Costa Mesa moves ahead with planned outdoor meeting space at City Hall

Costa Mesa city officials are moving ahead with plans to convert an area on the south end of City Hall into an outdoor meeting space complete with power outlets, lighting and furniture.

The new 6,000-square-foot area would help fill a need for community meeting space and provide a different setting for city employees and the public, said Costa Mesa spokesman Tony Dodero.

“Instead of meeting in some dreary conference room, we’re going to have a place for them where they can actually meet outdoors and enjoy the great weather we have in Southern California,” Dodero said Friday.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Commission reviewed landscaping associated with the project Thursday night, according to Baltazar Mejia, Costa Mesa’s acting city engineer.

“We needed to have the Parks and Recreation Commission give their blessing as to the plant palette that we want to use,” Mejia said. “Now we can move forward to the final design phase.”

Documents from Thursday’s meeting say the space is envisioned to include a shade structure, electrical outlets, lighting, tables and chairs and a pad for a coffee or snack kiosk.

Mejia said design work should wrap up this summer.

The area would help make up for meeting space that will be lost when the city builds a new central library in Lions Park, Dodero said.

The planned 20,000-square-foot, two-story library project entails tearing down the Neighborhood Community Center and repurposing the Donald Dungan library branch as a meeting space to help replace the community center.

The new outdoor space is part of a larger project to modernize City Hall, which opened in 1967 and is “pretty antiquated,” Dodero said.

The modernization includes plans to convert the structure’s former print shop — a relic from when the city had full in-house printing capabilities — into more community space, according to Larry Dreiman, an associate engineer with the city.

Also planned are upgrades to the lounge area and broadcasting and audiovisual equipment.

The total estimated budget for the City Hall project is $3 million, Mejia said.

He said he couldn’t break down how much each component is expected to cost, since design work is ongoing.