Costa Mesa planning commissioners are recommending a for the former Fairview Developmental Center that could accommodate up to 4,000 new housing units.
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The Planning Commission voted 4-2 on Tuesday, Aug. 10, to advance the plan to the City Council, which will hold a final approval hearing next month.
The commissioners heard more than three hours of public comments that illustrate the tension between addressing the state’s housing shortage and minimizing the strain a project could put on current residents.
Many community members raised concerns to the commissioners about traffic impacts that 10,000 new residents — how many might be expected if up to 4,000 homes are built — could bring to nearby streets. Some don’t like the idea of a secondary access road that would bisect the neighboring golf course, which they considered an asset to the city.
Others said the project is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to create affordable housing for residents, particularly essential workers.
“If the golf course gets changed, I’d be sorry about that,” one resident said. “But I would not be sorry if we had more police and firefighters getting their start in Costa Mesa than having to drive from San Bernardino.”
Commissioner Angely Andrade echoed that sentiment and assured concerned speakers that the project’s impact on the golf course would be minimal.
“Many of our city staff can’t afford to live here themselves,” she said, adding that a city commissioner moved to Anaheim recently to save on housing costs. “So providing these affordable housing unit opportunities is huge.”
The proposed specific plan establishes the vision for the former state hospital property’s development, with a mobility plan addressing modes of travel, an infrastructure plan and the phasing and implementation process.
It lays out plans for the construction of between 2,300 and 4,000 residential units on an 80-acre parcel of land, 40% of which would be affordable for low- to very-low-income families.
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The plan also accommodates up to 35,000 square feet of commercial space and at least 14 acres of parks and other open space.
Commissioner Rob Dickson suggested that the commission pause to reassess the applicability of the project’s 40% affordable housing requirement, and how that might be achievable. But a commission majority supported moving the proposal along to the City Council.
Dickson cited an affordable housing project in Sonoma County, which has stalled for years due to disputes between stakeholders, as a cautionary tale.
“I do think this process has been short circuited,” he said. “I think we should do this right. We’re operating under a lot of assumptions.”
Commission Chair Jeffrey Harlan said he sympathized with the public’s concerns about the density of the development and potential traffic impacts, but those issues should be addressed by the city councilmembers, not the planners.
“The council’s going to hear everything that we’ve said,” he said. “If they want to dig in more, I think they’re the appropriate body to be doing that.”
The Fairview Developmental Center opened in 1959 as a state-operated residential care facility for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, and was closed in 2015.
In 2022, Costa Mesa received $3.5 million in state funding to develop land use scenarios and conduct public outreach for a project to reuse the property. The project would help fulfill the state’s mandate for the city to plan for at least 11,760 new homes by the end of the decade.
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