Coalition to pitch plans for Westside

Deirdre Newman

Monday will be a historic day for the Westside.

That’s the day a group of Westside homeowners, business owners and

industrial property owners -- who in the past have been a fractious

bunch -- will present its specific recommendations for revitalizing

this languishing area of the city. The group, known as the Westside

Revitalization Oversight Committee, will present its report, which

the 27 members agreed on unanimously, to the Redevelopment Agency --

the City Council acting under a different name.

The main recommendations call for overlay zones on the bluffs of

the Westside that would add residential zoning to the existing

commercial and industrial zones. That means industrial property

owners, who adamantly fought the city’s proposal to redevelop a large

chunk of the Westside last year, would have a choice of selling their

properties to residential developers, finally bringing homes to the

prime bluffs real estate.

“All the developers [we met with] felt there is a very big

potential for residential development in that area,” committee

Chairman Ralph Ronquillo said. “That’s why it’s such a linchpin for

the whole [revitalization]. Once there is the possibility of

[residential], it infuses new customers into the business center [of

19th Street] and then that changes what kind of businesses might be

interested in locating there.”

The committee has been refining the more general recommendations

of the Community Redevelopment Action Committee for the past year. It

focused on an area that has not lacked efforts to improve it, but the

follow-through to execute those improvements. The city shelved the

recommendations of the Westside Specific Plan, which did not have an

oversight committee to shepherd it through.

These recommendations will not befall the same fate, Ronquillo

said.

“The group that gathered is not used to agreeing and is somewhat

influential,” Ronquillo said. “Their job was to go out and get

mini-consensus within their own groups. By gaining 100% consensus [on

the report], essentially we’ve given the City Council and the

Redevelopment Agency a smooth path for them to incorporate some of

these things.”

Industrial property owner Mike Harrison agreed that the consensus

among the diverse members of the committee was remarkable.

“This is the first time in recorded history where the City Council

and Redevelopment Agency are going to get a recommendation -- not

from one side or another with a big ax to grind, and the other side

shows up and yells and screams,” Harrison said. “We got consensus

here,”

Early on, the committee voted to focus its attention on the area

within and around the West 19th Street commercial corridor, in

coordination with the Redevelopment Agency’s decision to do the same.

The committee divided its members into subcommittees to explore

aspects like rezoning the bluffs and code enforcement.

One of the specific zoning options for the bluffs is changing the

land-use on the south side of West 19th Street -- between Maple

Street and Federal Avenue -- by adding zoning that would allow for

mixed-use, live/work developments. The committee suggests looking

into restrictions that could be placed on new homes to keep them

owner-occupied.

The report also suggests increasing the maximum allowable density

for the existing residential overlay zone on industrial property west

of Whittier Avenue and south of West 19th Street from low density to

medium density, which would allow eight to 12 units per acre.

The committee would like to see added incentives and effort given

to attracting a supermarket of more than 50,000 square feet to this

area to cater to the new homes that would be built.

Recommendations on code enforcement in the area include imposing

restrictions on organizations along the West 19th Street corridor,

including businesses and nonprofits, to lessen their adverse effects

on the surrounding public and private property, according to the

report.

Committee member Kathleen Eric said it’s now up to city leaders to

take action.

“If the City Council has the courage to implement the hard-won

recommendations in this report, the 19th Street corridor and, indeed,

the entire Westside, will see a renaissance without ever having to

use the tool of ‘Big R’ -- redevelopment -- or the bulldozer of

eminent domain,” Eric said.

Councilman Allan Mansoor, who has lived on the Westside for about

nine years, said he is pleased with his initial look at the

recommendations. But he doesn’t want to be restricted by them in

improving the Westside, he added.

“I don’t want to rule out any area of the Westside in terms of a

[residential] overlay zone,” Mansoor said. “I don’t want to close any

doors. I want to leave all the options on the table.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected].