Marinapark vote looms

Alicia Robinson

Time finally may be running out for mobile-home park residents at

Marinapark.

The Newport Beach City Council will decide, possibly at its May 10

meeting, whether to formally move toward closing the mobile-home

park. Councilman Tod Ridgeway on Tuesday told an ad hoc committee

exploring options for Marinapark that he will bring the park closure

issue to the council soon.

The residents could be asked to leave in as soon as a year.

Marinapark is a 9.8-acre piece of land the city owns on the Balboa

Peninsula. When hotel designer Stephen Sutherland proposed a luxury

resort there, residents and city officials agonized and antagonized

each other over what to do with the land. Some residents said the

land should be reserved for public park use, not turned into a

revenue generator for the city.

After voters in November 2004 rejected the hotel plan, the City

Council appointed a 14-member committee -- including three councilmen

and five residents -- to present options.

Mobile-home park residents have been in limbo since at least 2000,

when their last long-term lease on the property expired. They’re now

on month-to-month leases, Ridgeway said before Tuesday’s meeting.

State law requires the city to give Marinapark residents a year’s

notice if the park will be closed, he said. If the council chooses to

close the park, it could tell residents to move in a year, or let

them stay until officials decide what to do with the property.

Also on the Marinapark land are a Girl Scouts house, an American

Legion post and some public amenities.

The committee won’t make recommendations to the City Council, but

it will look at a variety of options beginning at its next meeting.

Mayor Steve Bromberg invited those who have specific plans for

Marinapark to schedule presentations, and the list of presenters is

likely to include the city’s Harbor Commission, the marine committee

of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and the residents’ group

Protect Our Parks, which formed specifically to defeat the hotel

proposal.

In March, ad hoc committee members threw out preliminary

suggestions for Marinapark that included devoting space to the

hand-launching of smaller boats, copying the mix of commercial and

public uses at Dana Point Harbor, and building a marina with boat

slips.

The committee meets at 4 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month

in council chambers at Newport Beach City Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.