Costa Mesa leaders to discuss development plans
Future development of the former Los Angeles Times printing plant in Costa Mesa will be among the items up for discussion Tuesday during a joint meeting of the City Council and Planning Commission.
The meeting is part of a citywide effort to gather input from the public and city officials on updating the city’s general plan, a blueprint-like document of future development throughout Costa Mesa through 2025.
Los Angeles-based Tribune Real Estate Holdings — a separate company from Chicago-based Tribune Publishing, which owns The Times and the Daily Pilot — intends to redevelop the plant and an adjoining property into a large mixed-use commercial center.
The two properties, about 25 acres in total, are connected parcels north of the 405 Freeway that form a “T” shape at 1375 Sunflower Ave., 21 acres that stretch from Sunflower to South Coast Drive, and 3370 Harbor Blvd., a roughly 4-acre youth baseball facility called Sun Devil Field.
In a letter sent to Mayor Steve Mensinger in April, Tribune Real Estate President Murray McQueen said the company wishes to rezone its holdings from industrial to commercial.
“We understand that the city has indicated that it does not want to see significant residential development on the site and in this area at this time,” McQueen wrote. “At the same time, as we actively look for partners to work with us on implementing a specific development proposal, it has become apparent that the current industrial park zoning is out of step with the kinds of uses that would likely be attractive at this location, in this marketplace.”
McQueen, who didn’t offer specific plans or future tenants in the April 2 letter, said the land may be a good site for a new corporate campus, and that such campuses are also known to have health clubs, restaurants and retail uses within them.
City staff noted that changing properties from industrial to mixed-use and commercial appears to result in a five-fold increase in average daily car trips.
The Times’ Orange County staff was based out of the Sunflower Avenue property from 1968 to October. The Pilot was headquartered there from 2004 to October.
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Westside plans
City officials will also provide input on possibly updating the city’s Westside urbanization plans, first approved in 2006. A major goal of the plans was to encourage building urban-style residences on vacant or underutilized commercial and industrial parcels.
In recent years, residential development in the Westside has been bustling, as areas once full of industrial or commercial uses become replaced by houses, many three stories tall and with rooftop decks.
Many of the homes have sold in the $600,000 range. According to a city survey, the typical buyer profile includes young professionals, entrepreneurs and first-time home buyers. Those unlikely to buy the Westside homes, according to the survey, are low-income earners, retirees, families with older children and people who seek more traditional single-family homes.
About 500 new houses have been sold, approved by city officials or are under construction throughout the Westside since 2006, according to Costa Mesa planning documents. The vast majority were approved in the past two years.
Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Ave., Costa Mesa.
