City leaders finalizing general plan

After three years of working on an update of the city’s general plan, Newport Beach officials are now down to the nitty-gritty: reducing the expected number of future car trips by paring down the development that’s allowed.

City Council members began public hearings on the proposed update April 25 and will hold six more hearings. The planning commission also is discussing the general plan at several upcoming meetings.

The general plan will guide development in the city for the next 20 years. It outlines what kinds of development and how much of it will be allowed in each area of the city. The plan last had a major review in 1988.

Highlights of the update include allowing 3,300 residential units near John Wayne Airport, another anchor store at Fashion Island, mixed-use developments including retail and housing in Mariner’s Mile, more parking in Corona del Mar, and improved traffic flow throughout the city.

As proposed, the plan would permit 30,397 more car trips in Newport Beach than the existing plan ? but that’s only if everything allowed by the plans were built.

Even if that much development is unlikely, council members are concerned about the added trips because traffic is generally residents’ No. 1 complaint.

If everything allowed by the old general plan were built, that development plus what exists now would generate an estimated 965,711 traffic trips. The council took up the plan at its last meeting intending to keep the new plan at the same number of trips or fewer.

“It’s going to be hard,” Councilman Steve Rosansky said. “It affects property owners. The amount of development and the amount of entitlement that we give them directly relates to the value of property, so there’s some resistance to cutting back.”

He wants to see trips reduced in the airport area, and that means reducing the allowed number of housing units.

Fashion Island is a prime place to cut car trips, and that can be done by trimming the square footage of commercial space that’s permitted, Councilman Tod Ridgeway said.

At their last meeting, council members talked about reducing the number of residential units allowed in Newport Center from 600 to 450 units, eliminating about 40,000 square feet of space for office expansions and trimming at least 25,000 square feet from the retail space that’s allowed.

On the Balboa Peninsula and Balboa Island, and in Corona del Mar and West Newport, property owners can now build two residential units on one lot. The council is considering changing that to one unit per lot in some areas as a way to cut down potential traffic.

In West Newport, residents seem to think that’s a good idea, Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood said, but it’s not as popular elsewhere in the city.

The council will try to wade through all these elements, revise the plan and keep everyone reasonably happy ? and do it in time to get the general plan on the November ballot.

But the top priority now is trimming those car trips.

“The citizens and the voters have basically said, ‘Hey, we think traffic is the issue,’ and that basically was the issue that resonated when Greenlight I passed,” Ridgeway said.

Greenlight, a law that requires voter approval of developments depending on their size or traffic impact when compared to the general plan, was approved in 2000. Its proponents are now trying to put “Greenlight II” on the November ballot. The new initiative would require a public vote on any project that exceeds existing development by 100 dwelling units, 100 peak-hour car trips or 40,000 square feet of building space.

MEETINGS

The City Council and planning commission will discuss the general plan at meetings on May 9, 18 and 23 and at several meetings in June. Meetings are held in the City Council chambers, 3300 Newport Blvd. For meeting times and agendas, visit www.city.newport-beach.ca.us.