COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL WRAP-UP

Here are a few items the council considered Tuesday:

HOME REMODELING

The city stands to lose an estimated $58,000 in fees but could

gain millions in real estate values under a proposed incentive

program to encourage homeowners to remodel or add on. The council

agreed to pursue the pilot program, suggested by Councilman Eric

Bever.

The council will vote later on creating a remodeling incentive

program that would run from September through December. The program

would waive construction permit fees and speed up approval of

remodeling plans for homeowners.

WHAT IT MEANS

Homeowners could save money on city fees by starting remodeling

projects this fall. If the trial program works, the council might

consider a longer construction fee waiver program in the future.

SKATE PARK CHANGES

The city’s neskateboard park will get improvements for safety and

convenience of skaters and spectators, the council decided. Instead

of building a shade shelter as planned, the council will spend

$150,000 on other additions, including bleachers outside the skating

area for safe viewing, a place for skaters to keep their backpacks

and gear, and screens to keep skaters’ limbs from tangling with fence

posts.

Because the skate park has been so well received, council members

also said they’d like to start looking for another skate park site,

possibly at Lions Park.

WHAT IT MEANS

Improvements at the skate park could be finished later this summer

or early in 2006.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The council chose, in a split vote (Dixon and Foley dissenting) to

ban dispensaries that offer marijuana for medical use, an issue many

cities have been wrestling with because of a conflict between state

and federal laws. State law permits medical use of marijuana, but

federal drug law still makes any marijuana use a crime.

The city’s Planning Commission had recommended a moratorium on

marijuana dispensaries while officials worked out how they should be

regulated, but the council in June voted, 3-2, to ban the facilities

outright. But a second reading of the ban July 5 received a tie vote

-- Councilman Gary Monahan was absent -- and had to be revisited

Tuesday.

WHAT IT MEANS

No medical marijuana dispensaries will be opened in Costa Mesa.

-- Compiled by Alicia Robinson