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Resident urges stronger public engagement on Fairview Developmental Center specific plan
Summary
A Costa Mesa resident told the council the Fairview Developmental Center specific-plan process failed to reflect community input and urged the new city manager to restore meaningful outreach, including forming an advisory committee; she also requested the city attorney's closed-session report be recorded and televised.
Cynthia McDonald, a Costa Mesa resident, told the council Tuesday that the city must improve public engagement on the Fairview Developmental Center specific-plan process and urged the council to select a city manager who will prioritize that work.
"I hope that person has a strong disposition and can stand up to the members of the city council who spend more time chasing political ambitions than they do caring about the needs of the Costa Mesa citizens," McDonald said. She urged the council to appoint a city manager with leadership skills to "turn around the Fairview Developmental Center specific plan fiasco."
McDonald said the city allowed the state to take over the planning process after the city signed a $3,500,000 contract with the state for planning of the specific-plan area, producing a draft concept that she said "does not reflect the ideas that the community voiced in the first two outreach meetings." She criticized the draft vision statement and guiding principles as inadequate and urged formation of an advisory committee to produce a concept "that reflects the desires of all of the community and would engage the public in a meaningful planning process."
McDonald said she had been told by former staffer Jennifer Lee that Lee had advocated for an advisory committee before leaving the city. McDonald cited state planning guidance and the state's general-plan guidelines as recommending task forces or advisory committees for broader representation. She added that the city is seeking an extension from the state after nearly three years since the contract signing.
She also asked that "the city attorney will need to give a report on your vote in the closed session" and that "that report should be recorded and televised as part of the public record of this meeting." The council opened public comment before recessing to closed session; no attorney report was made at the time of the meeting.
McDonald identified herself on the record as a Costa Mesa resident.
