Better than the color of money
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State and Costa Mesa officials see green when they look at a certain
vacant, state-owned, 5-acre parcel of land on Harbor Boulevard at the
Fairview Developmental Center. But it’s of different shades.
While the state sees dollars, local officials see possibly a park,
a soccer field, a library or other kinds of public space.
We think what the city sees is a better shade of green.
The parcel could be an option for more public space in Costa Mesa
at a time when most other such space in the city is used up.
That’s why the Planning Commission’s 2-1 decision Monday to
recommend that the council rezone the 5-acre plot from high-density
residential to institutional/recreational zoning should be applauded.
City officials would like to see a park or recreational use on the
site, but the state has opposed the zoning change because officials
may want to sell the property and could get more money for it with
the residential zoning.
As it stands, the parcel is part of a 54-acre site that the city
originally zoned for public use. In the 1980s, at the state’s
request, the land was rezoned for high-density residential
development, and 563 rental units of low- to moderate-income housing
were subsequently built there. The five acres were never developed.
But as a Pilot story last week made clear, the state wants to sell
the property to help fill what is its $8-billion budget shortfall.
Sound familiar?
The state-owned Orange County Fairgrounds is another piece of
property in Costa Mesa considered for a sale-off.
The issue comes on the heels of local officials’ review that began
last summer of all publicly held properties in the city that might go
up for sale. The 5-acre plot was found to be a candidate for
recreational uses, officials said.
It’s a case where the city can use its unique power of rezoning
land to at least influence the ability of the state to sell it. And
if the property does go on the market, who knows, perhaps the city
could buy it. We’ll know more on Feb. 22, when the City Council could
approve the zoning. The council’s approval of the rezoning is now
needed to, at the very least, allow the city to do some conceptual
brainstorming as to what would be the best public use of that land.
The search for such land in a city tapped out of it -- where flaps
over field-use joint-use agreements have stirred controversy -- is a
noble quest.
At the very least, it would tell even future developers -- as good
and public-minded as they may be -- who might want to develop more
structures on that land that they’ll have to deal with a zoning
designation that puts public institutional and recreational space up
high as a priority in an area that needs more of it.
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