Council rejects parking plans

Concerned that putting overly strict parking regulations on Costa Mesa homeowners might stifle remodeling and renovation efforts, the City Council rejected a new ordinance proposed by the Planning Commission on Tuesday.

The council unanimously voted to send the ordinance back to the Planning Commission for retooling before considering it again.

The law would have required anyone building or remodeling a home with five or more bedrooms to add a third garage parking space, and it would have made it against code to have more than 50% of a house’s front yard paved.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley noted that many existing houses in the city, including her own, do not conform to the new proposal.

She has five bedrooms, but only a two-car garage, and might have more than 50% of her front yard area paved, she said, and if the law passed many people with similar floor plans in her neighborhood couldn’t add bedrooms or offices to their houses without completely remodeling at great expense.

Mayor Eric Bever echoed her concerns.

“I don’t want to be putting codes on the books that are going to hinder people from renovating their properties,” Bever said.

Planning Commissioners Jim Righeimer and Eleanor Egan spoke in favor of the ordinance, for which they both voted.

Righeimer said the first part of the ordinance forcing homeowners to add an extra parking spot was designed to be a hindrance to drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes because the city cannot overtly outlaw them.

If group home operators were required to build an extra large garage when they want to add bedrooms, it would cut into their profitability, Righeimer said.

“The second half of it, quite frankly, we didn’t have much input from the public on,” Righeimer said of the law forbidding homeowners from paving more than half of their front yard.

This was the part that appealed to Councilwoman Linda Dixon, who was the most supportive of the ordinance.

Dixon said that it seriously detracted from the aesthetics of a neighborhood when people pave over their front yards and park big vehicles on the driveway.

In other news, the City Council united to request that the Orange County Transportation Authority fund the second phase of an extensive study to determine the feasibility of reducing traffic congestion on the 55 Freeway, but not without raising concerns.

The recently completed first phase of the study recommended the further study of four alternatives for amending the 55 Freeway, including a method that would create an underground extension of the freeway that is favored by Costa Mesa’s city staff.

OCTA will vote later this month on whether to fund the study’s second phase, which would be an in-depth environmental study of the four remaining alternatives.

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