THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:

***CORRECTION: This Political Landscape column, (“Sen. expects fiscal woes”) incorrectly reported the parking requirements associated with Keith Scheinberg’s condo-conversion project. Though his project has no parking standards to adhere to, if it did, it would require 15 spaces, not 18 as the article reported.***

State Sen. Tom Harman has a message for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Sound the alarm! Harman is part of a group of Republican state senators calling for Schwarzenegger to declare an emergency on the state budget, a spokesman for the legislator said.

Largely because of the housing market slowdown, state agencies have warned of shortfalls next year of up to $10 billion, and Schwarzenegger has asked his agencies to cut 10% across the board next year.

But Harman and some other Republican legislators want him to go further, and the senator plans to bring up the issue at a meeting with the governor later this month, Harman spokesman Damon Conklin said. They want him to invoke Proposition 58, the balanced-budget proposition voters passed in 2004 after Schwarzenegger campaigned for it heavily. That would let him propose legislation immediately aimed at dealing with the shortfall.

“We were calling for [a state of emergency] in January of this year,” Conklin said. “Everybody was saying, ‘Oh no, we’re going to be able to patch it up.’ But Senator Harman opposed this last budget because in his opinion it was fiscally irresponsible.”

Condo project endures changing requirements

When developer Keith Scheinberg of the Maximillian Group was in the process of converting his six-unit apartment building to condominiums on the 100 block of Broadway, everything looked fine.

Then the Costa Mesa City Council changed the rules.

Scheinberg was close to meeting the city’s parking space requirements. He had room for 11 spaces, but the city required 15. When the council changed the rules on condo conversions, he then had to come up with 18 parking spots.

So there he was Tuesday night before the council, appealing the Planning Commission’s 4-1 rejection of his application.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon argued her peers could not forget why they changed the regulations in the first place: A recent slew of poorly constructed conversions seemed to do more harm than good. She suggested that though Scheinberg’s project was exceptional, now was not the time for an exception (pardon the pun).

Scheinberg’s project was characterized as a quality one by city staff and the council members. But still it was rejected for supplying only 11 spaces, barely short of the old requirements, far short of the new ones.

The council members did not hide their good impression of Scheinberg’s proposal, minus the parking. The apartments were less than 30 years old, the landscaping was quality, the design was unique and he even offered to pave part of the alleyway leading to the complex’s parking, sparing the city the cost.

But the parking issue stuck. A few residents argued that with insufficient parking, the future condo owners would be parking curbside on Broadway. Why should his project burden public parking, they asked.

In the end, just as the council came close to killing the project, Councilwoman Katrina Foley offered a compromise. Scheinberg has until the Jan. 15 Council meeting to come up with a design that has more parking. Scheinberg has said he can’t do it, but at least he’s got more time to give it another try.

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Harman named high-tech legislator of the year

A major national high-tech trade group has named State Sen. Tom Harman its Orange County Legislator of the Year, as well as given him a statewide award.

Harman received one of the American Electronics Assn.’s AeA California Technology Leader distinctions; five were given out statewide this year, along with two statewide legislators of the year.

“He’s the only Orange County legislator to actually form and actively meet with a high-tech advisory committee within the Orange County region,” Harman spokesman Damon Conklin said.

“All five of these legislators took a stance in support of technology in 2007,” said Roxanne Gould, senior vice president of California legislative affairs for the group, in a prepared statement. “By supporting us in important technology and business legislation they showed tremendous leadership for high-tech in California.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at [email protected]. JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].