Alleys to be paved

The Costa Mesa City Council approved the renovation of five city alleyways during its meeting Tuesday night, ending a nearly six-month-old controversy over which of the city’s alleyways should be prioritized under the project.

Resident Lori McDonald, who owns property near one of the alleyways, had filed repeated appeals with the city to block the project, saying renovating the dirt alleyway would encroach on her property’s drainage and quality of life.

Her neighbors retorted the alley was prone to flooding, and consistently projected dust and dirt into their homes.

For all the previous commotion, Mayor Eric Bever withdrew the item from the consent calendar only to ask Public Services Director Peter Naghavi if city staff would consider employing high-grade asphalt, instead of concrete, to renovate the alleyways.

“Would there be any significant savings if we instead used a very high-quality asphalt?” He asked. “Could we stretch our dollars and renovate, perhaps, 25% more alleys?”

Naghavi said city staff was still considering the feasibility of such a proposal. The council then voted 4-0 to move forward with the paving project, to estimates of about $900,000, according to staff reports.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley was absent from the meeting.

The council also approved a number of applications from those responding to the city’s call for more volunteers on a number of council-appointed committees.

The Child Care and Youth Services, Cultural Arts, Historical Preservation and Investment Oversight Committees all received new members by a 4-0 vote of the council.

The Fairview Park Friend/Fundraiser Committee liaison and Councilwoman Linda Dixon, noting the turnout for the committee’s meetings was “minimal,” said she would propose the council not to accept new volunteers.

She instead moved to have the board consider disbanding the ad-hoc committee at a future meeting, a vote that was also unanimously supported by council.

“Their responsibilities could probably be under the guidance of the Parks and Recreation Department for the time being,” she said.

While the information was printed in local press and on Costa Mesa Television, the city received only 15 responses to the request, one short of the 16 vacancies available on the committees. Seven of these applications were requests for reappointments by those already serving on the committee.

CHRIS CAESAR may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at chris.caesar@latimes.com.