COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL WRAP-UP

Here Are A Few Items The Council Considered Tuesday:

HOME REMODELING

The city stands to lose an estimated $58,000 in fees but could gain
millions in real estate values under a proposed incentive program to
encourage homeowners to remodel or add on. The council agreed to pursue the
pilot program, suggested by Councilman Eric Bever.

The council will vote later on creating a remodeling incentive program that
would run from September through December. The program would waive
construction permit fees and speed up approval of remodeling plans for
homeowners.

WHAT IT MEANS

Homeowners could save money on city fees by starting remodeling projects
this fall. If the trial program works, the council might consider a longer
construction fee waiver program in the future.

SKATE PARK CHANGES

The city's neskateboard park will get improvements for safety and
convenience of skaters and spectators, the council decided. Instead of
building a shade shelter as planned, the council will spend $150,000 on
other additions, including bleachers outside the skating area for safe
viewing, a place for skaters to keep their backpacks and gear, and screens
to keep skaters' limbs from tangling with fence posts.

Because the skate park has been so well received, council members also said
they'd like to start looking for another skate park site, possibly at Lions
Park.

WHAT IT MEANS

Improvements at the skate park could be finished later this summer or early
in 2006.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The council chose, in a split vote (Dixon and Foley dissenting) to ban
dispensaries that offer marijuana for medical use, an issue many cities
have been wrestling with because of a conflict between state and federal
laws. State law permits medical use of marijuana, but federal drug law
still makes any marijuana use a crime.

The city's Planning Commission had recommended a moratorium on marijuana
dispensaries while officials worked out how they should be regulated, but
the council in June voted, 3-2, to ban the facilities outright. But a
second reading of the ban July 5 received a tie vote -- Councilman Gary
Monahan was absent -- and had to be revisited Tuesday.

WHAT IT MEANS

No medical marijuana dispensaries will be opened in Costa Mesa.

- -- Compiled by Alicia Robinson