Council divided on arts center

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- The vote will be close.

As members of the city’s ad hoc committee on a proposed arts and

education center met early Tuesday to collect more testimony from

residents, City Council members -- who are set to make a decision about

the center next Tuesday -- are split on the controversial issue.

The $12-million project, which would include a 400-seat auditorium and

classrooms for arts education, would be built on a vacant lot behind the

central library that has been set aside as open space.

On Feb. 27, council members decided to vote next week on whether

they’d consider using the open space for the center.

Council members Dennis O’Neil and Norma Glover have said they’d

support a park at the site.

Councilman Steve Bromberg said he realizes residents want an arts

center -- just not on open space.

“If that’s what people want, that’s what I’ll support,” he said,

adding that he’d received about 40 e-mails and phone calls from residents

arguing this position during the last week.

Councilmen John Heffernan and Tod Ridgeway, as well as Mayor Gary

Adams, said a decision against considering the arts center project would

deprive residents of the chance to at least learn more about the idea.

“I think the idea has merit,” Adams said, adding that most of the

12.5-acre parcel should be preserved as open space. “I think it’s too

early to dismiss the idea, because we don’t know enough of what can and

can’t be done.”

That leaves Councilman Gary Proctor as the deciding vote. And while

saying his “initial sense” was that the lot should be open space, Proctor

added that he has not yet formed an opinion.

“I’ve not been briefed on all the options,” he said. “That’s why I’ve

got some homework to do.”

At Tuesday’s committee meeting, environmentalists and residents again

voiced their opposition to building on the site because it would further

reduce the city’s scarce open space.

“It seems like nothing’s ever safe anywhere,” said Jean Watt, a former

councilwoman, as well as a member of Stop Polluting Our Newport. She

added that among other projects, affordable housing for seniors has been

suggested for the land in the past.

“Deed restrictions [for open space parcels] might be something we have

to do,” Watt said.

Still others suggested the council move forward with a citywide

survey, proposed by supporters of the center.

That’s “exactly what you need,” said Allan Beek, a community activist,

adding that residents should be polled on six alternative sites for an

arts center: the land behind the library, Port Theater on East Coast

Highway, Balboa Theater on the peninsula, the Orange County Arts Museum,

Corona del Mar High School and Bayview Landing at the corner of East

Coast Highway and Jamboree Road.

Concerns about traffic have been raised with the Port Theater and high

school options. Bayview Landing is earmarked for affordable housing for

seniors.

Museum officials said they would consider a move to expand within and

outside Newport Beach, adding that an offer also exists to relocate to

the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa as part of that

center’s expansion.

But “we are not going anywhere for quite some time,” said Brian

Langston, a museum spokesman, adding that even if the museum decided to

change homes, it would take several years to complete the move.