NEWPORT BEACH : College’s Plan to Use School Site at Issue

A proposal to allow a community college to use the site of a former elementary school in a back bay Newport Beach neighborhood will be discussed by the City Council today.

The council will not vote on the plan but is scheduled to discuss its involvement in the issue, which has pitted neighbors against each other and has raised questions of how a defunct school site should be used.

Under discussion is a proposal by Coastline Community College to use the old Eastbluff Elementary School site for classes beginning this fall. Currently occupying the site is a kindergarten center, which may continue operating there and could be incorporated into the college’s planned day care center.

Under the proposal, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District would lease the land to the college district for a sum to be negotiated. Newport-Mesa officials have said the extra income would be a boost at a time when the district is trying to cut costs and balance its 1992-93 budget.

Hundreds of residents in the area have opposed bringing the college to their neighborhood, saying they do not want the increased traffic, late-night noise and commotion that goes with operating a school.

Some opposed also add that the district should hold onto the defunct school in case there is an increase in elementary-age school children in the area and a school site is needed.

However, one homeowners’ group, the Bluffs Homeowners Community Assn., polled its members, and more than half the respondents supported the college. About 175 homeowners out of more than 600 members answered the poll.

Further, officials at Coast Community College District, which oversees Coastline, have argued that the college is not a typical community college geared toward educating post-high school students.

They have argued that the average age of Coastline students is 35, and most of the courses are in personal and professional development, geared toward adults and career development.

Under the proposal, the school would operate from about 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with shorter hours on Friday nights and Saturdays. It would be closed Sundays.

School officials plan to build an additional 250 parking spaces on the school site, and will request that students park in the lot instead of on streets and in front of homes.

According to estimates, evening would be the busiest traffic time, with up to 300 additional cars in the neighborhood. Officials contend that traffic would not be congested because most residents would already be home at this time, but residents argue that the increased number of cars would still bring noise and commotion to the quiet neighborhood.