City stalls on pact with county

Newport Beach city officials were preparing to reveal a groundbreaking pact with Orange County that would give the city more control over a number of issues, but they pulled back late this week.

The agreement was slated for Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but city and county leaders need more time to look it over, Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said Friday. The pact has been in the works for three years.

“It still needs to be reviewed by some people at the county,” he said. “We need all five supervisors to be there.”

The pact, which the city calls the sphere-issues agreement, would give Newport more say in the future of John Wayne Airport, some management of the Santa Ana Heights redevelopment agency and ownership of the Newport Dunes, and it would provide for comprehensive planning for the upper and lower Newport Bay. The airport is the centerpiece of the agreement.

“Right now the city really doesn’t have any control except the control that we have through the settlement agreement,” Bludau said. “It would basically give the city a seat at the table in consideration of future expansion of John Wayne Airport outside of its current 500 acres.”

Bludau said he expects agreement to come to the City Council for approval in late August or early September.