Door closes on ‘open space’ projects

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- It looked like a routine item on the City Council’s

agenda: a technical adjustment to the city’s general plan that would

allow St. Mark Presbyterian Church to develop a plot of land.

But the response the item generated Tuesday night was anything but

routine. Public comments on the proposal were harsh and outspoken.

Opinions on the council were split.

Councilman Dennis O’Neil, who initially supported the proposal,

eventually reversed himself and the council unanimously rejected the

project.

The moral of the story? Open space is not something people regard lightly

anymore in Newport Beach. Far from taking it for granted, activists and

would-be builders are wrangling over the details of each new proposal.

The designation “open space” is a term in the city’s general plan that

restricts the range of uses for a piece of land. Open space can be

converted into projects such as interpretive centers, parks and wildlife

refuges, said Patricia Temple, the city’s planning director. But major

structures, for the most part, are out.

Although the general plan was amended several years ago to allow

construction of Hoag Hospital’s lower campus on what was previously

considered open space, Temple said such modifications are not common.

Bob Caustin, founding director of the environmental group, Defend the

Bay, was one of those who spoke up Tuesday to oppose the St. Mark

development. He said the close scrutiny directed at such proposals is a

consequence of the increasing density of Newport Beach.

“You’re never going to get it back once you approve it for development,”

Caustin said.

This same concern is a major factor driving the Greenlight initiative,

according to the measure’s proponents. That measure, slated for the

November election, proposes to give voters the final say on certain major

developments. Supporters of the initiative hope that city residents, when

given the power to decide for themselves, will vote to preserve some of

the open areas in the city.

But the council, at least this week, has taken a similar tack.

A second request to build on open space -- for the city’s proposed arts

and education center, which has been contemplated for a plot of land

above Avocado Avenue -- was also struck down at Tuesday’s meeting.

On the recommendation of City Atty. Bob Burnham, the council instead

formed a committee to investigate community feeling about the public

project.

Though the people on the losing end of these decisions -- city Arts

Commissioner Don Gregory and Rev. Gary Collins of St. Mark -- said they

understand the importance of open space, they also worry about

dogmatically rejecting any possible development on such plots of land.

“I have sympathy for that [environmental] position,” Collins said. “But

then again, I think some open spaces can be enhanced, and I wish all

people who are building and expanding would take that into account.”

“I think the zealotry of open space above everything is wrong,” Gregory

said. “It’s too absolute. I think there’s a difference between saying

‘let’s make another restaurant so there can be a thousand and one

restaurants’ and an arts and education center, which is going to do a lot

of good for the young people of our community.”

But Caustin said noble motives should not be an excuse to build on land

that was intended to be left open.

“Quality of life is affected by what you see,” he said. “In Westwood,

everyone is nose-to-fanny, maxed out. It’s an aggressive setting. It’s

tension-filled. Over the last 20 years, we’ve become more and more like

Los Angeles.”

PROPERTY RIGHTS?

Should the city should be doing more to protect open space? Call our

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