Residents, city officials debate arts center location

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Some say the controversy surrounding a proposed Arts

and Education Center resembles the fight over Orange County’s airport:

Everyone wants it, but not in their backyard.

For decades, residents have tried to push for a public space dedicated

to the arts. The most recent plan, backed by the city’s arts commission,

calls for a $12-million project on 3.5 acres of 12.5 acres of open space

behind the Newport Beach Central Library. The single-story building would

cover 22,000 square feet and include a 400-seat auditorium.

But as members of the City Council-appointed ad-hoc committee on the

center learned Wednesday, increased traffic and a loss of the city’s

already limited open space have many residents and activist groups

opposing the plan.

“I haven’t even had my children yet. I’m starting next year and I need

a park,” Corona del Mar resident Tracey Baltera told the committee.

As the committee listened to testimony from residents and members of

groups such as Stop Polluting Our Newport, which presented a proposal for

a Newport Central Park, it became clear a lack of parking spaces and

traffic increases did little to garner support for the project behind the

library.

“We’ve got enough asphalt. We’ve got enough buildings,” said Doug

Campbell, who represented the Harbor View Hills Community Assn. “I think

we need a bit of open space.”

Even members of another City Council advisory body -- the Parks,

Beaches and Recreation Commission -- made it clear they opposed the

center.

“This is just a priceless piece of land and we ought to be careful

what to do with it,” said Val Skoro, the parks commission’s chairman.

He added that the lack of parkland already falls short of the city’s

standard of five acres per 1,000 residents. The center would limit open

space at Newport Center even more, Skoro said.

Addressing concerns about an increase in traffic, Roberta Jorgensen,

who chairs the city’s arts commission, said the center was not intended

to serve as a regional cultural center.

“This is not the Orange County Performing Arts Center,” she said,

adding that Newport Beach desperately needed a place to celebrate local

artists. “This is a local use facility ... I ask this committee to

recognize the critical need for this project.”

Long interested in getting a space for the arts near his campus, Don

Martin, principal of Corona del Mar High School, threw in a suggestion

that seemed to raise interest.

Should the 630 middle school students move to a different site in the

future, Martin said he could free up space to house the center.

“We need to have some kind of cultural education center at this side

of the bay,” he said, adding that a funding shortage had kept him from

investigating the matter more closely.

Putting the center on school grounds could complicate things because

the project would need to meet state requirements for buildings on public

school sites.

Martin said the site behind the library still remained his first

choice.

The City Council’s representatives on the committee -- other members

come from the arts as well as the parks, beaches and recreation

commissions and the library board of trustees -- said they were still

undecided on what to do.

“I said that it should be open space,” said Councilwoman Norma Glover,

who chairs the committee. “But I’m sitting here with an open mind at the

hearings and at the end of that I may have a different opinion.”

Glover added the committee would hear further testimony for several

months. The next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 27 at 8 a.m. at City

Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.