City drops development suit

Newport Beach won’t sue the city of Irvine over two housing developments in the Irvine Business Complex, at least for now, Newport officials said Friday.

Newport is worried that Irvine has not fully studied what developments near the cities’ border will do to traffic, air quality and parks.

The deadline for Newport to file a legal challenge of the developments was Friday, but Irvine agreed to give Newport more time in the hope that Newport’s complaints can be resolved.

The two cities agreed to allow Newport until Oct. 13 to file a suit, but they’ll likely set up a meeting next week to hammer out their differences, Newport Beach Assistant City Atty. Aaron Harp said.

The two specific projects at issue are the 2323 Main St. development, which includes 445 condos, and Avalon Jamboree Village on Alton Parkway, but Newport officials also are eyeing Irvine’s overall plan to add thousands of housing units in the business complex.

Tustin city officials and two major Irvine businesses — Allergan and Deft Inc. — also are questioning the Irvine projects, Harp said.

Irvine Mayor Beth Krom said she’s confident that Irvine has handled the projects correctly, but she wants to meet with Newport to discuss that city’s concerns.

“We just felt as neighboring cities we did not want to disregard an opportunity to move things in a more productive direction,” she said.

Irvine is requiring developers to study the possible effects of each proposed project as well as others that are up for approval, Krom said.

Harp said Newport is concerned because Irvine is approving projects first and then asking for the environmental report, rather than the other way around.