Costa Mesa council OKs condo development

As part of an ongoing effort to get more people to buy homes on the Westside instead of renting, the Costa Mesa City Council voted to approve a new three-story condominium development Tuesday.

The motion passed 4-1, with Mayor Pro Tem Allan Mansoor voting no. He did not explain his objection during the meeting and was unavailable for comment in time for publication.

Earlier in the year, some neighbors were angry about the development being too dense and not addressing noise and parking issues, but many of those concerns were addressed in a project redesign, developers said.

Only one resident came to speak out against the proposed building Tuesday, calling it a “gross abuse of the rules that the city of Costa Mesa set up.”

The project was designed to take advantage of overlay zones that allow developers to create projects that don’t necessarily comply with the old rules governing how the property used to be zoned in an effort to encourage different types of building in the area.

“When we adopted the overlay zones, we made it clear to staff that we wanted to be flexible,” Mayor Eric Bever said.

The building’s planners say it will be the most energy-efficient building in the city.

It will be the only building in the city classified by the U.S. Green Building Council as meeting the LEED “gold” standard, the second highest energy-efficiency rating offered by the agency.

Council members expressed a desire to reward this building by waiving some of its development fees, so they unanimously decided to extend the green building incentive program that expired Monday for another month.

The new project is proposed for two lots located at 616 Center St. and 613 Plumer St.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.