November election issues dominate Costa Mesa City Council agenda Tuesday

Near the end of the most recent Costa Mesa City Council meeting, Councilwoman Katrina Foley quipped that this fall’s election might be “the most initiative-based ballot ever in the history of the city.”

Considering what’s on tap for Tuesday’s council meeting, she may have a point.

Council members will discuss whether the city should draft three measures — about growth, medical marijuana and affordable housing — to put before voters Nov. 8.

They also will vote on placing a resident-sponsored growth-control initiative on the same ballot.

That initiative, pushed by the group Costa Mesa First, would require local voters — not just the City Council — to approve some larger development projects in the city.

The ordinance would cover projects requiring a general plan amendment or zoning change that also would entail construction of 40 or more dwelling units or at least 10,000 square feet of commercial space or generate more than 200 average daily vehicle trips.

The measure already has gained enough signatures to make the ballot, but the council still has to vote to put it there.

During their March 15 meeting, council members raised several questions about the proposed ordinance, including how long it would take for projects to receive approval from both the council and the public and how much growth would be allowed should the measure pass.

Consultant Keyser Marston Associates Inc. will present a report Tuesday to address questions such as those.

Council members, however, will face perhaps the biggest question of all: Should the city craft its own growth initiative to add to the ballot?

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer floated the possibility of a competing measure at the last council meeting.

“I think maybe the public would like to have control, but they maybe don’t want something as Draconian as this,” he said at the time. “So I want to make sure they have a choice.”

No specifics about a possible competing measure have been released, but city staff estimates that the cost of retaining outside counsel to prepare it would be $10,000 to $20,000.

Council members also will weigh a possible competing initiative on the topic of medical marijuana dispensaries.

Dispensaries have been banned in the city since 2005, but two initiatives on the November ballot would allow a small number to open.

One would permit up to eight dispensaries; the other up to four. Both measures also propose a 6% tax on medical marijuana businesses.

The council has a couple of options for a competing ordinance, including taking another look at a proposal unsuccessfully spearheaded by Councilman Gary Monahan in 2014. That measure would not have capped the number of dispensaries that could open in Costa Mesa but would have restricted them to commercial or industrial areas and required 24-hour security.

The council also could draw up a new initiative.

Should multiple medical marijuana measures pass in November, the one receiving the most votes would become law.

Also on Tuesday’s council agenda is another Righeimer proposal: a $20-million bond that would bankroll affordable-housing projects in the city.

The lack of such housing in Costa Mesa has been brought up regularly at public meetings in recent months.

On Monday, representatives of the Costa Mesa Affordable Housing Coalition urged the Planning Commission to incorporate new low-cost units as part of a proposed incentive program aimed at encouraging motel owners along Harbor and Newport boulevards to redevelop their properties into new housing projects.

City officials have long characterized some motels as hotbeds for crime and drug use. Advocates say they fill a need as de facto affordable housing in Costa Mesa.

Tuesday’s City Council meeting will start at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.