Costa Mesa commission OKs height variance for Dick’s House of Sport on Harbor
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A vast but vacant commercial building on Costa Mesa’s Harbor Boulevard, formerly occupied by an At Home store, will soon become Dick’s House of Sport — an “experiential” retail space with a climbing wall, golf green with simulators and sports cages.
City planning commissioners Monday unanimously approved the retail giant’s request for a height variance, from 30 feet to 50 to accommodate an enhanced entryway and a 40-foot glass roof encasing the indoor rock climbing wall.
The prior home decor store was shuttered in 2025, after At Home announced that June it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and would close 26 stores nationwide by Sept. 30.
Assistant planner Gabriel Villalobos explained Dick’s House of Sport, which launched in 2021 in New York, allows customers to not only purchase products but to hold them and try them out inside the store, whether it’s testing out putters on a green or taking a swing in a batting cage.
“These amenities are intended to supplement the retail experience and allow for in-house use of products sold at the store,” he told commissioners.
The size of the building — a 90,458-square-foot space located at 2200 Harbor Blvd. in a plaza with a Planet Fitness, Mattress City and smaller goods and service providers — should accommodate the various uses, which will be overseen by a far greater number of employees than a traditional Dick’s Sporting Goods retailer.
Don Alexander, a vice president of the architectural and design firm Onyx Creative, spoke on behalf of the applicant seeking the variance during Monday’s meeting. He said Dick’s House of Sport locations typically hire from 81 to 109 employees, compared to the 34 to 55 people who work at a regular store.
“There are just over 40 stores now, and their hope is to double that within the next 12 months,” he added.
City planners recommended the requested height variance be approved, noting the 40-foot climbing wall roof is situated 260 feet from the nearest residential properties on College Avenue to the East, while the entryway would sit back about 530 feet from Harbor Boulevard.
Nearby retailers, such as Northgate Market’s Mercado Gonzalez and Home Depot, are closer to the road but both received entitlements to build up to 50 feet, Villalobos said.
Costa Mesa resident Jay Humphrey, speaking in a public comment, said he had no problem bringing a Dick’s House of Sport to Harbor Boulevard but warned of creating a precedent, whereby one business’ already-granted deviation from municipal code warranted another.
“Precedence is the thing that winds up slowly but surely eating away at rules we have, and one of the rules we have is that we’re not to have anything over four stories (in height) south of the 405 Freeway,” Humphrey said.
“Everybody wants to see us grow, and everyone wants to see us stay healthy. [But] keep in mind cancer is a growth also, and it’s just when growth gets out of hand, you have to deal with it.”
Hoping to minimize the building’s visual impact for residents living in multifamily homes on College Avenue to the east, Commissioner Angely Andrade asked Alexander whether the applicants might consider planting more trees in the back or adding a mural.
“That’s your clientele right there on the backside of College Avenue that could be easily attracted to your business, and it would allow a great opportunity to lean into the “City of the Arts” and “Tree City” [designations,] which we are,” she reasoned.
Alexander said he’d relay the message to company representatives, and commissioners approved the needed variance in a 7-0 vote.
