A residential property in Costa Mesa had an extensive code enforcement and police calls for service history and had become a neighborhood nuisance.

The city’s Community Improvement Division used a health and safety receivership approach, and now the property meets city standards and has improved the surrounding neighborhood.

Code Enforcement uses several methods and tools to gain compliance. One method Code Enforcement may use is a Health and Safety receivership. This tool is a legal process through which the title to a piece of real property is temporarily taken from the owner and placed with a court-appointed officer, receiver. Actions taken by the court appointed receiver are as followed but not limited to:

• Taking full and complete control of the property
• Obtaining cost estimates for necessary repairs/rehabilitation
• Managing and paying expenses of operating the substandard building
• Entering into contracts with contractors to perform necessary repairs
• Collecting rents and income from substandard building and using such rents to pay for repairs
• Borrowing funds to pay for repairs and much more

The receivership method is used for cases where severe substandard conditions exist at a property and where the owner has a history of noncompliance with a local enforcement agency’s orders to abate.

Other situations a receivership may be used are when emergency circumstances are discovered by staff that may pose an immediate threat to health and safety of the community.

For more information visit the Community Improvement Division webpage here.

Do you want to relocate your business to Costa Mesa? Are you ready to make that step from home business to a brick and mortar location? Is your business doing so well you need to transition to a larger space but do not want to leave the fantastic atmosphere and amenities of Costa Mesa?

The city has developed a new and improved webpage to help with site selection. Using the webpage’s tools, you can search for properties for sale or tenant spaces/buildings for lease within the city. Using these tools, you will be able to filter by property type, price range, square-footage, agent name, and any other keyword of your choosing.

City staff believes the webpage will be a great tool to help our entire business community, to find the perfect location for their business.

Click here to find the webpage. It resides within the Economic Development section of the city website.

To provide feedback, please contact Dan Inloes at daniel.inloes@costamesaca.gov or at 714.754.5088 with any comments or suggestions.

Due to the observation of the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Nov. 22, there will be no residential street sweeping Thursday, Nov. 22 and Friday Nov. 23.

This coincides with the Costa Mesa Sanitary District, which also observes this holiday by pushing trash collection back one day.

This results in residential gutter lines being cluttered with trash cans making it impossible for street sweeper operators to do an efficient job. There should be no parking citations issued during this time.

Street sweeping will resume back to normal schedule the week of Nov. 26.

For more information, residents can call the city’s street sweeping hotline at (714) 327-7471, which has been updated with this information.

The Bikeway and Walkability Committee was established by City Council in 2015 and meets regularly on the first Wednesday of every month at 6:30 p.m.

The Committee is helping to implement a robust Active Transportation network for the City by improving bicycle and pedestrian connectivity. The mission of this committee is to:

• Focus on the review and update of the City’s Active Transportation Plan and improvements to be made to bikeways and pedestrian facilities in the City; and
• Evaluate the bikeability and walkability of our City in order to make recommendations for improvement to the City Council.

The Bikeway and Walkability Committee and the Public Services Department are partnering to develop solutions to many pedestrian and bicycling challenges and activities which include the following:

• Community outreach
• pedestrian and bicycle safety education
• National Walk to School Day annually in October
• National Bike Month in May (the City of Costa Mesa has the highest percentage of residents that commute to work via bicycling compared to all neighboring cities.)
• Walk audits
• Grant applications and Award/Certification Level applications

For additional information about the Committee, please select the following link: https://www.costamesaca.gov/city-hall/commissions-and-committees/bikeway-walkability-committee.  The Committee website includes a link to webinars on walkability hosted by America Walks: http://americawalks.org/.

Starting this week, construction for the Audio Visual, Broadcast Production, and Infrastructure Upgrades of Council Chambers and First Floor Meeting Rooms has begun. 

All meetings previously scheduled in the Council Chambers, City Council, Planning and Parks commissions will now take place at the Costa Mesa Senior Center located at 695 W. 19th St.

Throughout the duration of the project the Council Chambers and Conference Room 1C/video editing room behind the Chambers will not be available for use. Conference Room 1A will also be affected by the renovation, however it is anticipated that Conference Room 1A will only be offline for a couple of short duration periods.

Additionally, in order for contractors to carry out the renovation, five to six parking spaces adjacent to the east entrance of the Council Chambers will be used for construction staging; and portable sanitary facilities will be set up at the southeast corner of the parking lot next to Vanguard University’s current construction.

Construction of the Lions Park Projects progresses with another major milestone approaching.

As the new library mechanical and HVAC systems, electrical and lighting systems, plumbing and fire sprinkler systems are being installed, on Nov. 1, Southern California Edison (SCE) will be delivering and installing the new electrical transformer for the project.

This task will require an electrical shutdown to the Downtown Recreation Center, existing library, and Historical Society building.

The shutdown is expected to take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This portion of work is taking place at a time that will allow for the remaining construction to take place without interruption.

The installation of insulation and drywall is almost complete and ceiling systems are currently being constructed. Windows and storefronts are being installed, the elevator shaft is in place, and exterior scaffolding is erected for surface treatments.

The site also continues to take shape with the grading for the new one-acre park, vegetated bioswales, and associated pedestrian bridges

The City of Costa Mesa recently awarded a construction contract to Copp Contracting Inc. to reconstruct and place approximately 5,400 tons of new asphalt on Pomona Avenue from 18th to 16th Street.

Construction started on Monday Aug. 27 and is anticipated for completion by mid-November. This Federally Funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) street improvement project involves removal and reconstruction of the asphalt pavement and concrete storm drain, sidewalk, curb, gutter, and access ramps.

The city has worked with Newport Mesa Unified School District to relocate the school bus pick up/drop off of Shalimar Drive to now stop at the 18th Street and Wallace Avenue bus-stop.

Costa Mesa Police Department will participate in a high-visibility national enforcement campaign, “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” through Monday Sept. 3.

During the campaign, which started Aug. 17, Costa Mesa officers, along with the CHP and other local agencies, will increase the number of officers on the road with the mission of mitigating suspected drunk and/or drug impaired drivers.

Motorists caught driving impaired will be pulled over and arrested. CMPD is increasingly trained and poised to act on drug impaired drivers. Motorists taking prescription drugs, particularly those with a driving or operating machinery warning label, may be impaired enough to get a DUI.

Marijuana can also be impairing and result in a DUI, especially in combination with alcohol or other drugs. CMPD will continue these added DUI Saturation Patrols up through the Labor Day weekend, which tends to have some of the highest statistical occurrences of DUI related collisions and fatalities.

The reconstruction of Fire Station No. 1 reached another major milestone.

The new station is in the final stages of construction with the installation of architectural finishes and site landscaping.

Cabinetry, carpeting, tiling and exterior finishes are putting the final touches on the beautiful new building.

As Public Services prepares to commission the building for occupancy, the station’s emergency generator is ready for testing and the associated 2,000-gallon fuel tank has been filled with diesel fuel.

This milestone will commence the start-up and testing of various mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in preparation for certification as a Gold level energy efficient building and occupancy for fire crews.

Last week during a routine morning patrol, Costa Mesa Senior Code Enforcement Officer Mike Brumbaugh came across an older woman and her two dogs sitting in her car near a motel.

She had been staying at the motel.  Unfortunately, she ran out of money and her husband left her. She had no other options and began living out of her vehicle. She was frightened and staying in an area known for some questionable activity.

Brumbaugh did not want to leave the woman in this situation, so he reached out to Muriel Ullman, an outreach coordinator for the city’s Network for Homeless Solutions. Ullman assessed the woman, who disclosed that one of her dogs had cancer and she did not have the money to put the animal to sleep.

Brumbaugh reached out to the city’s Animal Control staff who came out to assist.

“I see many negative things during my day, but this was heartbreaking,” said Brumbaugh. “Watching this lady say her last goodbyes to her life-long pet and put it in the truck and be taken to be put down was tough.”

With the help of NHS and community partners, the woman and her remaining dog were placed in a shelter.

Outreach staff are working with her to get the registration of her vehicle renewed and locate a more permanent place to stay.

“This was one of three similar situations I came across in the same week,” said Brumbaugh. “If I didn’t have NHS and this group available to help me, it would be difficult to assist those in need.”

The City of Costa Mesa recently launched MyCostaMesa, a new mobile app that is replacing the city’s first mobile app, Costa Mesa Connect.

MyCostaMesa is now available for free through the App Store and Google Play.

MyCostaMesa will have all of the same citizen reporting and request for service features of the original app, and the improved reporting and routing features will allow staff to be more efficient and responsive.

MyCostaMesa allows citizens to report issues using their phone’s GPS and camera capabilities, review existing requests, send updates, and receive phone and email notifications of status changes on their issues.

Residents can also submit a service request via the city website and review their submission history and knowledge base articles online.

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the Network for Homeless Solutions and its community partners, three individuals living on the streets of Costa Mesa were reconnected with their families within a 48-hour period.

Two individuals were sent home to Texas, one who came to Costa Mesa for work and lost his job and the other who suffered mental issues. A third person, who came to a sober living facility in Costa Mesa, was sent home to Ohio.

All three people are now off the streets of Costa Mesa and back home thanks to the hard work of this dedicated team.