City may have to fight to get tennis club

NEWPORT BEACH — It’s got more plot twists than a soap opera and more players than a football team.

The saga of city officials’ attempt to build a new city hall has gone on for more than two years, and the latest scene in the drama is their interest in building where a tennis club now stands.

The property in question, 1602 E. Coast Highway, is home to the 24-court Balboa Bay Club Racquet Club. City Council members are waiting for results of an appraisal of the seven-acre parcel. They haven’t ruled out using eminent domain to acquire the property if the owners won’t sell.

By some accounts, members of the racquet club and the adjacent Newport Beach Country Club are passionately opposed to losing the tennis courts to the city.

“We are more than willing to get a group of several hundred to go to City Hall” to voice their opposition, 32-year racquet club member Dick Marowitz said Friday between tennis matches. “Everybody in the club is behind us 100%.”

Ed Brower, another racquet club member, said he would expect a battle from the property’s residential neighbors.

He believes a new city hall is needed, he said, but “There are so many more locations in the city that would cause less disruption…. I think it would be a waste of this property and this location for that kind of an institution.”

Next door at the Newport Beach Country Club, several members said Friday they hadn’t heard about the city’s interest in the racquet club, but they’re not very concerned.

“Unless it encroaches on the golf club, I don’t have any reason to object to it,” said Warren Lortie, a six-year country club member who was getting ready to play golf.

Whether the country club would be affected is not clear. Robert O Hill is the controlling partner among several investors who own the racquet club and country club properties. The Balboa Bay Club leases the land and operates both clubs.

O Hill this week filed plans with the city to build 27 bungalows for tennis and golf club members and their guests along with five custom homes, and a new golf clubhouse has been discussed.

But if the racquet club property is out of the picture, “the whole master plan falls apart,” said Byron De Arakal, a public relations consultant hired by O Hill and some members of both clubs. He declined to say how many of the tennis club’s 1,500 members and the country club’s nearly 900 members he is representing.

De Arakal also suggested that splitting the properties could jeopardize the Toshiba Classic, a senior PGA event held at the Newport Beach Country Club that generates millions for the city’s economy.

The biggest players in the issue have been active largely behind the scenes. O Hill and Balboa Bay Club Chief Executive Dave Wooten, to whom country club and racquet club employees referred calls, did not return several calls for comment.

Another unanswered question is whether the council would use eminent domain. The three councilmen who have been working on the issue — Ed Selich, Tod Ridgeway and Don Webb — said it’s still a possibility.

But after Monday, Ridgeway is off the council. And Councilman Keith Curry, who spearheaded a ballot initiative barring eminent domain for private projects, said the city should be very selective about using it at all.

“I supported getting an appraisal on this property to see what the value is, but whether we move forward or not in light of serious property owner objections needs to be evaluated,” he said.

If the council abandons the racquet club site, the city hall drama may start to look like reruns.

Council members will be left with the existing Balboa Peninsula site, the police station site, and a few others — namely the park site next to the main library on Avocado Avenue.

To some people, that’s been the most logical site all along.

“I don’t understand why they don’t put it over by the library,” golf club member Lortie said. “I still don’t get that.”

QUESTION

Would the tennis club be a good site for a new city hall? Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send e-mail to [email protected]. Please spell your name and tell us your hometown and phone numbers for verification purposes only.