Mall-to-Mall Walkway Plan Awaits City Council Action

Plans for a 600-foot bridge linking South Coast Plaza and Crystal Court will be on the Costa Mesa City Council agenda Jan. 18.

The city’s planning commissioners have endorsed construction of the walkway, which would stretch from South Coast Plaza’s second level on the west side near Macy’s to the center of Crystal Court’s third floor.

The goal is to encourage more shoppers to venture over Bear Street to Crystal Court, which opened in 1986 as an extension of South Coast Plaza but has not been a particularly thriving addition. City planners say the overpass should also help traffic on Bear Street by reducing both the number of car and pedestrian crossings.

So that consumers won’t have to walk too far without buying something, the mall owner is proposing that carts and/or kiosks be placed along the 19-foot-wide bridge.

Previously, the center’s owners had talked about installing a “people mover” of sorts that would have shuttled shoppers between the two centers in less than two minutes. That plan was eventually ditched. Crystal Court spokeswoman Rita Redaelli declined to say why the plans changed or how much a bridge will cost.