Westside makeover moving forward

Deirdre Newman

The blueprint for the future of the Westside has boldly gone where no

Westside plan has gone before: into the planning phase.

Monday, the Redevelopment Agency -- the City Council acting under

a different name -- directed staff members to prepare a plan for

putting the recommendations of the Westside Revitalization Oversight

Committee report into place. That plan will include an analysis of

redeveloping a chunk on and around the commercial corridor of 19th

Street, which the agency first considered in January.

The committee, comprising a diverse bunch of Westside industrial

property owners, business owners and homeowners, unanimously agreed

on the report -- a herculean achievement for a group that has been at

odds in the past. The report, released Friday, contained a host of

recommendations for the Westside, including overlay zones for the

bluffs that would add residential zoning to the existing commercial

and industrial zones, a coup for those who would eventually like to

see homes on the bluffs.The city has targeted the aging area for

intense revitalization since 1998, but earlier plans that came from

the community went nowhere. Committee members were confident their

report would exceed the shelf life of previous efforts to fix up the

Westside -- an area with a hodgepodge of industrial warehouses,

yacht-building complexes, commercial businesses, homes and

apartments.

City leaders confirmed that optimism by showering committee

members with glowing praise for their hard work and giving them

certificates of appreciation.

“I feel very, very good that the City Council and the

Redevelopment Agency and the community stuck with a process that was

pretty messy at first, and not very well supported at first, and yet

came with a recommendation that the report was unanimously

supported,” Councilwoman Libby Cowan said. “There are some differing

opinions [in the report] and I value those, but I just think it’s

wonderful. The system worked, and we’ve come up with what I think is

a really good, solid roadmap -- the best that I’ve seen on any of the

other Westside reports.”

Getting the buy-in of the industrial property owners was key,

because they fought back and won when the city considered adding a

huge chunk of the Westside to the downtown redevelopment zone.

Industrial property owner Dan Gribble, who owns Boatswain’s

Locker, said that after the harrowing experience of fighting for

their property, industrialists realized compromise was necessary.

“I think everyone has learned a lot, and there’s been so much

dialogue that I think everyone has shifted their positions,” Gribble

said. “I know I personally have moved toward a more middle ground,

and I think everyone has. I think everyone understands they need to

because otherwise, it just becomes a battle and nothing progresses.”

Early on, the committee voted to focus on the area within and

around the West 19th Street commercial corridor, in coordination with

the Redevelopment Agency decision to do the same. The committee

divided its members into subcommittees to explore aspects like

rezoning the bluffs and code enforcement.

One of the recommendations for the bluffs is changing the land-use

on the south side of West 19th Street -- between Maple Street and

Federal Avenue -- by adding zoning that would allow for mixed-use,

live/work developments. The committee suggests looking into

restrictions on new homes to keep them owner-occupied.

Recommendations on code enforcement in the area include imposing

restrictions on organizations along the West 19th Street corridor,

including businesses and nonprofits, to lessen their adverse effects

on surrounding public and private property, according to the report.

Staff members will now go through the individual recommendations

and see what is required to achieve goals such as a zoning change for

the bluffs. After their plan is complete, it will go back to the

oversight committee for review before it comes back to the

Redevelopment Agency for a vote. The vote could happen as early as

February, planning and development manager Mike Robinson said.

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

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