Better than the color of money

State and Costa Mesa officials see green when they look at a certain

vacant, state-owned, 5-acre parcel of land on Harbor Boulevard at the

Fairview Developmental Center. But it’s of different shades.

While the state sees dollars, local officials see possibly a park,

a soccer field, a library or other kinds of public space.

We think what the city sees is a better shade of green.

The parcel could be an option for more public space in Costa Mesa

at a time when most other such space in the city is used up.

That’s why the Planning Commission’s 2-1 decision Monday to

recommend that the council rezone the 5-acre plot from high-density

residential to institutional/recreational zoning should be applauded.

City officials would like to see a park or recreational use on the

site, but the state has opposed the zoning change because officials

may want to sell the property and could get more money for it with

the residential zoning.

As it stands, the parcel is part of a 54-acre site that the city

originally zoned for public use. In the 1980s, at the state’s

request, the land was rezoned for high-density residential

development, and 563 rental units of low- to moderate-income housing

were subsequently built there. The five acres were never developed.

But as a Pilot story last week made clear, the state wants to sell

the property to help fill what is its $8-billion budget shortfall.

Sound familiar?

The state-owned Orange County Fairgrounds is another piece of

property in Costa Mesa considered for a sale-off.

The issue comes on the heels of local officials’ review that began

last summer of all publicly held properties in the city that might go

up for sale. The 5-acre plot was found to be a candidate for

recreational uses, officials said.

It’s a case where the city can use its unique power of rezoning

land to at least influence the ability of the state to sell it. And

if the property does go on the market, who knows, perhaps the city

could buy it. We’ll know more on Feb. 22, when the City Council could

approve the zoning. The council’s approval of the rezoning is now

needed to, at the very least, allow the city to do some conceptual

brainstorming as to what would be the best public use of that land.

The search for such land in a city tapped out of it -- where flaps

over field-use joint-use agreements have stirred controversy -- is a

noble quest.

At the very least, it would tell even future developers -- as good

and public-minded as they may be -- who might want to develop more

structures on that land that they’ll have to deal with a zoning

designation that puts public institutional and recreational space up

high as a priority in an area that needs more of it.