Council acts on design, plans

The City Council completed a task on the Planning Commission’s To Do List and pared the Design Review Board’s seats to five, among other actions taken at joint meetings Saturday.

Joint meetings, held to review the past year’s accomplishments, set some goals for the upcoming year and air some differences.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson directed staff on behalf of the council to move forward on parking management in the Downtown Specific Plan area, which Commission Chairwoman Ann Johnson successfully lobbied to have split from the expedited review of the plan, which she said could take a year, optimistically.

“Downtown parking is a roadblock for everyone,” said Sam Goldstein, who recently completed the redevelopment of the Heisler Building on South Coast Highway.

“It’s a nightmare, and it keeps a lid on everything.”

Parking is non-existent for some buildings in town, which were constructed before the city passed parking requirements and were “grandfathered,” meaning they don’t have to meet current city standards.

Councilman Kelly Boyd asked to have a study of overall parking in the area included in the specific plan review. He also wants the review to consider second-floor additions to commercial buildings downtown.

“I know it is unpopular with some folks, but we need to take a look at second stories,” Boyd said.

Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman has reservations about the kind of uses that would be permitted on the upper stories.

“It is easier to rent residential [space] than commercial space, but we could easily turn downtown into residential and there goes the town,” Iseman said.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson said downtown residents would add vitality to the business district.

The Downtown Specific Plan was adopted more than 10 years ago. Among the issues that also indicate to Boyd that a revision is needed is the number of vacant stores, and the lack of anchor stores, even if they are chains and resident-serving facilities.

Cutbacks in staff and the long list of projects have delayed revisiting the specific plan.

“That is why I wanted the parking management plan separated,” Johnson said. “The Downtown Specific Plan could take 10 years.”

Design Review Task Force Chairman Matt Lawson said the sooner started, the sooner done.