Costa Mesa is moving forward with another affordable housing project — this time, a defunct motel is slated to become affordable housing with priority for veterans, seniors and people with disabilities.
What used to be The Mesa Motel, originally built in 1958 and then renovated three decades later to double the number of rooms, will now be repurposed as one of the latest affordable housing projects to hit Costa Mesa.
Since its closing in mid-2022, the motel has remained abandoned on Harbor Boulevard until project applicant Nikan Khatibi, a physician and self-proclaimed “serial entrepreneur,” addressed the planning commission at a meeting on April 28.
Khatibi said that he will be fully funding the project.
“I know it sounds like business, but this is actually a philanthropic arm for me,” Khatibi told planning commissioners. “This is something I want to do to give back. I’ve already done the numbers, if I’m lucky, I’ll break even.”
The Planning Commission approved the development in a 5-1 vote on April 28, with Commissioner Jon Zich voting no and Commissioner Angely Andrade Vallerta recused from the vote.
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Zich asked Khatibi a question about the “kinds of population” that would be able to occupy the residences, citing parts of the proposal that mentioned case management and sobriety.
“Am I trying to bring potentially the wrong type of mischievous types of individuals to the community? That’s not my intention,” Khatibi said. “My intention is to bring people who want to work and be supportive, active, growing members of the community. People who love Costa Mesa, people who want to be responsible, safe citizens and just need a second chance in life.”
The development is expected to include 47 single-room units that would be affordable to very-low-income people, except for one reserved for the building manager, according to the staff report.
A person making less than $59,250 is considered very low income in Orange County, according to income thresholds set by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Zich said that the plans looked more like permanent supportive housing, which provides rental assistance as well as voluntary support services typically aimed at getting people off the streets.
“I don’t see this as an affordable housing option for the labor workforce in the community,” Zich said. “To me, (the application) feels a lot like the permanent supportive housing motel conversions.”
“It feels like a lot of it is a rough draft, not a final product,” he said, “and it feels like the purpose of this project is different than the council articulates in council policy.”
Commissioner Jeffrey Harlan disagreed with Zich’s assessment, explaining why he chose to support the approval.
“I am obviously supporting the motion, and the primary reason is that no one characterizes where they live as a single room occupancy or a multi-family apartment or an efficiency unit or permanent supportive housing,” Harlan said.
“They simply live in a home, and we desperately need more homes in the city.”
Commissioner Robert Dickson echoed some of Zich’s concerns, but said the project is an overall step in the right direction.
“I have some of the same concerns,” Dickson said. “However, I actually am encouraged by the fact that this is the applicant’s own money and there’s not a ton of permanent supportive housing-type strings attached.”
The permit approval is final unless appealed to the city council, the commission announced after the vote.
This is not the first time that the Mesa Motel has been looked at for potential housing.
At a city council meeting in November 2021, the motel was one of two prospective housing opportunities listed in the Homekey Program — a state-funded initiative to increase housing affordability, especially for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
While the plans to renovate Motel 6 were approved, Mesa Motel did not have an official future of becoming housing until this project.
[Read: From Motel 6 to Affordable Housing: Conversion Underway in Costa Mesa]
The Homekey project was expanded last summer, and it has led to the conversion of hundreds of motel rooms into homes throughout Orange County.
[Read: Prop. 1 Could Get Orange County’s Homeless Veterans Into Homes]
Additionally, multiple affordable housing projects have recently been introduced and approved in Costa Mesa, including a project for seniors and a live-work development.
[Read: Seniors to get Affordable Housing in Costa Mesa]
These projects are meant to combat the housing shortage in the city, specifically for communities at risk of homelessness and local workers who need affordable options