Locals oppose kitchen plans

On Costa Mesa’s Westside, a proposal to expand the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen has run into resistance from a few area residents.

The nonprofit’s leaders want to add a portable 24-by-40-foot addition in the back of the 19th Street building, like the ones on many school campuses, to house its tutoring operation, which would allow it to set up more tables for food service during meal times and provide a more peaceful learning atmosphere for students, coordinators say.

In its current configuration, the charity has cordoned off a portion of its dining hall with a thin, gray divider to form a small cubicle where kids from Pomona Elementary School down the street come for homework help 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

The kids come in 15 at a time for hourlong sessions conducted by three staffers, but often they have to contend with the noise of people dining in the hall and the sounds of vacuum cleaners and dishes during cleanup, said Administrative Coordinator Ellie Weaver.

“When the kids come in we want them to have some quiet time to study,” Weaver said.

A couple of people have contacted the city and several more have called to oppose the proposal.

The complaints mainly chide the center for attracting homeless people to the area who hang out around the liquor store next door, allegedly accost residents and leave beer bottles and other garbage on the street, according to the objections to the expansion sent to the city.

“The Westside is subject to enough negative pressures without the additional capacity and activity the soup kitchen seeks,” one person wrote.

But with jobless numbers steeply rising in California and retirement funds dwindling, the people who are coming to the soup kitchen are often local families and senior citizens, said Someone Cares Executive Director Shannon Santos.

“The lines are going all the way to the parking lot right now, so if we were able to feed them all together it would be better,” Santos said.

A decision will be made Thursday at a staff level by a zoning administrator who will consider the circumstances of the requested permit, including how much parking the portable would displace, but it will not be heard by the Planning Commission or City Council unless it is appealed by a member of either body or a member of the public.

Assistant Development Services Director Kimberly Brandt said that each decision of this type is made on a case-by-case basis, considering the unique circumstances of the proposal.

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