By: Chad Kim

Formerly known as the Wyndham Boutique Hotel/High-Rise Residential project has taken on a new name, Starwood Tribute Hotel Project in Costa Mesa's South Coast Metro. Along with this change is also the change from a residential tower to a hotel tower. 

By: Chad Kim

For those not familiar with the Wyndham Boutique Hotel/High-Rise Residential Project in Costa Mesa, check the previous post here: http://www.laocdb.com/oc-development-news/proposed-23-story-condo-tower-in-costa-mesas-south-coast-metro-area

A new document has been uploaded on the City of Costa Mesa's website. This document's title is "Notice of determination". In the document, under "Appendix D", states ..."...This project represents a modification to the approved development plan and it was determined that, when compared to the previously certified Final EIR 1054, no new impacts would occur nor would there be any substantial increase in the severity of any previously identified impacts. This is to advise that the City of Costa Mesa has approved the above described project on April 14, 2015 and has made the following determinations regarding the above described project."...
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CEQA Flow Chart: 
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By: Chad Kim

Update: The link to the video of the June 8, 2016 meeting can be found below:

http://costamesa.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=10&clip_id=2625&meta_id=184458

The item, 'Summary Matrix of High Density Residential Districts in Orange County Cities' starts at 00:45:46.

Summary: Four members of the public spoke about the item and all four opposed the idea of having more high density developments in Costa Mesa. Their fear pertains to ranging from the City attempting to raise the level of density to the displease of the current dense developments going on in the overlay zone in the Westside.

Quote:

Commissioner Colin McCarthy:  "Uhm, Mr. Chair just a couple comments from me because I was sort of the one who was pushing to get this...on the density discussion just real quickly, I don't think anyone has been saying raising density...uhm...all I asked for in the overall discussion about what high density is to have some context for what cities view as high density. What this chart does not show you and it would be pretty much impossible to show you unless it was a project by project basis would be site specific densities. Uh, where cities are exceeding what's shown on this sheet for specific reasons and of course cities can do that and some cities are doing that. You're seeing that somewhat in the South County right now where more dense, more intense condos and apartments, uhm, we're not really building a lot of apartments in Costa Mesa, a lot of apartment still building going on. Uh, so I'm glad that we have this, I'm glad it's a good discussion point for giving us an understanding of where we are. Uhm, and having an honest discussion of about what high density, I'd love to come to a point in our discussion where we stop throwing around high density as if it's like big oil or big tobacco that high density is a terrible term. As if you see on our zoning map, we do have a lot of high density in our city already. Uhm, I can't recall a lot of projects that have gotten rezoned up to high density we had the project over on Victoria which was already an intense commercial use to begin with and it brought the trip count down, but I don't think there's a big rush at the council level or the commission level to start tinkering with densities and start expanding densities and throwing high density here and there, but I think this is a good starting point for a good discussion about high density and I look forward to having that discussion in more of these applications."

^Commissioner Colin McCarthy mentioned dense developments occurring in  South County. Some examples include developments going on in Laguna Niguel's Gateway Area (e.g., Apex Laguna Niguel and Career Lofts). Adagio On the Green in Mission Viejo.

While this appears to be a beginning point about discussing high density developments, Orange County Dense Developments blog will continue to follow this discussion. Stay tuned.
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June 6, 2015:

Perusing through Costa Mesa's planning commission agendas, an agenda from upcoming June 8, 2016 meeting, one can find a chart that illustrates the different level of designation of residential high density from the Orange County cities. It will be interesting to see what discussion comes out of this.

As mentioned by the report, there are additional information that is not in the chart where there are some cities that have certain locations that allow greater density than that listed under the units per acre column. Additionally, cities have exceptions which is not fully described in the chart.

Costa Mesa Planning Commission records their meeting and posts the videos on the City's website. I will post the link of the video as soon as the recording is up. In the meantime, check out the chart:
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By: Chad Kim

The proposed project is located in the City of Costa Mesa at 3350 Avenue of the Arts in the South Coast Metro area.

According to an addendum report (Completed in March 2015) to an environmental document pertaining to the Wyndham Boutique Hotel/High-Rise Residential Project, the final environmental impact report was certified back in November 20, 2007. The project back then pertained to reusing the site as a mixed use development with both hotel and residential units. The prior project proposed to renovate the existing Wyndham Hotel which also would have reduced the number of hotel rooms from 238 to 200 rooms. The residential portion was to consist of a 23 story high rise tower with 120 residential units. This would have required to demolish the existing parking structure adjacent  to the hotel building. However, this proposed project was not implemented.

Instead, now the applicant is proposing a modification to the overall project which would keep the already in place 238 hotel rooms and, in addition, build a 23 story residential tower (266 feet tall) that could have up to 100 condominium units. The overall count of units, hotel and proposed residential tower, would total to 338 units. Just like the prior proposed project, the modified proposed project also would require the demolition of the hotel parking garage. The residential tower would include an attached parking garage consisting of 0.5 level underground parking and 6 levels above the ground totaling to 6.5 levels of parking. This would total to 422 parking spaces.

For more information about this project check out the full addendum report to the final environmental document here: http://www.costamesaca.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=17720

Rendering (Source: http://www.costamesaca.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=17720): 

By: Chad Kim

According to Taylor Morrison's website, Superior Pointe is a under construction residential development that consists of new condominiums for sale in the City of Costa Mesa at the intersection of W 17th Street and Superior Avenue. Their website also includes a site plan that illustrates the layout of the units. Furthermore, each unit is 3 stories tall, are live/work attached units, and there are four floor plans. The site plan also indicates the plan for construction phases which consists of 5 phases, and in total there will be 49 units on the project site. For more information, please check out their website at: http://www.taylormorrison.com/new-homes/california/southern-california/costa-mesa/superior-pointe-community

​Source: Google Streetview: From October 2014

Site Plan: 

Source: http://www.taylormorrison.com/new-homes/california/southern-california/costa-mesa/superior-pointe-community/Site-Plan
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