Neighbors want to scuttle waterfront restaurant plans at old Reuben E. Lee site
The Newport Beach City Council on Tuesday will consider a request from a homeowners association to overturn the Planning Commission’s approval of a waterfront restaurant planned along East Coast Highway.
The proposed site near Bayside Drive and the Coast Highway bridge was once home to the Reuben E. Lee., a riverboat that opened in the 1950s and housed a restaurant and then a nautical museum before it was dismantled in 2008. The Irvine Co. has been working to expand the west side of its private Balboa Marina ever since.
The Irvine Co., which owns the 3.5-acre parcel, proposes to build eight new public boat slips, reconfigure the private marina and add 24 new slips, and build a 14,252-square-foot restaurant as part of its Balboa Marina West project. The plans would need California Coastal Commission approval before construction could begin.
However, some nearby homeowners aren’t onboard with the developer’s idea.
The Linda Isle Homeowner Assn. filed an appeal less than a week after the Planning Commission voted unanimously in December to issue a conditional use permit for the restaurant building, which would feature outdoor dining, full alcoholic beverage service and live entertainment. The commission also approved a 664-square-foot marina restroom building.
The one-story restaurant design is expected to be contemporary, with a sliding glass wall system, a metal roof with skylights, decorative steel accents and a patio. The restaurant could be open from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. Dancing would not be permitted, according to city documents.
The Planning Commission in 2014 unanimously approved an environmental review for the project. However, the design of the restaurant was not finalized at the time, so commissioners asked the Irvine Co. to return for approval of that portion.
Linda Isle homeowners allege the city violated the California Environmental Quality Act by approving the environmental review before looking at the restaurant’s finalized design. They also contend a noise study was inadequate since it did not include measurements from Linda Isle.
City staff said noise was not measured on Linda Isle because the consultant doing the study did not have access to private property in the area. Instead, measurements were taken from an adjacent dock.
“The [study] revealed no new significant noise impacts or any substantial increase in the severity of previously identified noise impacts that would require new mitigation measures,” a staff report states.
Homeowners also argue that the project fails to mitigate light and glare from patrons’ headlights shining across the water into homes. They’re asking that the developer add Plexiglas shields to the design.
City staff is requesting that the City Council uphold the Planning Commission decision.
Tuesday’s council meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.
