Advertisement

Too-pricey ‘box’ houses -- or the eclectic future of Costa Mesa’s Westside?

Level 1, seen here in June 2014, is one of several Westside Costa Mesa housing tracts that has three-story homes with a contemporary style. These style of homes have been the subject of recent debate in Costa Mesa.
(FILE PHOTO / Daily Pilot)
Share

A discussion of the future of Costa Mesa’s eclectic Westside drew conflicting opinions about new urban-style housing at a joint study session of the City Council and Planning Commission on Tuesday.

The Westside — where commercial, industrial and residential intermix, sometimes on the same street — has been the subject of fierce debate in recent years. Some people have praised the new housing stock as much-needed revitalization to deteriorating neighborhoods and contaminated industrial sites, while others have decried the contemporary-style homes as prohibitively expensive to low-income families and incompatible for the area.

Councilwoman Sandy Genis called the new homes “box” houses, “because that’s what a lot of them look like.”

Advertisement

Councilwoman Katrina Foley said the houses can sometimes look like “sheer walls coming up from the sidewalk.”

Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer praised the new Westside housing units. Before their arrival, he said, “nothing happened” for many years in the Westside.

“It continued to deteriorate,” Righeimer said.

Now, he added, developers have incentives to spend $600,000 cleaning up soil contaminated by decades of industrial use. Now, the Westside contains tracts of valuable real estate that have replaced junkyards and other underutilized properties, Righeimer said.

Planning Commission Chairman Robert Dickson said he was disappointed with the outcome of some developments.

He said conceptual drawings that showed off color palettes and design materials did not always turn out as presented. He suggested that his commission have more power to ensure that what goes before the panel ends up being the final product.

City officials balked, however, at the idea of planning commissioners having the final say on things like color choices.

“I’m not going to tell somebody what color they have to paint their building,” Genis said. “I just think that’s ridiculous.”

Urbanization plans for the Westside were first approved in 2006. A primary intention was to create more homes for the area, which, though closest to the ocean, historically had more blight, overcrowding and crime than other sections of Costa Mesa.

The plans encouraged new three-story “live-work” homes, with contemporary designs, rooftop decks, bottom-floor office spaces and little to no landscaping compared with traditional single-family housing.

Since 2006, about 500 such houses have been approved. The vast majority have appeared within the last three years.

Most of the homes sell in the $600,000 range.

Based on input from Tuesday’s meeting, on Oct. 6, city staff will present to the council proposed changes to the Westside urban plans.

Advertisement