Costa Mesa has received a letter from the State of California informing them that the value of the Orange County Fair and Events Center is potentially damaged by the Specific Plan they are developing. The Specific Plan states the desires of the City to maintain the property much as it is while allowing for development of compatible uses. The State feels this damages the value of their property because they appear to have estimated the value of the property using some fully built out, high density model that does not follow current zoning for the property and using land values that are not current.
Bottom line: State is out of line.
This situation is as if you want to sell your single family home. Current zoning says one house per lot. But you want more money than what your single family home would bring. So, you tell the buyer that they can build several condos on the property, that there will be no problem changing the zoning to what they want.
You're wrong (and misrepresenting the facts to the buyer) because the city is under no obligation to change zoning to match a new land use just because a new buyer wants to do something else.
The OC Fairgrounds is already zoned for "fairgrounds use." Costa Mesa is clarifying the list of applicable uses so buyers know what they are getting. By starting this process now, before the bids are due and before the deadline for bidder questions to be answered, Costa Mesa is putting potential bidders on notice that there use restrictions on the property, so plan and bid accordingly.
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