Developers eager for Westside plans

Developers can’t wait to get Costa Mesa’s Westside onto their drawing boards, and city officials couldn’t be happier about that.

The City Council today will discuss several plans for the 600-plus-acre Westside ? essentially blueprints that would allow thousands of new residential units to be built and offer a variety of new commercial business spaces.

But it’s not clear how fast changes will come to the traditionally industrial area, since any development will be entirely driven by the private sector.

City planners estimate if about 330 acres of the Westside is developed by 2025, more than 3,700 residential units would be added. Some of them would be live/work spaces ? artists’ lofts, for example, or a storefront or workshop at the street level and a residence on the second floor ? and new commercial spaces are anticipated, so as many as 1,550 jobs could be added.

Although it’s not certain which businesses, or how many, might relocate or close under the proposals, city planners estimate up to 1.4-million square feet of light industrial space could be lost, along with about 3,000 industrial jobs.

For months, developers have been scouting for properties to buy. They like the area because it’s close to jobs and freeways, and it seems to beg for more upscale housing.

Most Westside property owners “have been absolutely pounded by interested buyers,” said Justin Esayian, a broker at the Hoffman Co. in Irvine. “Oftentimes when I get calls back or I get someone on the phone, it’s like, ‘Oh, you’re the 10th guy that’s called me.’”

And a number of owners are interested in becoming sellers. Dennis Cisterna III, land acquisition manager for luxury home builder Toll Brothers, said he’s gotten about a 10% to 15% response rate, which he called “great, particularly when you’re not the only one sending stuff out.”

Mixed-use developments have been successful in a number of other cities, including Long Beach, Huntington Beach and Brea. But they differ from Costa Mesa in one key respect: The other cities worked through their redevelopment agencies ? in some cases using eminent domain ? to buy properties and get projects rolling.

“No one is forcing anyone out. It’s a complete free-market option,” Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor said in a recent interview.

If the council approves new zoning for the Westside, what happens next will depend on a complex equation involving how much buyers will pay for land, how many units they can build on it, and who is willing to sell.

The city’s plans will zone 277 acres for up to 13 units per acre, and the remaining 341 acres will be zoned for varying densities of up to 20 units an acre under certain conditions.

Developers have said they can make money in the 13-unit range, but the higher densities are likely to be most attractive.

“You don’t necessarily need a particular density for the project to work as long as the price of the land is reflective of that,” Cisterna said. “The more units you can get per acre, the more you can pay per acre.”

It’s a sensitive equation. Some residents are concerned about how a burst of new housing developments could affect traffic, fire and police services and other quality-of-life issues. Esayian said if the density is too low, he doesn’t expect redevelopment “at the volume and the critical mass that the city is looking for.”

No one knows how quickly new development might come. A group of about 150 Westside business and property owners have opposed the city’s plans, fearing they’ll be squeezed out by what they consider de facto eminent domain.

Once the new zoning is in place, each project still must go through the city approval process. And when the projects start rolling in will depend on whether property owners are eager to be guinea pigs for largely untried kinds of development.

“I think there’s a wait-and-see feeling out there as to how this all shakes out,” Esayian said. “The sellers are savvy enough to know, ‘I am sitting on something very valuable, and given enough time it could be even more valuable.’”