El Camino shopping center on tap for Costa Mesa council

A closed-off plaza in the middle of Costa Mesa’s Mesa Del Mar neighborhood that residents say attracts transients, drug dealers and curious kids will be demolished within 30 days if everything goes as expected at tonight’s city council meeting.

The council will vote on whether to give the property’s owner, Oxbow 101, an extra year to turn the shuttered El Camino shopping center into residential property. The plaza was supposed to be redeveloped by the beginning of this month, but the owners are asking city council members for a one-year extension.

In return, the city wants the company to demolish the existing buildings as soon as possible. If the council votes to grant the extension, the company will have until June 19 to turn the fenced-off building complex into a fenced-off dirt lot.

But it won’t stay vacant for a full year, according to Erik Weeks, one of the developers. He has a home builder lined up and designs drawn and he plans to start building in 30 to 60 days, pending city approval.

Weeks said he has to pay a property management company to patrol the area on a weekly basis, and can’t wait to see the building demolished and houses put up in its place.

“Now that it’s sat as long as it has, it’s become not only an eyesore but a problem for the surrounding community,” Weeks said. “Every month this thing sits there it costs me a whole bunch of money.”

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].