Community Commentary -- Bob Haskell

Steven E. Briggs stated in a letter in the Daily Pilot that Pacific

Life has “huge planned expansions on the table” and that Pacific Life

“has not abandoned their plans to expand” in Newport Center.

Other Greenlight Initiative proponents have made similar comments on

your editorial pages. I am surprised about how they can be so sure of our

future plans when they have certainly not discussed them with anyone at

Pacific Life.

Such comments are not an accurate statement of our future plans and,

are in fact, untrue.

Pacific Life has been a proud resident and beneficial contributor to

this community for 30 years -- longer than many residents have lived

here. We have provided good jobs, a clean business and major support for

the community’s cultural infrastructure, as well as support for programs

benefiting children, the environment and those in need.

As we have grown, we have continued to share our success with our

community.

We are one major local business that is providing jobs to the grown

children of those who live here. Unfortunately, our Newport Center

building has not been sufficient to handle our need for more workers.

We have leased many other buildings in Newport Center to accommodate

our 2,200 local employees and have a satellite facility in Fountain

Valley.

Our current headquarters building, only five stories high, was one of

the first buildings constructed around Fashion Island. It was an anchor

that served to attract many other businesses to the Newport Center area.

Many of the newer businesses are housed in multi-storied, high-rise

buildings.

We had long hoped to secure an entitlement to build an additional

building on our existing Newport Center property in order to consolidate

our disparate enterprise. But the opposition to our proposal from a few

vocal opponents threatened to disrupt our congenial relationship with the

city we call home.

So we pulled our project off the shelf and immediately directed our

expansion efforts to South County, in the Foothill Ranch area of Lake

Forest. We recently moved about 400 employees to a large new facility

there and there is more room to expand in that area if necessary.

In spite of what others may say, we do not plan to resubmit a proposal

to build another building on the property we own in Newport Center. That

project is dead. The need no longer exists. Our current plan is to

maintain our headquarters here in Newport for as long as is feasible.

Voters in Newport Beach should make up their minds about the

Greenlight Initiative without falling prey to scare tactics that seek to

create the fear that our project will resurface again.

We made our decision to oppose the Greenlight Initiative because we

sincerely believe it is bad public policy -- nothing more.

* BOB HASKELL is the senior vice president of Pacific Life in Newport

Beach.