Costa Mesa leaders have approved sweeping zoning changes they say will help the city meet its state-mandated housing goals.
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The city’s housing element, which outlines the development of 11,760 residential units by 2029, is awaiting certification from state housing authorities.
The council voted 5-2 on Oct. 20 to revise the housing plan by upzoning commercial and industrial corridors for high-density, mixed-use housing, establishing a mixed-use overlay district. Measure K, a ballot measure passed in 2022, allows the city to make such changes without requiring a public vote.
The amended plan creates development capacity for more than 22,000 new homes over the next 30 years, staff said.
The zoning revisions are a part of the city’s “Neighborhoods Where We All Belong” initiative, which implements more than two dozen Housing Element programs to increase and diversify housing options for residents. The initiative does not require developers to build mixed-use projects; it just provides them the opportunity to do so.
Multiple residents supported the “Neighborhoods Where We All Belong” program at the recent council meeting as a potential solution for preventing more people from being priced out of the city.
“Bottom line, Costa Mesa needs more housing of various kinds for families of different income levels,” said Dianne Russell, a member of the Costa Mesa Affordable Housing Coalition. “We all want a vibrant city where people of all stages of their lives can live and find a home.”
In a separate decision, the City Council unanimously approved a conditional use permit for Ohio House, affirming the sober living facility’s right to continue operating in the city following a years-long legal dispute.
Ohio House, which opened in 2012 as a residential program for recovering addicts, has been fighting for a permit since 2017.
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The city has a law that requires sober living homes to be separated by at least 650 feet, meant to control the proliferation of recovery facilities and protect the residential character of neighborhoods, officials have said. The Ohio House complex — five separate units serving 45 people —i s located only 550 feet from an already permitted facility.
Costa Mesa officials twice denied Ohio House’s appeal for an exemption to the buffer rule, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court. After more than a year of delays, the city agreed earlier this month to reconsider the operator’s permit application amid growing pressure from state housing officials, who argued that the city’s sober home law discriminates against people with disabilities.
“Such widespread adoption and enforcement of policies like Costa Mesa’s would drastically reduce and restrict housing opportunities for persons with disabilities in California,” the state said in a June letter to the city. “Denying the application is part of Costa Mesa’s ongoing group home and reasonable accommodation policies and practices that violate state fair housing and planning and zoning laws.”
Ohio House cofounder Ryan Stump said at the recent council meeting that the group home has operated “without code violations, excessive police or fire calls or reported overdoses” at the complex.
“If Ohio House is not permitted to continue operating, 45 individuals in recovery could lose their homes virtually overnight with no immediate housing alternative in place,” Stump said. “We all share the same objective: reducing homelessness, not contributing to it.”
Several councilmembers acknowledged the important services Ohio House provides while voting to grant the operator an exemption to the 650-foot buffer rule.
“It gives me great joy,” Councilmember Manual Chavez said, “to see how much you guys have grown and the joy you bring others is very inspiring also.”
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