Town Center OKd, mostly

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The City Council late Monday gave final approval to

parts of the Town Center project and a revision of the city’s massage

ordinance.

The council approved the South Coast Plaza Partners’ and the Orange

County Performing Arts Center’s sections of a project to transform South

Coast Metro into a pedestrian-oriented cultural arts district.

The council postponed a decision on the portion of the complex

pertaining to Commonwealth Partners LLC, which would include the Isamu

Noguchi California Sculpture Garden.

The Town Center project had received preliminary approval Feb. 5, but

determining the length of time Commonwealth would be required to maintain

the garden for public use became an obstacle.

The council instructed city staff to incorporate a provision requiring

Commonwealth to maintain the garden for 25 years and to force

Commonwealth to carry out extensive public notification for any changes

to the garden after that period expires.

“I am comfortable with 25 years, knowing that they have to come back

to the City Council with any changes anyway,” Councilman Gary Monahan

said.

The new provision is expected to come before the council again in two

weeks.

In other action, the council also adopted a revision to the 2-year-old

massage ordinance.

Before the change, the law -- designed to crack down on prostitution

houses fronting as massage parlors -- required masseuses to go through a

rigorous licensing process to practice in the city. But employees for

state-licensed were exempt.

The revision now includes those employees in the ordinance. It will

also limit hours of operation, restrict massage parlors to using only

white lights and allow them to continue to use doors that cannot be

locked.