Well geez. This one covered so much ground I’m going to have to break out the emojis. The City Council decided some things, undecided some things, touched on several issues that are likely to become bigger conversations in the future, and named a new planning commissioner. So instead of giving you a minute-by-minute recap, let’s just bullet point out what was discussed, with some timestamps for the truly intrepid:

🫕 🌮🫔 Illegal street vending gets a report (28:27). Back during the pandemic and in response to liberalized State laws, Costa Mesa eased up on its regulations of street vendors to permit them to operate in more places and for longer hours. However, in addition to getting a city permit, vendors still also had to get a permit from the Orange County health inspector. Fast forward to 2023/2024 and Costa Mesa, along with several neighboring cities, saw street vendor presence increase dramatically on city sidewalks. In response the city has embarked on a campaign of strict enforcement. It sounds like code enforcement confiscating equipment and the cops staking out common set-up locations may have have solved the immediate problem of illegal vending. But I think this episode raises a deeper issue: Costa Mesa really struggles to support microbusinesses. Will we perhaps see a renewed interest in permitting more food trucks or safe vending locations?

🌳⛓️🐶 Council Member Jeff Harlan reminds staff that the “pilot program” at Harper Park is almost at an end (1:10:18). Remember that incredibly painful episode with Harper Park a few months back? Well, the final compromise between the city and Newport-Mesa Unified School District was to have the city do constant park ranger patrols of that park for six months to root out leash law violators. That “pilot program” commenced in November 2023, so it should be expiring in May 2024. Council Member Harlan expressed some optimism that those rangers will now be reassigned and the operation of the park will return to normal. However, I’m pretty sure the parents next door at ISSAC charter school won’t be particularly happy to hear that. I expect we haven’t heard the last of this thorny little park.

🏘️🔑🚚 The city will report its progress on stemming illegal evictions (1:17:23). A number of public commenters brought up the specter of illegal evictions, which sound like are still occurring apace despite the city passing an urgency ordinance to address them last Fall. This inspired several council members to ask the City Manager for a report on the city’s progress. She demurred but promised that a comprehensive report would be provided at the next meeting. It appears the city is still finding its footing with respect to providing its new services to people the people who need them. To get a sense of this, take a listen to the earnest comments of a resident named Mario (55:36), who recounts his struggle to get the city to pay attention to his housing issues.

🚍🚏🎥 The Mayor touts progress in making OCTA more transparent (1:13:42). Mayor Stephens was recently elected to be a director of the board of the Orange County Transit Authority, which overseas both transit spending and freeway spending in Orange County (if that sounds like a conflict of interest, you’re right!). So far Mayor Stephens has been a positive influence on the board, running with a suggestion by resident David Martinez — more on him later — to add video recording and livestreaming to OCTA meetings. I’m glad to see him making headway (sorry, bad transit joke) on that!

⚡🚲⚡Mayor Stephens also goes e-bike riding with Council Member Arlis Reynolds and Active Transportation Coordinator Brett Atencio Thomas (1:12:55). I was charmed to see this Instagram post from Council Member Reynolds showing her and ATC Coordinator Thomas taking an e-bike ride with Mayor Stephens, and the ride got a shout out from the Mayor from the dais. I’m guessing it is not a coincidence that the city will likely be taking up an e-bike ordinance very soon, and that the proposed changes will likely be previewed at tonight’s Active Transportation Committee meeting.

🏫👵🏼🅿️ Opposition to the proposed Senior Center affordable housing development isn’t going away. (58:42). Once again long time users of the Senior Center showed up for public comments to express concerns about the proposed Jamboree affordable housing development to be located over the parking lot of the Costa Mesa Senior Center. I love a good argument about parking.

🏘️📑🗺️ Council Member Reynolds clarifies the minutes on the IHO… but not in the way some expected (1:27:35). There were some rumors swirling around that the exemption of for-purchase housing from the approved inclusionary housing ordinance was actually a mistake and that Council Member Reynolds didn’t intend that when she made her substitute-substitute motion. So I gasped a bit when Council Member Reynolds made a motion to reopen the minutes and address a clarification about this item. Thankfully (from my perspective) she merely wanted to clarify her direction to staff regarding the city’s upcoming rezoning. I think that means the exemption is well and truly part of the IHO.

🐶📝✅ Priceless Pets finally gets the formal nod for the City’s animal services (1:27:40). The city’s new shelter and veterinary contract has been a subject of much angst for the City’s Animal Services Committee, and in particular its stalwart chair, Becca Walls. The contract with the old vendor expired last summer and the city went to a tenuous month-to-month contract, only to be told just before the holidays that the vendor was promptly cancelling the contract within 30 days. This left the city in the lurch, and worse, Animal Services has just been transitioned from the experienced but overwhelmed Parks and Community Services Department to the inexperienced but better resourced CMPD. Chair Walls had swooped in to get a temporary contract with Priceless Pets, the beloved no-kill shelter, and its neighboring veterinary office, Newport Mesa Animal Hospital (full disclosure: NMAH is my vet). The City Council approved the permanent contract last night. While I know it isn’t perfect, it’s probably the best the city could hope for in this situation.

🪴🚬💵 The cannabis ordinance will come back again, thanks to a fumble by… pretty much everyone (1:37:37). Right when you think you’re out, they pull you back in. This was supposed to be a humdrum second reading of the cannabis reform ordinance. However, the Staff had slipped in some language last meeting with really significant financial and logistical implications for the cannabis industry, which was to require each financial interest holder to obtain a Costa Mesa business license. These licenses cost $200 a year and must be renewed each year. While requiring business owners and operators to obtain such licenses is par for the course, I have never seen any jurisdiction (domestic or foreign) require investors to acquire business licenses. The staff’s explanation — that they were seeking to leverage the business license process to comply with State disclosure requirements regarding investors in cannabis businesses — is just baffling. Disclosure is not taxation.

I’ll note that this exact issue was brought up at the prior meeting and Council Member Andrea Marr pointedly and specifically required that it be kept in her motion, even though it was clumsily punitive, and everyone but Mayor Stephens voted for it. But now, the whole Council voted this time to exempt financial interest holders from having to get business licenses, opting for a far simpler disclosure requirement instead. Of course, this change is sufficiently material that it triggers yet another reading of the ordinance. This thing just won’t die.

🐔🚗✅ Raising Canes’ drive-thru on Newport Boulevard squeaks through on a 4-3 vote, with lots of angst about land use and some icky attempted horsetrading (2:54:28). I was right that the conversation mostly centered on the drive-thru. “Housing, cannabis, drive-thrus — those are the things I get complaints about,” said Council Member Marr, when supporting her motion to deny the application. Although she and Council Member Reynolds grilled the traffic consultant and the applicant thoroughly, it seemed clear that both of them (plus Council Member Loren Gameros) were not going to accept any analysis that showed negligible impacts on traffic by a drive-thru. In fairness the city really has struggled with drive-thrus not living up to their promises; the W. 19th Street In-n-Out, the Harbor Boulevard Raising Canes, the Harbor Boulevard Chik-fil-A and the coffee drive-thru Coffee Dose on Newport Boulevard have all struggled with cars spilling out into the right-of-way. So while I was relieved that the applicant got approval — they did play by the rules and did meet our criteria, and that should be enough — I think it is fair to ask whether Costa Mesa has moved beyond the drive-thru, and whether we should start expressing that in our policies up front. More on that below.

This item also featured an awkward moment: in a bid to sweeten the pot, the applicant brazenly offered to pitch in $20,000 to fund the city’s active transportation education program, and another $20,000 to help support the Costa Mesa Bridge Shelter (3:14:37). Ick. Mayor Stephens wisely suggested the city decline the funds. But look, Raising Canes is an experienced applicant that has built restaurants all over the country. That tactic must work somewhere, and that’s pretty telling of the state of local government these days.

🏰💃✅ The re-imagining of the former Trinity Broadcasting Network site as an event center gets the greenlight, over the objections of some very upset neighbors (5:24:53). After motioning to kick this item to another night (a determined Council rejected that motion 4-3), Council Member Marr quietly left the dais, and was followed shortly thereafter by Council Member Don Harper. The remaining council members then heard public testimony about the long history of noise and other complaints by neighboring residents. However, the City Council struggled to find fault with the Planning Commission’s prior approval. Council Member Reynolds’s suggested that the applicant set up a hotline for the manager to field noise complaints, which was eagerly accepted and the item sailed through 5-0.

💵📈👷‍♀️ New FTEs added without any fireworks between the Mayor and the City Manager. In easily the most anti-climatic item of the night, the Mayor shortcircuited discussion of the City’s financial update (they already got it at the last study session) and skipped right to approving the new hires and hours outlined by the City Manager. As you might recall the Mayor and the City Manager got into a bit of a tiff a few weeks back when the Mayor questioned the credentials of our potential new hires and the extent to which the City Council would have a say in staffing decisions. The two must have smoothed out their differences out of chambers because the item sailed through, and the new FTEs were approved without discussion.

👨‍⚖️🛣️🎯 David Martinez was appointed by Council Member Reynolds to the Planning Commission (6:09:29). Finally, the City Council turned to the appointments to the Planning Commission and the resident committees. Without hesitation Council Member Reynolds picked David Martinez, who is well known in Costa Mesa circles as a tireless active transportation, transit and housing advocate. As you might imagine he’s very much one of my favorite townies. And don’t let his young age fool you (he’s slated to graduate from USC this year): he knows road design, transit policy and local politics better than just about anybody in the city. He’s a great choice and I’m excited to see him up on the dais.

🗳️😒🤦🏻‍♀️ Resident committees get kicked around again by everyone still awake (6:12:40). First, Council Member Harper left the meeting early. Then, at the beginning of this item, the City Clerk Brenda Green noted that Council Member Harper called to say that he deferred all of his assigned committee appointments to the committees’ council liaisons. Then, hit with what must have been a pang of regret, he called back again to tell Clerk Green to push all of his committee appointments to the next meeting.

And so it goes with the city’s resident committees. Some Council Members, like Council Member Gameros, are so disinterested that they deferred their assigned committee appointments to the Council Liaisons. Others, like Council Member Harper, seem to want to have a hand in appointments but continue to undermine the functioning of the committees by dragging them out. And the icing on the cake was Council Member Harlan’s comments at 6:21:57, right after the appointments concluded: he took time to grouse that the application packages for the committees were underwhelming and that residents should take more care next time if they want to be picked. Oy vey. What a very sweet deal the City Council is making out of volunteer service. Do they even want these committees?

For the record, I put in my resignations to the Animal Services Committee and the Finance and Pension Advisory Committee a few weeks ago. And that pretty much tells you what I feel about them, at least as they are presently constructed and supported by the City Council. What a pity.

And finally…

🚗🛣️🙅🏻‍♀️Is a drive thru moratorium coming (6:23:30)? Council Member Manuel Chavez, who did a fantastic job honestly, asked at the very, very end: is it time to talk about a drive-thru moratorium, given how the conversation went during the Raising Canes item? While this suggestion was brushed off by the Mayor, I think Council Member Chavez is onto something. Stay tuned.