MEASURE
C: What Was the Point?!?!?
Tuesday July
20, at 6 pm, the Costa Mesa City Council will be holding their regular meeting. They will be officially
accepting the results of the June election, i.e. Measure C. Measure C requires that any change to the
City's general plan regarding the Orange County Fairgrounds be put to the voters. When they voted to
put Measure C on the ballot, the Costa Mesa City Council stated that the future of the fairgrounds was too
important to be left to just a majority of future City Councils, which might not be trustworthy
(!).
The Measure C
item is a consent calendar item, which we will ask to have pulled for discussion. That means it will be
very near the beginning of the meeting. Please attend and bring your friends.
Why is this important?
- We were told that
Measure C would protect the fairgrounds by requiring a vote of the people for any changes to the general
plan which would govern future use of the site.
- We were told this was
necessary because future City Councils could not be trusted to preserve the fairgrounds, and it was so
important the City spent over $100,000 for a special election, while laying off people due to budget
problems.
- The City established
the Orange County Fairgrounds Authority as a separate, independent public agency apart from the city to be
governed by the city council wearing a different hat.
- Under State law,
independent public agencies may be exempt from local planning authority, under certain
circumstances.
- The memorandum of
understanding (MOU) with Facilities Management West states that FMW will abide by the general plan and
Measure C, unless approved by the fairgrounds authority, i.e. the city council operating as an
independent public agency. Thus, the MOU provides for approval of uses not consistent with the
general plan without a vote of the people.
- Nothing in the MOU
requires FMW to operate in conformance with local planning and zoning.
So,
what was the point of
Measure C????
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