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:
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.
-----
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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