Plans for Newport water wheel keep turning

Newport Beach is in line to snag about $1.7 million in state grant money to fund a “water wheel” trash-collecting vessel that will gobble garbage coming down San Diego Creek.

The City Council will consider budgeting the $1.68 million the California Ocean Protection Council has tentatively approved for Newport’s water wheel project and accept a study that shows the trash collector won’t have significant, if any, negative impacts on the environment.

The Ocean Protection Council expects to adopt the grant award at its Oct. 25 board meeting.

The water wheel would be placed at the top of Upper Newport Bay by the Jamboree Road bridge to capture garbage flowing down San Diego Creek from inland Orange County before it can hit Newport Harbor or the Pacific Ocean.

From its stationary position, the wheel would funnel incoming debris into an onboard holding bin that would be emptied periodically.

The vessel would look like a snail with a paddlewheel or a conch shell crossed with a steamboat. It could be powered by a mix of solar and hydraulic energy.

Newport has already spent $20,000 on the environmental study, which the city needed before it could apply for further funding.

The city set aside $8,000 and the nonprofit Help Your Harbor contributed $12,000.

House variance review

In other business, the council will review the Planning Commission’s approval of a new home in Corona del Mar.

The commission, on a 5-2 vote in August, approved tearing down an existing house at 3200 Ocean Blvd. and building a new, 7,276 square-foot home plus 688 square-foot three-car garage. The approval meant giving the property owner variances on setback requirements and floor area maximums.

Excluding the 2,748 square-foot basement, the home would be 5,216 square feet. Zoning code says the maximum floor area limit would be 4,234 square feet without a variance for the 5,445 square-foot lot.

The house would also encroach five feet into a required 10-foot rear setback, or the buffer between the house and the lot boundaries.

Councilman Jeff Herdman called for review, which brings the case before the City Council, which can override the Planning Commission.

When the commission allowed floor-area maximum and setback variances for new home construction — at a proposed blufftop house a few blocks away, at 2607 Ocean Blvd. — in December, a resident appealed to the state Coastal Commission, saying it violated the city’s Local Coastal Program, which guides development closest to the shore. That case is pending.

Tuesday’s council meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD