Deal would put library on the shelf

Alicia Robinson

A compromise looks likely and would add parking at the planned

Newport Coast community center while keeping space free for a future

library at the site.

The Newport Coast Advisory Committee, which represents homeowners,

clashed with the Newport Beach City Council last month over how much

parking should be provided at the $7-million community center. The

center is being paid for with money from a deal the city made when it

annexed Newport Coast.

Worried about potential parking shortages, council members

insisted the community center design should include 122 parking

spaces -- closer to the 145 spaces required by county building codes

-- rather than the 93 spaces in the preliminary design.

The advisory committee on Thursday came up with a reconfigured

parking plan that would include 122 spaces but would shift the

parking area to the west, leaving vacant the spot where residents

would like to see a library someday, said advisory committee chairman

Jim McGee.

“It would result in less landscape and additional parking, but the

city, it seems like they would prefer that, and it satisfies our

objective of not putting parking on the site of the future library,”

he said.

Plans for the 17,000-square-foot center at San Joaquin Hills Road

and Newport Coast Drive include a gymnasium with a stage at one end

and bleacher seating, and several community rooms.

Some council members said the original parking plan would be

insufficient and in March approved a design with the added parking.

Advisory committee members said if they were forced to put parking on

the library spot, they’d ax the project altogether.

City Manager Homer Bludau said the new plan that shifts the

parking lot may not need a separate approval from council members,

but it’s likely to satisfy them.

Final architectural design can now begin, and the city could seek

bids on the project in about six months, he said.

Residents wanted a library to be built with the project, but the

$7-million budget didn’t allow it. McGee said the advisory committee

will look at other ways to fund a library, possibly through private

donations.

“We’re going to probably put that on the back burner for the time

being,” he said.