Rumors of vote on park-site use begin to spread

The Newport Beach City Council late Tuesday decided, for the third time, not to put a city hall on a park site next to the central library, and this time the issue may really be over.

Maybe.

So far, a rumored ballot initiative on the use of the land may have legs, but it seems to have no head. Supporters of a plan to build a city hall on the park land said Wednesday they might back a ballot measure, but no one has offered to spearhead it.

“I’m not ready to say anything about that, and I don’t know” if someone else is planning an initiative, said architect Bill Ficker, a leading proponent of a plan that would allow for a park and a hall at the location. “But there is talk about it.”

The council’s 4-3 vote to move ahead with plans for a $3.75-million park on Avocado Avenue came after several hours of public discussion and emotionally charged speeches by council members. Most everyone fell into two camps: Keep the council’s earlier promise on the park or reconsider the issue because of new information.

“To me, integrity is making good on one’s commitment to others,” Councilman Michael Henn said Tuesday. “The need to act with integrity, in my view, trumps the debate of the specific issues of the sites that we are considering.”

Henn voted to go ahead with the 12-acre Newport Center Park, along with council members Keith Curry, Nancy Gardner and Ed Selich.

On the losing side were Mayor Steve Rosansky and council members Leslie Daigle and Don Webb. They wanted to postpone work on the park until a city hall site is chosen, which Rosansky has suggested should happen by June 30. They said the park the council promised had a lower cost estimate, and a donor had pledged to pay the bulk of it. A city hall might have taken about 3 acres

The park plan itself got picked apart, with special attention paid to the fact that it’s a passive park with no athletic fields, playground or other features to draw visitors. Some residents have disparaged the city’s passive parks, and Webb said he thinks the council should reevaluate its priorities in light of a shortage of active park space.

“I think the next step is we really need to review our parks and how we’re going to fund them because I don’t feel the decision we made last night is the best one for our parks throughout the city,” Webb said Wednesday.

But park supporters said Newport Center Park won’t be like the maligned Back Bay View Park, which one resident called ugly.

“I’m committed that this is not going to be another weed park,” Curry told the audience.

Debra Allen, a city parks and recreation commissioner who has led the push for the park, said Wednesday that the park will have irrigation, grass, landscaping and interpretive signs. It will be a model the city can use as a basis to the California Coastal Commission to allow enhancements at Back Bay View and Castaways parks, she said.

“I think once we do that, people will come back to the realization that passive parks are a beautiful thing and they’re a wonderful thing for the city,” Allen said.

Selich said the city should have construction documents for the park and an agreement with the donor in about 30 days.