Commentary: Proposed Porsche dealership is incompatible with surrounding area

In regards to the proposed Porsche dealership on Coast Highway, the city of Newport Beach Planning Commission and City Council must hold the proposed use of this land situated between two residential neighborhoods, Newport Heights and Bayshores, to a much higher standard than any other development location along Mariner’s Mile.

The city’s inherent responsibility is to assure all proposed development projects will enhance the community and be compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods without adverse impacts. At the very least, an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) must be required.

In conducting this study, AutoNation Porsche business plan data used to justify moving to this standalone facility must be the foundation and basis for the projected increases in traffic, noise, pollution, etc.

Moving the Porsche auto dealership showroom and service/garage/parking has been justified because there are other auto dealerships in the vicinity. This is faulty and unacceptable. The proposed AutoNation will span 11 lots and 500-plus feet along Coast Highway, which is about three times bigger than what’s currently or previously occupied the space.

AutoNation proposed to break with tradition by introducing service operations, which are not part of the existing companies, such as Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren, and Phillips auto dealerships, along Mariner’s Mile.

Simply put, international and nationwide companies are telling the city of Newport Beach and the residential communities of Newport Heights and Bayshores what to do. They disregard community design criteria and standards, such as the dictum that Mariner’s Mile buildings are to have a nautical appearance.

The AutoNation project proposes a massive commercial industrial development that is incompatible with the intent of the Mariner’s Mile Master Plan and undermines the reasons residents have chosen to live in the Bayshores and Newport Heights communities.

Further, the proposed structure spanning West Coast Highway is overwhelming and far too massive for the physical dimensions and limitations of the site. This proposed use of the land will have significant negative impacts (design, hours of operation, noise, traffic congestion, safety, light and reflection, elevation, water consumption) on the daily lives of the families living in the two adjacent residential neighborhoods of Newport Heights to the North atop the bluff and Bayshores South across West Coast Highway.

There are few, if any, characteristics of the proposed use of the site that enhances the neighborhoods, the quality of life, and the property values of the residents living in these communities.

PATRICK GORMLEY lives in Newport Beach.