Two plans on stage for arts district

Deirdre Newman

When city leaders consider the best way to require South Coast Plaza

Town Center property owners to improve its aesthetics and character,

they will have two options.

One, put forth by planning and redevelopment staff members,

recommends approving the long-awaited Theater and Arts District Plan,

which was required by the development agreements for the Segerstrom

Town Center, Segerstrom Center for the Arts and Two Town Center.

The other, suggested recently by Planning Commissioner Katrina

Foley, proposes to bypass the plan altogether. Instead, Foley wants

to accomplish similar goals and also provide funding for arts and

music in the Costa Mesa public schools without all the plan’s

bureaucracy.

Monday, the Planning Commission unanimously approved both

proposals, leaving the decision to the City Council.

One resident, at least, has already made up her mind -- for

Foley’s proposal.

“I’m a big believer in the arts,” said Charlotte Alexander. “I

can’t imagine a school system that doesn’t have an outstanding arts

program because you never know what’s going to capture a child’s

imagination -- what quirky little thing will keep someone straight

and whole and achieving in life. It could be music or picking up a

paintbrush or reading a great book.

“The things we don’t plan on are often the things that make life

worthwhile and I’m thrilled it’s available,” she said.

The commission had continued the Theater and Arts District plan

several times to allow the applicants -- the Orange County Performing

Arts Center, South Coast Repertory, South Coast Plaza and

CommonWealth Partners-- enough time to address lingering questions

from commissioners about the development agreements.

Development agreements are hashed out before the city gives its

approval to certain projects and usually include applicants

committing money to the city for community benefits in return for

entitlements they receive.

The plan’s intent is to “create a sense of place and identity

within the Theater and Arts District and to provide a funding

mechanism for public improvements,” Foley said. It would accomplish

this through things such as landscaping, signage, lighting standards

and banners.

South Coast Plaza Partners, which includes South Coast Plaza, the

Orange County Performing Arts Center, South Coast Repertory Theater

and the new concert hall, was required to fund $1 million in

improvements in the area through its development agreement. And

CommonWealth Partners, which owns Two Town Center, was required to

fund $1.2 million.

Foley said she had been wrestling with the plan and wondered if it

was needed at all.

“It seemed to me that it was an extra layer of administration

where the goals of the plan were lofty and good but could be

accomplished without all this administration,” she said.

Since there was only a limited amount of funding necessary for

public improvements -- about $650,000 of the $2.2 million total --

she also wondered if the city could derive more community benefit by

taking a different path.

Foley had also been wrestling with trying to find funding for

theater arts and music for Costa Mesa students after she found out

that funding for Sonora Elementary School’s drama club and Art

Masters program had recently been cut. Her son Sam started

kindergarten at Sonora this fall.

Suddenly, she had an epiphany: Why not take the leftover money

from the development agreements that wasn’t necessary for funding

public improvements and use it instead to provide arts and music

education for students?

“It just dawned on me,” Foley said. “This is how we can make the

community benefit and streamline this whole process to accomplish two

great things. We’re the City of the Arts and we should have arts

throughout the whole city.”

Foley’s plan suggests that a minium of $300,000 be allocated to

creating an Arts and Music Scholar program to provide funding for

programs, productions, courses, field trips and scholarships for Cosa

Mesa public school students ages 4 through 18.

Paul Freeman, spokesman for South Coast Plaza Partners, said the

group is amenable to either alternative and lauded Foley’s proposal

for its ingenuity.

“I encourage the council to seriously consider the alternative

plan, as it is inventive,” Freeman said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers Costa Mesa and may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at [email protected]. Lolita Harper

contributed to this report.