Surf City project has Newport’s attention

June Casagrande

The city next door has plans to build a 31.5-acre complex of

commercial, retail, residential, office and restaurant space that

includes 400 hotel rooms and 516 condominiums.

What does this Huntington Beach development have to do with

Newport Beach? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.

The Newport Beach City Council will decide Tuesday whether to put

in their two cents on a project some believe could create traffic and

other problems for its neighbors to the north.

In a letter that council members may decide to put their names on,

Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood suggests that traffic effects of

the Pacific City project along Pacific Coast Highway be analyzed as

far south as Dover Drive, which would show the project’s effects on

several major intersections in Newport Beach. The environmental study

for the project only considers traffic effects along Pacific Coast

Highway to Brookhurst Street, according to the letter.

“Diagrams indicate that almost 25% of the project traffic is

anticipated to use Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach,” Wood

wrote. “The impacts of this additional traffic, some 3,000 daily

trips, must be analyzed in detail.”

The matter adds fuel to the fire already simmering between

Newport, Huntington and Costa Mesa over the question of whether to

build a 19th Street bridge. The environmental report for the Pacific

City project’s possible effects on Coast Highway traffic are based on

the assumption that the bridge will be built to link Huntington to

the Costa Mesa Freeway. But because Huntington and Costa Mesa oppose

the bridge, Newport leaders may want the traffic study to look at

what would happen to Newport traffic if Huntington and Costa Mesa got

their way.

“The completion of this link is not a certainty, and our

understanding is that the city of Huntington Beach has agreed to

analyze projects with and without the 19th Street Bridge,” the letter

states.

Steven Rosansky, the Newport Beach city councilman whose district

includes that stretch of Coast Highway, said that the project could

have significant implications for Newport.

“Any large developments that are going to increase traffic on

Coast Highway are definitely of interest to Newport Beach,” Rosansky

said.

Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Debbie Cook said that all

comments on the environmental report will be taken into

consideration.

“Those are perfectly legitimate concerns for Newport Beach,” Cook

said. “And all concerns on the EIR will be addressed; whether they’re

addressed to their satisfaction is a different matter.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].