Costa Mesa’s City Council voted unanimously to approve a large-scale housing development at the former Fairview Developmental Center, capping the project at 2,300 residences after months of fighting over how much density the 80-acre former state hospital site should absorb. The plan includes 920 affordable units set aside for qualified low-income tenants, along with 35,000 square feet of commercial space and 25 acres of publicly accessible open space. No developer has yet been selected for the project, and the plans released so far do not specify what the housing will actually look like.
The vote, reported by the Los Angeles Times, caps a fight that pitted the city’s planning staff against council members wary of overloading local streets. The Costa Mesa Planning Commission had approved terms allowing as many as 4,000 units on the site, but the City Council rejected that higher figure in favor of the 2,300-unit ceiling. Housing developments of this type typically include apartment buildings and other multiunit formats, and the commercial space set aside in the plan may include stores, restaurants, coffee shops, fitness studios and childcare facilities, according to the project’s draft environmental impact report.
Golf Course Was the Sticking Point
The adopted plan spares changes to the Mesa Linda golf course, which is part of the city-owned Costa Mesa Country Club. Per the Daily Pilot’s reporting, a secondary access road would have cleaved the golf course had the unit count exceeded 2,300 — a detail that helps explain why the council held firm on the lower number even as state housing pressure mounted. According to Citizen Portal, the September 15 vote adopted Mayor John Stephens’ compromise plan, which expanded open space to 25 acres and barred that secondary road through Mesa Linda without further council approval.
Community opposition to the project had focused heavily on traffic congestion and the prospect of dividing the country club, tensions that surfaced weeks earlier when the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to recommend certifying the Final Environmental Impact Report. Commissioners heard hours of public testimony on traffic, school impacts and housing density before sending the plan to the council, the same source notes.
State Pressure Loomed Over the Vote
Costa Mesa must add 11,760 residential units by the end of the decade under state housing mandates, a quota the city has struggled to meet. That pressure escalated in July 2026, when California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court against the city over its failure to adopt a certified 6th Cycle Housing Element, seeking a court order compelling compliance within 120 days, according to the Los Angeles Times. Hoodline previously covered the lawsuit over the city’s housing plan and local efforts to scrounge up buildable acreage…