Here are a few items the council...

Here are a few items the council considered Tuesday.

COMMUNITY CENTER

Against the wishes of some Newport Coast residents, a community

center planned for the corner of San Joaquin Hills Road and Newport

Coast Drive will include 29 parking spaces in a spot that was

intended for a future library. The city agreed to put $7 million from

an annexation agreement for the area toward the center, but there

wasn’t room in the budget for a library. The council approved a

design with 123 parking spots in a 5-2 vote with Councilmen John

Heffernan and Dick Nichols dissenting.

Members of the Newport Coast Advisory Committee, which represents

residents, asked the council to approve a design for the community

center that offered 93 parking spaces and left the library space

vacant for later use. But city staff members argued that would fall

far short of the 145 parking spots required by county zoning codes,

and they said a parking lot at nearby Newport Ridge Park is too far

away to be useful.

WHAT IT MEANS

The council believes it has the final word, but the advisory

committee may challenge that based on the language in a

pre-annexation agreement, which says the council must make a

good-faith effort to approve the center as proposed by the committee.

The advisory committee called a special meeting Thursday night to

discuss the community center.

CANYON RESTORATION

The council was able to give some peace of mind to residents in

Cameo Highlands who feared their homes would be casualties of Mother

Nature’s soggy spite. The backyards of several homes along Morning

Canyon have been eroding because of runoff from upland developments

and a drainage system that dumps into the canyon, and recent rains

have accelerated the problem.

The city will spend $148,870 to design a project that would

stabilize the canyon to prevent further erosion, and the council told

residents that the city has some responsibility in constructing the

fix. Residents have said they’d be willing to grant the city

easements to install the proposed solution, but the city should pay

the costs -- about $850,000 -- to build seven rock drop structures,

called gabions, that would slow the water down and stop it from

scouring away the canyon walls.

WHAT IT MEANS

Design of the project will commence. The council gave residents

some verbal assurance but hasn’t officially committed to pay the full

construction costs. That issue will come to the council within the

next two or three months.

WHAT THEY SAID

“You’re going to be giving up property that’s very valuable in the

form of an easement,” Mayor Steve Bromberg told residents. “I don’t

think it’s appropriate to ask you to pay any money or to put anything

into this.”

DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE SEAT

The council voted unanimously to appoint commercial and industrial

real estate broker Lloyd Ikerd to fill an empty seat on the economic

development committee, which advises the council on economic issues.

WHAT IT MEANS

Ikerd will replace Stephen Sutherland, the hotel designer who

hoped to build a resort on city property at Marinapark.

Sutherland resigned from the committee in February, citing

personal attacks against him by some councilmen during the heated

campaign for a ballot issue to allow the hotel.