The Slogan of One Metro West: The Right Time. The Right Place. The Right Project.
1. Not the Right Time.
-This idea was launched when we were in the middle of a pandemic with residents preoccupied with health & livelihood. There is a good chance many are still unaware and at the time didn’t have the opportunity for public accessibility to the meetings. -The 405 freeway widening construction project is currently underway and will be for years to come. With the OMW project taking up to potentially 10 years to complete the timing is wrong.
2. Not the Right Place or Project.
A. 3000 more people will be added to the area as a result of the OMW project. Traffic congestion on Harbor, Sunflower, the 405 entry & exit points & region already exists currently w/o increasing the nearby population. OMW project projected to increase the Harbor & Gisler intersection up to 680 more trips a day. This effects quality of life and ability to get to & from work & overall movement in the area.
B. The density of the three 7 story buildings one towering up to 98-103 ft, but in actuality upon reading the specific plan, it will range from 108’-113’. These buildings along with night time lighting on the façade will be viewed from an entire region of the Mesa Verde North neighborhood impacting our home. This negatively impacts our quality of life we currently enjoy & our property values will go down.
C. The massive change to the skyline, noise, sight & light pollution will cause buyers that would be interested those in purchasing homes today to no longer be interested as many purchasing homes worth up to $1M-$1.5M don’t want to purchase their home where there is noise, light & sight pollution.
D. Traffic Impact Analysis states the OMW project net trip generation is 6,800 ADT. There is signifigant impact according to the analysis, to two intersections & northbound/southbound fwy ramps discussed in the 4/13/20 PC meeting. This negatively impacts the Mesa Verde North & other surrounding neighborhoods including other Mesa Verde neighborhoods such as those located on or near Country Club.
E. Currently the OMW project is indicating a deficit to the city, so what is the point of approving the project with all the negatives? Even if it could become a break even with the expenses mostly for Police, Fire & Public services, what is the benefit to this project if revenue would be the overriding consideration of which this will not generate.
F. The negative reviews found online for other Rose Equities properties, such as Metropolis in Irvine cite issues with poor construction & materials, design, parking, noise and management problems. This indicates this is not the right company for this project.
G. The FV lighting billboard was defeated due to overwhelming opposition to it. Now a towering structure potentially up to 113’ indicates liberal parameters for lighting the entire façade of which will have unknown artistic renderings is in the OMW plan. Why on earth would a towering structure need to be lit up causing light & sight pollution to the Mesa Verde North neighborhood and 405 freeway? H. Noise and Air quality pollution cited in the OMW project plan during construction with the already existing noise and Air quality pollution of the widening of the 405 freeway. We don’t’ have a choice with the freeway widening as it has to be done but we do have a choice with these massive structures not needing to be built.
I. The idea that only 10% (105 units) of the project will be dedicated to low income housing with the remaining project having high rents, really isn’t as altruistic as presented.
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As a 40 year Costa Mesa resident, retired Architect & Urban Planner stated, “It is my opinion that the density and location of the proposed development is inconsistent with sound planning practices.” As a homeowner for over 21 years and a native to the local area for almost 6 decades, I have a great concern as to it will affect the property values and the desirability of our homes.
I have been a Real Estate Broker for 23 years and a Realtor for 35 so I can speak to property values and what a development such as this will do to our traffic patterns, property values, quality of life, and congestion. It will undoubtedly bring down property values in this area.” I’ ve spoken to neighbors, that
live in Mesa Verde North that say they’ve been content living in their beautiful homes and neighborhood for years, yet if a development of this size were to go in, they’d be forced to move and possibly face difficulty selling, due to the OMW project going in and it would undoubtedly result in selling for far less money with some Buyers no longer interested in purchasing in that area that would have been before the OMW development. If approved with these changes, it was approved by city council under Measure Y when it was in place. If approved again, it does not seem like the city council is looking out for our best interests based upon all the points I’ve already mentioned. We should not be forced to sell our homes due to decisions being made by elected officials that negatively impact our quality of life & devalue our homes Please make the right decision and say no to the One Metro West development.
Thank you for considering my points.
Best regards,
Diana Denney
714-546-0900
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I have lived in Costa Mesa for more than two decades and I’ve lived in Orange County over five decades.
I own my own home and currently live in the Mesa Verde North neighborhood which will be greatly impacted by the One Metro West project.
I’ve been a Real Estate Broker 23 years and I’ve been a Realtor for 35 years. I can speak to property values and what a development such as this will do to our traffic patterns, property values, quality of life, and congestion.
This is a terrible idea and only good for the developers. We have a freeway on ramp there that has enough traffic already including all the traffic up and down Harbor Boulevard. The freeway is already being widened due to the number of people that have already moved into the OC region. It should not be encouraged to move more congestion specifically into this one area.
Safety concerns will arise with the congestion and traffic problems. The idea that we would have a 98- 103 foot tall building with some sort of colorful artistic side facing the freeway and facing the state street homes to make the view better is ridiculous. The development spans a long distance alongside the freeway which will impact hundreds of homes with the view of a towering 98-103 foot building instead of the beautiful blue sky. At night, there will be light pollution instead of the current view.
Buyers seeing this in the distance versus what they see now will make a big difference as to the desirability of the properties in that region. It is my opinion, this will greatly impact property values negatively in the homes in the state Street region that will be subject to viewing such a tall monstrosity.
It is unacceptable to take a neighborhood that is consistently desirable in its reputation and consistently maintains high market values and deteriorate it an untold amount due to adding the proposed One Metro West project. In my experience, there will be many buyers that will not consider purchasing those homes that will be impacted by the noise and light of the towering One Metro West structures, yet they would be saleable and desirable to those same buyers today. Buyers that purchase homes worth up to $1.5M, do not want to purchase their home where there is light and sight pollution. The buyers that would currently be interested in buying in the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods, will no longer be interested in purchasing those homes in that region. When it becomes so congested and the traffic patterns are increased to such a high level, it impacts the existing people living in the region‘s ability to enter & exit the freeway to travel to and from work or to shop locally or get in and out of one’s home and do all the normal local tasks and travel to support local businesses. These factors will take property values down as well. It is a unknown amount how high that this project would take it down and it would make homes that are currently desirable absolutely undesirable to a certain number of buyers.
Currently, the 405 construction is underway and will be for years to come. If you add construction of a development of this size it could take up to 10 years for the One West Metro project to be built. How much less desirable are the homes going to be if there is all this construction & congestion going on for years to come? The Rose Equities developer’s other OC projects have poor reviews based upon their poor construction and materials, design, parking, noise and management problems which should cause a concern that this particular developer does not have the reputation to be trusted with such a project.
We can’t afford to put this project in this location or anywhere near this 405 freeway location or Harbor Boulevard. Please consider not just the additional revenue perceived that it will bring in, but instead the countless hundreds of people in their homes that you will impact negatively in allowing this project to go through. In then the end, the amount of people traveling the 405 in that area & traveling Harbor -3-
Boulevard in this region is certainly in the hundreds, but perhaps already in the thousands. Please consider the important decisions being made in Costa Mesa. It has been a great city for many years and for the 2 decades I have been here. Changing zoning to Approve projects that were not approved before for good reason, is not a good way to increase revenue. The safety and welfare and overall happiness of the residents needs to be considered as well as making decisions that do no decrease property values.
Thank you for considering my points.
Say no to this One West project in this location.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Diana Denney-Broker
Huntington Landmark Realty
714-546-0900
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