Some wary about scrapping West Side plan

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- West Side residents expressed both support and concern

about this week’s City Council decision to go back to the drawing board

with plans to revitalize the area.

Eleanor Egan, chairwoman of the residents’ group West Side Improvement

Assn., said she agrees with getting rid of the plans, which had already

been revised once before. But she said it is the next steps in forming a

new plan that worries her.

“It’s a good thing they’ve shelved this plan, but we certainly don’t

want to see the ball dropped now,” Egan said. “I don’t want to see the

momentum of interest and activism die out.”

Since 1998, the city has targeted the aging, rundown West Side for

intense revitalization. The now-defunct plan to improve the West Side

included making the neighborhood more pedestrian-friendly, replacing some

existing apartments with townhomes or smaller home developments, and

cleaning up businesses.

After two years of meetings and studies, the council voted Monday to

use the old plan as a resource for developing a new one -- which won’t be

sketched until it can first agree on a vision for the entire city.

“My feeling was that we didn’t have enough of a vision to be able to

move forward comfortably,” said Councilwoman Linda Dixon.

Mayor Gary Monahan, who cast the only vote against ditching the plans,

said he thinks people who live on the West Side will suffer if there is a

delay in the efforts to rework the area.

“I hope all that time, money and effort is not wasted,” he said. “I’ve

never been a big proponent of the study because I felt there was going to

be competing groups with different visions that just weren’t going to

come together, but now I don’t think we should walk away. We’ve given

them hope and then left it on the shelf to collect dust. To put it on the

back burner while we make a vision for the city is not going to cut it.

Each area has its own special character that can’t be whitewashed in one

touchy-feely plan for the whole city.”

Monahan said he hopes the new council will have the strong leadership

needed to make tough decisions for improving the West Side.

West Side resident Joel Faris -- who ran for City Council but was

defeated -- said his neighborhood is divided on the decision.

“People like myself really want to get things done right now, but some

of the older, wiser people say we really need to have a city plan first,”

he said. “It could be my youth that is impatient, but they’ve talked

about cleaning up the West Side for years, and then in five minutes just

scrapped it. Right now, we’re in good economic times where grant money is

available. But if the cycle drops, we will be left with a plan and no

money.”