A vision of affordable housing at Fairview Developmental Center comes into focus
A network of bike trails criss-crossing wide open spaces, community-sized businesses within walking distance of stacked flats or townhomes occupied by residents with modest incomes — it sounds like the stuff of fantasy, but Costa Mesa hopes to give it a go.
The city has in recent months been engaging locals in a visioning process for redeveloping a 100-acre portion of the Fairview Developmental Center into at least 2,300 units of housing, 40% of which will be for occupants currently earning less than $114,800 as a family of four.
A bulk of the property is being dispossessed by the state, which has earmarked a 15-acre portion the establishment of a regional Emergency Operations Center and will soon begin looking for a master developer to purchase the remainder of the property and implement a building program in accordance with guidelines to be drafted at the municipal level.
Residents have been invited to weigh in at multiple workshops, held in English, Spanish and via teleconference, since November, where talks have corralled comments about amenities, building types, parking, access and mobility.
Consultants from the Los Angeles-based Placeworks, Inc. on Monday updated the Costa Mesa Planning Commission on progress made so far, laying out a process during which the city plans to prepare a specific plan and environmental impact report necessary for the work to begin.
“Our goal right now is to create the vision and guiding principles, a working draft of these, to really help give us a north star and a guiding point as we start to pull the documents together,” project manager Suzanne Schwab told commissioners.
A specific plan is a zoning document that sets limits, expectations and requirements for a particular area above and beyond the city’s general plan. Once completed, the Fairview Developmental Center Specific Plan will guide developers on how the site and what’s built on it should look, feel and operate.
Consultants working alongside city staff have been compiling wishes and worries conveyed by residents, and a vision is beginning to form, Schwab said.
“They’re really in support of housing being a priority use but also see opportunities for civic and community services as well as open space and an opportunity for a new and unique perspective on mobility, transit and parking here,” she said, listing childcare services, clinics, bike and pedestrian paths, sports fields and shade trees as expressed priorities.
A specific plan may also lay out what building scenarios the city would like to see on the site, such as single-family attached homes, multifamily apartments, townhouses with courtyards and retail or commercial uses mixed in.
Placeworks Principal Karen Gully explained that while the vision is up to Costa Mesa, it will have to be financially feasible for developers, who will ultimately be footing the bill for the work.
After visiting Sacramento this week, Costa Mesa city leaders acquiesced to the state’s plan to build a regional emergency operations center at the 114-acre former state hospital site.
“Our overall goal as a consulting team here is to ensure we prepare a specific plan that is desirable to build, meaning you’ll have multiple master developers wanting to come forward and build this, it works financially and it best addresses the vision of the community,” Gully said.
Drafting of the specific plan and EIR are anticipated to begin later this year and will take about eight months. The public will be allowed to review the documents and can comment at hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council, likely in 2025. After that, the state will select a master developer, and the entitlement process will begin.
Some on Monday urged Costa Mesa leaders to allow residents to more deeply engage in the planning process. Richard Huffman, a member of the citizens advocacy group Costa Mesa First, called the city’s outreach process superficial and suggested an advisory committee led by an expert be formed, as was done when the city developed its Westside Specific Plan in 2000.
“The Fairview Developmental Center deserves the same kind of attention to achieve a result that reflects the concerns of the residents,” he said.
Planning Commission Chair Adam Ereth disagreed, saying, “It seems like it would just sandbag the process and keep us from moving forward in meeting our deadlines.”
Vice-chair Russell Toler said he was pleased to see in workshop attendees a willingness to consider a mix of walkable, car-free open space with high-density housing, the likes of which are more common in Europe than America.
“This is a big opportunity for us to push the envelope,” he said, describing a vision of a greenbelt extending from Fairview Park and the Costa Mesa Country Club, adjacent to the 100-acre site, eastward toward Back Bay. “We should err on [the side of] being ambitious.”
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