College district shrinks OCC plans: less student housing, no hotel
Coast Community College District officials have cut back on their expansion plans for Orange Coast College, scrapping a proposal for an on-site hotel and reducing the amount of on-campus student housing by more than half.
According to a revised draft environmental impact report released earlier this month, OCC has also altered its plan for a 2,000-space parking structure within the Orange County Fairgrounds property near Fairview Road and Arlington Drive.
Instead, they’re proposing to build the structure on their own turf — a 4-acre space within the parking lot off Adams Avenue. It would give the campus a net gain of 1,500 spaces.
Officials had envisioned a 145-room hotel, near the corner of Fairview Road and Merrimac Way, as a tool for real-world hospitality education experience but the idea has been removed from the plan.
On-campus student housing was reduced from 1,900 beds to 818. The report notes this as a “clarification.”
The hotel, housing and parking were among the most contested aspects of OCC’s Vision 2020, a development blueprint.
For the last several months, the plan was met with debate and frustration from Costa Mesa residents and some elected officials, who expressed concern about traffic as OCC enrolls more students and builds more facilities that attract visitors.
They also questioned if commercial ventures, like the hotel, were straying too far from OCC’s core mission as an educational facility.
Many residents in College Park, a residential neighborhood south of OCC, were particularly upset about the parking structure, calling it a four-story eyesore close to an area of one-story homes.
Officials had hoped to break ground on the structure — an idea discussed for more than five years — after this summer’s fair and have it ready in time for the 2016 fair.
Coast Community College District officials are hosting a community meeting to discuss the changes at 6 p.m. Sept 9 in OCC’s library, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa.
