Council revisits remodel scheme

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday will consider giving the green light again to a program that encourages homeowners to fix up their homes.

The first pilot program, the Residential Remodeling Incentive Program, was in place from Sept. 1 to Dec. 30 in 2005. The program waived several construction permit fees for building, plumbing, mechanical and electrical work.

As a result of the program, many homeowners installed new roofs or swimming pools, remodeled kitchens and built extra bedrooms.

Khanh Nguyen — the city’s building official — said after the end of the pilot program, the city received requests from resident to start another scheme.

“A lot of folks wrote letters to participate in the program,” Nguyen said.

On Tuesday, city staff will ask the council to allow the new program to run from Sept. 5 to Dec. 15 this year.

The council is expected to approve the program, since it approved funding for it in June.

The scheme is modeled after the one Anaheim tried out in 2004.

“A few other cities have tried it. I don’t know of another city to repeat it,” Nguyen said.

He said he didn’t know how many homeowners took advantage of the program in 2005 because the city does not keep track of the number of individuals who make changes to their homes, only the number of permits approved.

According to a city staff report on the 2005 scheme, the city’s building safety division issued more than 667 building permits.

In comparison to the same time frame in 2004, 291 building permits were issued to residents.

The total projected cost to the city for the program is about $500,000, Nguyen said.

The total cost for the 2005 program was $580,000, he said.

Mayor Allan Mansoor supports the program.

“There is an initial cost [to the city], but anytime you can reduce fees and bureaucracy to encourage people to remodel their homes, the long-term benefit to the city is beautifying homes, increased property values and increased tax revenues for other improvements to our city,” Mansoor said.