament to the employment

culture of the time they started working, said Victoria Basolo,

professor of social ecology at UC Irvine.

“If they’ve been in it 30 years, they would have been in a

different period or culture, where you do stay with your city,”

Basolo said. “Nowadays people coming out [into the workforce] ...

they don’t stay long-term. Public, private, state, federal, nonprofit

-- if you’re involved in planning-related work, people change jobs

now more than they used to.”

The two have worked together so often that they have been known to

finish each other’s sentences, Valantine said. Except for the time

they both focused on advanced planning to hash out the city’s first

general plan in the late 1970s, the two are like yin and yang,

Robinson said.

“[Valantine] is stronger at current planning,” Robinson said. “I

think I’m more effective in long-range, advance planning.”

“Mike’s a deep thinker and I do better with lines on paper,”

Valantine concurred.

Both are quick to joke and laugh, a trait that has served them

well over the decades, they say.

“I think we both have the kind of temperament that we can maintain

a sense of humor even though things might not go the way we want it

to go,” Valantine said.

Valantine got his internship straight out of college, after

graduating with a degree in urban studies. He was interested in city

planning and lived in Costa Mesa so it seemed a natural fit, he said.

One of the first projects he worked on was gathering information

for a land-use database, so he went around and counted things like

swimming pools and driveways.

“It was a good way to get to know the city,” he said.

Robinson also studied urban and regional planning and did his

internship in Fullerton before joining Costa Mesa’s planning

department. Ironically, one of the first projects he worked on is one

the city is grappling with now: whether the Westside bluffs should be

converted from industrial to residential.

In the early ‘70s, the area was 75% vacant and contained active

oil fields, Robinson said. And the industrial property owners there

didn’t see any need to change, so nothing happened, he explained.

“It reminds me of a quote from Yogi Berra: ‘When you see a fork in

the road, take it,’” Valantine said. “That didn’t happen.”

“We took the spoon instead,” Robinson joked.

The early to mid-1970s was a booming time for planning departments

throughout the state since the California Environmental Quality Act

had just been passed and applied to private property planning,

Robinson said. In Costa Mesa, there was a surge in interest in

planning issues, like the Westside Community Plan, he added. Also,

development pressures started to exert themselves in the city, as

commercial and larger multi-family residences joined single-family

tracts, Valantine said.

“Then the freeway came to town,” Valantine said.

Planning has gotten more complicated as the city has run out of

raw land to develop, the two agreed. And the development concepts are

getting more advanced, like higher-density residential projects,

mixed-use projects and second-story home additions, Valantine said.

The concept of redevelopment has permeated most parts of the city

as developers look to enhance areas that have already been developed,

Robinson said.

“All the easy things have been done,” he said. Both planners say

they have benefited from professional seminars, conferences and

classes, as well as visiting other cities. Robinson also has a

master’s degree in public administration.

“You start looking at the details of urban fabric,” Robinson said.

“Your vacation pictures end up being of buildings, parks and open

space.”

One of the concepts Valantine has seen in his travels that Costa

Mesa is exploring is mixed-use, where developments are created with

both commercial and residential uses. In addition to helping solve

the problem of lacking land, it also helps ease traffic congestion,

he said.

“In Paris, you almost couldn’t tell it was rush hour because so

many people walk and take the metro,” Valantine said. “When work’s

over, you don’t see a flood of people on streets because people have

other ways of getting around.”

Robinson admires the planning in the Mont St. Michele area of

France, an island with no cars.

“There’s a cathedral and a compact commercial district with

residential above it,” Robinson said. “It’s a fun place to be because

there are so many uses in such a compact area.”

Both react to having been at City Hall for 30-plus years with an

air of nonchalance.

“There’s always a new challenge,” Robinson said. “It’s a big

enough city that you get a lot of diversity and challenge, but not

too much to get overwhelmed.”

The staff members’ expertise has made it easy for Valantine to

stay as a manager, he said.

“All of the planning staff members are so professional, I don’t

have to worry about whether things are running right,” Valantine

said. “When I go on vacation, I don’t leave a forwarding number. I

just enjoy myself and have confidence that everyone knows what

they’re doing.”

Robinson’s office illustrates his passion for race cars. They

adorn his shelves and a poster of a Ferrari at the U.S. Grand Prix

hangs on his wall. He is partial to Beatles ties. Wednesday, he was

wearing one with the faces of the Beatles from the “Meet the Beatles”

album. His favorite Beatles song is “I Will,” which was one of the

featured songs at his wedding, two weeks after he started working for

Costa Mesa. Robinson and his wife, Sue, have a son, Bryan, 27, and a

daughter, Jaclynn, 25.

Valantine’s office features his penchant for the architecture of

Frank Lloyd Wright. On a shelf under the window is a stained-glass

design of Wright’s that is infused with vibrant colors when it

catches the light. Valantine said he enjoys traveling and going to

restaurants and theater in town. He’s married to Pam, has two sons --

Eric, 23 and Kevin, 26 -- and one stepson, Paul, 27.