Irvine project worries Newport

June Casagrande

A 487,000-square-foot office and retail development on the city

border will dump traffic into about a half-dozen Newport

intersections and the developer should upgrade the nearby roads, city

officials say.

What’s more, the project is relying on 12-year-old information to

gauge its effects on traffic, and it uses something called transfer

credits to allow its development -- Newport Beach leaders say these

are serious problems.

The Scholle development, slated to be built at 19000 Jamboree Road

near Fairchild Road as part of the Irvine Business Complex, takes

square footage allowed to be built north of the San Diego Freeway and

transfers those rights to south of the freeway. Because of these

transferred rights, Newport Beach officials say, planners should

conduct new environmental studies.

“That’s our great concern,” said Sharon Wood, Newport Beach

assistant city manager. “The traffic analysis for that 1992

[environmental report] would have assumed that car trips were ending

and originating at sites north of the 405 [Freeway]. So most of the

mitigations they proposed were north of the 405, even though now

they’ve changed it so that the trips will take place south of the

405.”

The intersections likely to feel the biggest crunch are Jamboree

Road at Macarthur Boulevard and Macarthur Boulevard at Fairchild

Road. Though the latter intersection is entirely within Irvine’s

borders, Newport officials say it will still affect traffic inside

Newport’s borders. So far, no one has studied how many car trips the

project will add to local roads, and Newport Beach leaders want that

changed.

Studies by the city’s Environmental Quality Affairs Committee also

suggest that a number of other streets will get more cars from the

project, including much of Bristol Street, especially at Jamboree.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to send a letter to

the developer and the city of Irvine saying that new studies should

be done.

If Newport streets are going to bear the burden of all those extra

trips, the developer should be responsible for roadwork that will

make traffic flow better, the council said.

“This really impacts the entire system,” Newport Beach Mayor Tod

Ridgeway said. “What we want is for them to mitigate the impacts.”

Roadway improvements could include added turn lanes or overpasses

at some intersections.

Greenlight spokesman Phil Arst said he’s glad the city is taking

action.

“We support it, and it’s definitely better late than never,” he

said.

Greenlight doesn’t take an active role in projects outside the

city border, Arst said. In talks that took place while the Greenlight

Initiative was being formed, officials agreed that Greenlight’s power

lay within city borders but that the city had more power to influence

other communities.

“We sort of split the load,” Arst said.

The Scholle project is planned with 425,000 square feet of office

space, a 7,500-square foot restaurant and a 54,000 square-foot health

club.

Representatives for the developer and the Irvine city planner

overseeing the project could not be reached for comment on Friday.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].