Planners resistant to Habitat home idea

Deirdre Newman

Neighbors of a proposed affordable-housing project proposed by

Habitat for Humanity have already vehemently voiced their opposition

to the plan. Now, the city’s planning staff has joined the

resistance, recommending the project be denied.

Staff members said in a report that homes don’t belong on the

property because of noise concerns from the nearby Harbor Center,

where Home Depot is located, and because the 1.5-acre site has

historically been filled with commercial uses.

The Planning Commission will on Monday consider the eight-home

project, weighing the slew of community opposition against the

benefit of adding more affordable housing to the city’s stock.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit Christian housing ministry

that builds and sells affordable houses and loans money for the

mortgages to low-income families. The main criterion to qualify for a

house -- which varies with family size -- is that families can only

earn between 25% to 50% of the Orange County median income.

The project calls for five single-story and three two-story homes,

each with two-car garages and individual driveways. It calls for a

general-plan amendment changing the land-use designations from

commercial and high-density residential to low-density residential.

Most of the site where the homes would be built has served as a

buffer between the shopping center and the neighboring College Park

residential community. At a Sept. 14 community meeting, some College

Park residents said the project was too dense and doesn’t include

enough parking. They also oppose opening the sound wall at Wake

Forest Road to allow access to the site. The wall was built to lessen

noise from the shopping center, and residents don’t want it altered,

said Tamar Goldmann, who lives on College Drive.

Habitat for Humanity hasn’t addressed the neighbors’ concerns,

Goldmann added.

“If they’re going to ignore what we really think should be done,

then there [should] be [other] ways to make the project less

objectionable, and they haven’t really seriously worked with us on

that,” Goldmann said.

The project meets the city’s residential-development standards and

design guidelines. An acoustical engineer found that the current

noise level from Home Depot on the neighborhood wasn’t significant.

The engineer also found that opening a portion of the 14-foot-high

sound wall will not cause significant noise.

The project would also cause a 94% reduction in average daily car

trips compared to the maximum.

With so much opposition facing the project, Habitat

representatives will highlight the positive assets it will provide

the community, said Mark Korando, vice president of site development

for Habitat for Humanity Orange County.

“The economic impact is positive ... because it provides

much-needed affordable housing to house the people who do service

jobs in our community, such as bus drivers and teachers’ aides and

butchers and maintenance workers,” Korando said. “Those kind of

workers need to be able to be housed appropriately in Costa Mesa, as

with any surrounding city, and that’s what Habitat does.”

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

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