Newport harborside restaurant and boat slips get commission’s OK
The California Coastal Commission has approved plans for a new harborside restaurant and boat slips in Newport Beach.
The 3.5-acre Irvine Co. development, dubbed Balboa Marina West, includes a 14,252-square-foot restaurant and reconfiguration of the marina at 201 E. Coast Hwy.
The property, currently called Balboa Marina, once housed the Reuben E. Lee riverboat. It now is primarily a private parking lot with attached boat slips.
The redesigned marina will include 131 slips, up from 105. The slips will accommodate boats ranging from 20 feet to 80 feet.
Twelve of the new slips will be public.
The one-story restaurant’s design is expected to be contemporary. The facility will have a patio, as well as alcoholic beverage service and live entertainment.
Thursday’s approval, which came without significant discussion from the commission, frustrated a group of Linda Isle residents in attendance at the meeting at City Hall.
Their concerns included construction noise and its potential to harm their island’s sewage system. They also expressed worries about traffic and noise from the restaurant — issues they also raised in 2015 and 2016, when the project went through and was approved by Newport’s Planning Commission and City Council.
An Irvine Co. spokesman said Friday that the coastal commission hearing was the last public approval needed for Balboa Marina West. The company declined to announce a tentative construction schedule.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
