Council faces tough decision down the road

In both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach lately, there have been burning

questions about how best to develop some odd pieces of land.

One of those questions -- about the Balboa Peninsula’s Marinapark

and whether to build a hotel there -- won’t be answered before Nov.

2, when voters decide the fate of Measure L. The other -- about a

Habitat for Humanity project near College Park -- was decided last

week by a forceful, though not unanimous, Costa Mesa City Council.

Its members sided with the majority of residents in the area who did

not want the low-income housing project built on a strange piece of

land behind the Harbor Center. Residents’ concerns included those

that noise from the center’s Home Depot would get worse, that parking

would become more jammed and that the eight-home project was too much

for the 1 1/2 -acre site. The council also overturned the Planning

Commission’s decision to rezone the walled land for residential use.

The definitiveness of the answer is disappointing. More discussion

about a possible compromise between Habitat and the residents could

have been fruitful, as Habitat official Mark Korando stressed. And

despite the seeming finality of the council’s “no” answer, one big,

additional question remains: What to do with this piece of land?

In a city that has little space left for development, it is

unreasonable to turn away and leave this spot bare and flat.

And yet what are the choices? The city apparently will not allow

housing there. Residents certainly are not going to want businesses

there, as parking would be an even tougher problem. Scott Bell,

president of the property’s owner, ICI Development, says residents

have turned down a storage facility, as well.

What, then, will be put there?

That is a question that City Council members, by turning down the

Habitat project, now have to answer. They may find it more difficult

than they anticipate.