District to consider OCC expansion
A bird’s-eye view of the OCC campus with a revised location of the planned Planetarium and adaptively reused Math Wing and Planetarium complex to the upper right.
The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees are expected to consider plans Monday to move forward with proposed projects for the Orange Coast College campus.
Staff will present a finalized Vision 2020 Facilities Master Plan to trustees at the upcoming board meeting, including recent revisions, and will make a recommendation for the board to approve the plan.
In addition to staff’s recommendations, the board will also listen to public comment Monday evening.
After re-circulating a draft of the plan’s environmental impact report this summer, the district allowed the public to send in their input regarding the document during a 45-day public comment period, starting on Aug. 20.
The plan was met with some backlash during a community meeting held by Costa Mesa city officials in College Park in early September.
Those in attendance voiced concerns over what had been proposed — a four-story parking structure on the Orange County fairgrounds at Fairview Road and Arlington Drive and a 145-room hotel. The hotel idea has since been scrapped and the parking structure proposal moved to an on-campus site.
Staff received 26 comments overall during the 45-day period and made revisions to the document. This includes implementation of landscape plans featuring drought-tolerant landscaping and giving future campus buildings a unifying architectural style, according to the final draft.
Some expressed concern over the preservation of certain campus structures during the implementation of Vision 2020, specifically, buildings designed by architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander.
Some of the plan’s features received support such as the planetarium to be located next to the library and the new dance facility planned to be positioned across from the Robert B. Moore Theatre and the OCC Music building.
The upcoming board meeting will be held 6 p.m. on Monday in the Board Room of the Coast Community College District at 1370 Adams Ave. in Costa Mesa.
