West Side businesses feel left out

Elise Gee

WEST SIDE -- In a heated meeting Thursday, an irate group of

business and property owners confronted city officials about what they

saw as a lack of effort to get their input on plans to revitalize the

West Side.

The meeting for the business and property owners was held because they

were inadvertently left out of an Aug. 3 public workshop when the city

failed to send invitations to 1,600 businesses and property owners on the

West Side. The meeting followed a much more serene meeting earlier in the

day with Latino community leaders who want to increase Latino

participation in the process.

What fueled the frustration of business and property owners even more

was that some had not even received the letter apologizing for the mix-up

and informing them of the substitute meeting. Many of those letters came

back as undeliverable because a suite number had been left out of the

address or because of confusion about postage, said Mike Robinson, city

planner.

Most of the business owners in attendance Thursday said the only

reason they were at the meeting was because they had received one of 500

fliers distributed by West Side business owners Bob Miller and Howard

House at their own expense.

“This is a gross oversight,” Miller said. “That’s what really bothered

people.”

Miller’s flier urged business people on the West Side to attend the

meeting with an urgent message: “The city of Costa Mesa is planning on

relocating your business (at your expense) or possibly shutting you

down.”

That fear stemmed from discussions about possible zoning changes that

could be recommended by consultants working on the West Side specific

plan. At the Aug. 3 meeting, which was attended mostly by residents,

public support was expressed for proposals to rezone the bluffs area for

upscale homes and replacing heavy industrial uses with “clean” industries

involving research and development.

If the specific plan recommends rezoning, it could take decades before

any visible changes are made, consultants and planners have said.

“Even if a property is rezoned to residential and they become

nonconforming, they can stay there until they decide to leave,” Robinson

said.

However, that did not alleviate some business owners’ fears that they

would be “forced out” by eminent domain or that their property values

would suffer from zoning changes.

Business owners have been difficult to reach since the input process

began a year ago, Robinson said. They don’t have the same type of

springboards that other groups do such as homeowners associations or the

Latino Business Council, he said.

They’re also from outside communities and spend less time reading

local papers, said Ross Andrews, an architect with a business on the West

Side.

Because so much time was spent on the notification issues, it didn’t

allow time to get to the central issues, Andrews said.

However, it was apparent that the 50 members who attended Thursday’s

meeting were united on their views. They voted overwhelmingly for keeping

the bluffs the way they are with some landscape improvements and to

maintain the type of industry there is in the city now rather than trying

to transition to “clean” industrial uses, Miller said.

The results of a poll will be plugged into the public opinion survey

taken Aug. 3, Robinson said. Another meeting is planned for October to

further address concerns from the business community.

“It points out how central this type of planning process is to the

lives and livelihoods of the people on the West Side,” Andrews said of

the meeting. “I think the overriding conclusion to the city and

consultants is that the report and the resulting plan would only be

better if the community and all its various segments are heard.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What kind of businesses do you want to see on the West Side? Call our

Readers Hotline at (949) 642-6086 or send e-mail to

[email protected]. Please spell your name and include your

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