Commentary: Proposition Y could slow down, stop good projects
Let’s look into the future a bit.
Imagine that the city of Costa Mesa was in the approval process for a housing project that would consist of 224 units, all rentals, in four-story buildings, on a prominent corner in town.
The buildings would be up to 52-feet tall, and it would be designed at 24 units per acre, and would contain 258 surface parking spots.
Zoning would change from C1-S and C2 to PDC (planned development commercial). There would be no set-asides for affordable housing units.
Imagine this project on the next ballot. You see campaign signs all over town, some saying it’s awful and will add to traffic. You hear how the city needs the increased revenue to pay for growing debt, but you also hear about how crowded the streets are and how we’re losing our quality of life and safety.
You sort-of agree with both sides, and you struggle to decide the right way. Election Day arrives. How do you vote?
Now, back to today. The project described already exists. It was built a couple of years ago at Harbor Boulevard and Mesa Verde Drive. It’s called Azulon. It is exclusively for seniors.
If the above scenario was real, the people who developed it would never have even brought it to our planning commission. It would have died on the sketch pad when the idea was first conceived. Not worth the time or the money to even start a project with electoral issues such as these.
City development issues can be confusing and emotional when mixed with lots of speculation, accusations and emotional campaign slogans. Yet Azulon has not created problems.
It is a great project, with a positive outcome, all done by our elected leaders doing the job we elected them to do. Never would have happened under Proposition Y.
Proposition Y will foster indecision and doubt. It will drive much-needed improvement and development to other cities. A very small group of people want that dark future for Costa Mesa, a much larger percentage prefer light.
RICK CONLAN lives in Costa Mesa.