BETWEEN THE LINES -- Byron de Arakal

If you pitch your tent somewhere on Costa Mesa’s Westside, you may

have spotted them, two balding chaps armed with clipboards and cameras.

One guy bears a likeness to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer,

minus five or 10 pounds. The other could pass for President Nixon’s late

domestic affairs guru and hatchet man, John D. Ehrlichman. Which is of no

import, really, save for the possibility you’d want to know who these

blokes are should they come knocking about your neighborhood.

The Breyer clone is a gentleman otherwise known as Jon D. Huffman. The

Ehrlichman knockoff is Richard Tillberg. Both men are associated with an

Orange-based firm called Urban Futures Inc., which should provide you a

slim clue as to what they’re up to.

Now before you call out Police Chief Dave Snowden’s troops or turn the

dog loose in the event you catch sight of Huffman and Tillberg snooping

about, know that they have been duly deputized by the Costa Mesa

Redevelopment Agency to conduct a general survey of the Westside’s

advancing state of disrepair. That’s why you’re likely to see them

snapping photographs of and scribbling notes about such things as streets

without curbs, cratered asphalt, abandoned buildings, decaying apartment

complexes and public right of ways overrun with automobiles.

And if you’re wondering what gives, it’s this. Faced with festering

urban decay throughout much of the city’s Westside -- an unattended

condition largely responsible for igniting the ascendancy of Chris Steel

to a seat on the City Council -- the Costa Mesa Redevelopment Agency

(really the City Council in drag) is beginning to toy with the notion of

initiating a sweeping redevelopment effort to reverse the tide of

economic decline in the area.

What does that mean? The answer in any amount of detail is mind

numbing and extraordinarily complex. The kindergarten version (my

favorite) reads like this: The Costa Mesa Redevelopment Agency can

establish a redevelopment area (Triangle Square is one), draw up a

revitalization blueprint, purchase or condemn properties festering in

decline, and finance (usually through taxes) development projects to

achieve urban and economic renewal.

Now if you think that sounds like a nice and leisurely trip back to

Kansas, Dorothy, buckle up. It isn’t. That’s because before the

Redevelopment Agency can exercise any of its muscle it has to find that

the proposed redevelopment area is being plundered, shall we say, by

conditions of blight as defined by the California Community Redevelopment

Law.

Which brings me back to the affairs of Huffman and Tillberg. For the

past five months or so, this intrepid duo has been out combing 16

separate areas of Costa Mesa. Thirteen of these areas gobble up most of

Costa Mesa’s lower Westside -- from the bluffs on the south and west to

Wilson Street on the north and Harbor Boulevard on the east. Three

additional areas under scrutiny are the Mission-Mendoza,

Coolidge-Fillmore and Baker Street neighborhoods in the city’s northern

section.

What they’ve been looking for are physical and economic conditions

that, according to the state’s redevelopment law, “are so prevalent and

so substantial that they cause reduction of, or lack of, proper

utilization [of land] to such an extent that they cause a serious and

economic burden on the community.” And these maladies have to be so

pervasive and deep that it is beyond the ability of the private sector or

the city government to fix them.

While Huffman says his firm’s report won’t be ready to submit to the

Redevelopment Agency until October, he did say that he and Tillberg have

found extensive conditions of blight in all the areas they’ve scoured

save one (a sliver of the bluffs at the southwestern reaches of the

city). Knowing that, it would seem the agency will soon have the green

light it needs to further study what is, in my mind, the very promising

idea of bringing the Westside under the agency’s redevelopment authority.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean it will. That’s because there are

Westside forces already at work tossing hand grenades into the campfire.

At a recent community workshop that featured a presentation by Huffman

and Tillberg about the redevelopment process, Costa Mesa resident Bill

Turpit was peddling a report, “Redevelopment: The Unknown Government,”

written by an ad hoc brigade of municipal leaders, attorneys, land-use

consultants and academic types. The white paper is a scathing indictment

of the redevelopment process. It nevertheless offers no alternative

solutions to cities and residents urgently seeking ways to stem the

corrosive effects of urbanism and repair their neighborhoods.

That political motives want to creep into the city’s early look at

redevelopment is more fuel for cynicism in my book. After all, the Costa

Mesa Redevelopment Agency is composed of the same folks who warm the

chairs on the City Council. And it’s far easier for me to believe that

certain members would rather tilt at political windmills than keep their

eye on the redevelopment ball.

For the sake of the Westside and the whole of this city, I hope I’m

wrong.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a writer and communications consultant. He lives

in Costa Mesa. His column appears on Wednesdays. Readers can reach him

with news tips and comments via e-mail at o7 [email protected] .