Planners approve rezoning of Mesa Verde commercial site for residential development
The Costa Mesa Planning Commission preliminarily approved a request this week to rezone a 2-acre commercial site in Mesa Verde to accommodate a planned residential development.
Commissioners voted 5-0 Monday to recommend the City Council adopt a general plan amendment and zoning modification to change the land use at 2850 Mesa Verde Drive East from commercial to low-density residential.
The commission’s vote doesn’t authorize any specific development at the site, but the project’s applicant — Pinnacle Residential — is proposing to build 11 two-story, single-family units there.
Details of the residential development will be submitted to the city in the future.
“This is not the last word on the project,” said Commissioner Stephan Andranian.
The Mesa Verde Drive East property contains 24,267 square feet of commercial office buildings, which were constructed in 1963 and 1985.
“I do think in the long run that, for the community, this is a good choice,” Pinnacle’s representative, Peter Zehnder, said of the proposed change.
The property is adjacent to another project, a 10-home tract called Miraval, which Pinnacle is building along with Collective Housing Supply.
“Knowing that we’re going to get another low-density, low-intensity project over there that is going to sell, I can’t see a reason to turn the applicant away,” said Commissioner Colin McCarthy.
Four residents who addressed the item Monday spoke against rezoning the site.
Jim Turrell — a pastor whose church, the Center for Spiritual Living Newport-Mesa, has an office in the complex — said the 20 or so tenants in the center serve thousands of customers a year.
“It’s a seriously important business center for that community because there’s really nothing else quite like it in the area,” he said. “It is sort of shocking that we would just say we’re going to put 20 people out of business and probably 80 people out of work … for the sake of 11 families.”
It would be difficult, Turrell said, for the current tenants to find new space in the city to relocate.
“This would dramatically impact the tenants,” he said. “It would dramatically impact the community.”
Costa Mesa activist Robin Leffler said the current center “is not in any way blighted; it’s thriving.”
Two people also wrote the commission letters opposing rezoning the site.
“We are trying to support our small, local businesses and you are trying to force them out,” Tiffany Van Drimlen said in an email. “Let’s face it: Finding a nice, quiet, clean, friendly type of building like this is rare in this part of the city, and thus greatly needed.”
Commissioners said they were sympathetic to the concerns of tenants and residents, but that they didn’t see a reason to turn down the application.
McCarthy said he used to go to a dentist in the center, but stopped because he thought “the buildings there were old and it was antiquated and it’s not where I wanted to go.”
“What I’m hearing against the project is that because it’s commercial and it serves people that we should just not change it,” he added. “To me, that’s not a reason to deny the application.”
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
