Busy month in Newport Beach

I want to start by saying that I feel both the Newport Beach City

Council and city staff deserve a giant round of applause and a thank

you for all their work during this month of August. Whether you agree

or disagree with their decisions, I don’t ever recall so many

meetings on so many items in the same month.

Due to all the happenings in Newport Beach, it has been difficult

to choose any one particular topic. To begin with there is the

expansion plan at John Wayne Airport -- scheduled to open by May of

2010 with a price tag of $512 million. Somebody please put that in a

tickler file, and let us know if it comes in on budget.

John Wayne Airport will soon be hosting an international flair

since it will be adding two gates with U.S. Customs Service

facilities.

Imagine: You’ll be able to fly all over the world right from our

little beach community. There will also be another parking structure

housing 3,200 additional spaces to the already available 8,400

spaces. That only means one thing to Newport Beach: more traffic. I

wonder if these 3,200 more parking spaces have been included in the

airport area of the general plan update under more traffic and trip

generation?

Evidently, this expansion was approved by our county supervisors

in October 2004, yet it was never mentioned at a City Council meeting

that I can remember. We even have a special committee, the spheres

committee, an ad hoc City Council committee that has been meeting

with the county to discuss just these types of issues -- airport

expansion, Coyote Canyon Landfill, tidelands, and whatever else. So,

I am still wondering why I can’t remember any discussion of the John

Wayne expansion.

Expansion seems to be our middle name in Newport Beach. Based on

the proposals of the general-plan update, there is no area in the

city where they don’t want to build or expand. We all know by now

that with more building comes more traffic and, of course, more

traffic signals to control the increased traffic. There will be

another opportunity to let the planning commission and City Council

know how you feel: Mark Aug. 30 on your calendar. Unfortunately, you

might be on vacation; it is the last week before Labor Day and the

end of the summer.

Last but not least, the new city hall has also been affected by

additional expansion. Without putting a shovel in the ground, the

City hall has expanded from 68,000 square feet to 72,000 square feet.

This additional 4,000 square feet will now mean that the behemoth

parking structure of 350 spaces on three levels has grown to what

looks like four levels, equating to extra reinforcement of both the

parking structure to accommodate additional spaces and the city hall

to accommodate additional building. So, if approved by the City

Council, the $41-million project will now (with enhancements,

reinforcements and pilings) be in the $46-million range, which will

cost us approximately $100 million out of the general fund.

I want to thank the City Council and the leadership of our mayor,

John Heffernan, echoed by the newest council member, Ed Selich, for

not diving into the approval of the latest rendition of the city

hall. Funny how the night-lighted drawings of the city hall remind me

of the buildings at Newport Technology (at 500 Superior Ave.) that

are ready today. It is difficult to tell them apart -- except you

don’t have to ask where the front door is.

Keep our soldiers safe.

* DOLORES OTTING is a regular contributor to the Forum pages and

is a community activist.