Council moving quickly on deal

The Newport Beach City Council could be poised to approve a multimillion dollar development agreement with the Irvine Co. by the end of the year, but some citizens are concerned the deal is moving too fast and without enough public input.

“The public deserves more,” former Mayor John Heffernan said. “If it’s a hundred-page development agreement, tell me you can get that done in two meetings. City Council has not demonstrated to me they have done their homework.”

The city has taken much longer to hammer out past development deals with less at stake, Heffernan said. The terms of the deal, negotiated for the city by Mayor Steve Rosansky and Councilman Ed Selich, were publicly unveiled in October.

“It’s come together fairly quickly,” Rosansky said. “I’ve always been in favor of using as much time as we can take on something like this, but I look forward to scrutiny. It is a fairly large agreement with a lot of money, and a lot of entitlement involved, a lot of moving parts..”

As part of the deal, zoning for the area would create a new planned community that would merge two blocks of Newport Center, Fashion Island and San Joaquin Plaza to form North Newport Center Planned Community. The deal includes about $43 million in development fees, road and park improvements and other public benefits from the Irvine Co. The development agreement also includes an option for Newport Beach to purchase property in the 500 block of Newport Center between Santa Rosa Drive and San Nicholas Drive for a new city hall at the city’s appraised price of $145 per square foot for 53,000 square feet. That works out to roughly $7.7 million.

Officials say all facets of the pending agreement to create a new 430-housing unit planned community in Newport Center will be carefully considered before it is approved. A Planning Commission meeting on the issue Thursday was continued to Nov. 29.

If many citizens are concerned , few are voicing their opinions, Planning Commissioner Michael Toerge said Friday.

“Only two people showed up to speak at the meeting and one was from the Irvine Co.,” Toerge said. “Yeah, maybe it’s going along pretty quick, but the people need to show interest.”

Toerge sees the deal as fair for the most part. He pointed out that the Irvine Co. has agreed to pay $5.6 million in park development fees on the 430-apartment units that are part of the plan, although the company is not required to do so because the dwellings will be rentals and not condominiums or houses.

Despite the millions of dollars the deal will generate for the city, some citizens say they are concerned the deal will go through without properly considering its impact on the environment.

Runoff from Newport Center drains into Newport Bay and environmental impact studies should be done in the area, said Bob Caustin, founding director of the environmental group Defend the Bay.

Once the deal is approved, environmental and traffic impact studies could be done when specific plans for living and shopping areas in the new planned community come before the Planning Commission, Toerge said.

“I am optimistic planning commission can act in time to get the project before the council before the end of the year,” Planning Commission Chairman Robert Hawkins said. “But it’s complicated and expensive. If the deal doesn’t move expeditiously, the Irvine Co. could walk away. The city could lose public benefits and there won’t be a deal.”

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].