Costa Mesa will consider replacing Motor Inn with luxury apartments; private copter pad also on agenda

A new apartment complex replacing the Costa Mesa Motor Inn, a sober-living facility ordinance and a helicopter pad near John Wayne Airport are among the items on Tuesday’s Costa Mesa City Council agenda.

The Motor Inn’s owner, Los Angeles-based Miracle Mile Properties, seeks to build a 224-unit, high-end apartment complex and close the 236-room, 1970s-era motel by Aug. 1.

The decision would involve a zoning change for the approximately 4.15-acre property at 2277 Harbor Blvd., from commercial to high-density residential.

On Oct. 12, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended the project, citing that the luxury apartments are better for the area than the current occupant, a motel often associated with drug use and criminal activity.

Affordable-housing advocates have protested the plan, staging two rallies in October to pressure Miracle Mile Properties to include low-income housing in their project.

Miracle Mile has promised to make 20 of the units below market rates and affordable to “moderate” income households, or roughly $80,000 a year. No low-income housing is proposed.

The company has committed up to $5,550 worth of relocation assistance to displaced long-term tenants of the Motor Inn.

Also Tuesday, the council is also scheduled for the first reading of an ordinance regulating sober-living homes in Costa Mesa’s multifamily-zoned neighborhoods.

If approved, the law would require the homes to have special permits and be at least 650 feet from one another.

City officials hope the ordinance will curb the influx of sober-living facilities and ensure their compliance with industry best practices. They also hope the homes will be less of a nuisance to neighborhoods and keep them residential, not institutional, in nature.

In another agenda item, the council will consider a private, 40-by-40-foot helicopter pad on the roof of 3132 Airway Ave.

It would solely be used by Mike Manclark, CEO of Leading Edge Aviation Services.

Though some Airway Avenue neighbors contested it, the Planning Commission recommended the pad in September, with the caveat that Manclark only be allowed two takeoffs and two landings each day. No helicopter repair or refueling would be allowed there.

Newport Beach has twice contested the pad, first in 2011 and again last month. City officials there argue that it would expand the footprint of John Wayne Airport.

Manclark’s proposed pad has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and the county’s Airport Land Use Commission. If approved, it would be the second along Airway Avenue and about 200 yards from JWA property.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5:45 p.m. at City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.