Council discussion on 150 Newport Center will likely be delayed
A City Council discussion over a controversial condominium and townhome project proposed for Newport Center will likely be postponed until next month.
Newport Beach city leaders were originally scheduled during their meeting Tuesday to make a final decision on 150 Newport Center — a 35-unit residential project proposed to replace the Beacon Bay Auto Wash and adjacent gas station — along Newport Center Drive near Anacapa Drive.
However, developer Newport Center Anacapa Associates LLC sent a letter to city staff on Wednesday requesting that the public hearing on the project be continued until Oct.11.
“This will give the City Council more time to digest the myriad of information in the packet and allow us time to discuss the project with the individual members of council,” Ron Soderling, manager at Anacapa Associates, wrote in the request.
The council will decide whether to grant the continuance during Tuesday’s meeting, or could also vote to approve or deny the project.
For the development to move forward, the council would have to vote to change the land-use designation for the site from regional commercial office to multi-unit residential for the homes to be built.
Less than a month ago, the Planning Commission voted to recommend that the council deny 150 Newport Center. Commissioners cited concerns about the landscape plan and called the project too bulky for the 1.26-acre site. However, they made a point of applauding the building’s attractive architectural style and noted their desire to see more residences built in Newport Center.
Stop Polluting Our Newport, an activist organization, and Line in the Sand, a political action committee, have circulated a petition via email and social media urging city leaders to reject the development.
Ron Schwartz, who owns Muldoon’s Irish Pub located across Anacapa Drive from the site of the proposed development, also started a campaign this month urging the council to deny it.
Schwartz has expressed concerns about future 150 Newport Center residents filing noise complaints against his restaurant, which often hosts live music and is open late.
“Residential can be fine in the right location,” Schwartz said at the Planning Commission hearing this month. “As much as everyone would like to force it into a shoe, it doesn’t work.”
150 Newport Center went through a series of changes in the months before the commission made its final recommendation.
The developer originally proposed a seven-story, 49-unit building reaching 69 feet tall. However, after its initial meeting with the Planning Commission in July, the company reduced the plan to six stories with 45 units reaching 65 feet.
Then, after a two-hour public discussion at the commission’s Aug.18 meeting, where commissioners were unable to come to a consensus about the project’s density and height, the developer reduced the planned height of the building to 50 feet in five stories, then cut the number of units to 35. Despite that, some commissioners remained uncomfortable with the number of units proposed.
Soderling said in a statement after the hearing that he was disappointed that the Planning Commission didn’t recognize the benefits of the project.
“We live in the community and care about the future of the city,” he wrote at the time. “That’s why we have worked so closely with the community over the past year to develop a project that respects the views of neighbors, reduces traffic and water usage, and provides an iconic destination for locals to live out their next chapter of the American dream. We feel optimistic that the City Council will see those benefits and approve the project.”
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Hannah Fry, hannah.fry@latimes.com
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
