Newport hires 6 companies for building and planning consulting

The Newport Beach City Council approved three-year contracts Tuesday with six companies to help the city’s building division with inspections and plan reviews.

The consultants — which will provide on-call plan review and help city staff with inspections, permit issuance and geotechnical review for construction projects — will receive contracts of varying amounts that total about $4 million over the three years.

Four companies will provide building plan review and inspection:

• Interwest Consulting Group of Huntington Beach: $160,000 per year
• JAS Pacific of Upland: $280,000 per year
• MRH Structural Engineers of Newport Beach: $320,000 per year
• VCA Code of Orange: $275,000 per year

SRG Geoscience Inc. of Riverside will receive $200,000 per year for geotechnical, grading and water quality management plan review, and Pacific Fire Engineering of Corona will get $100,000 per year for fire and life safety plan checks.

Consultants augment work done by in-house staff and enable the city to adjust to development’s cyclical nature by bringing on more consultants during booms and reducing them when the economy slows, according to a city staff report.

Newport Beach currently has more than 2,300 active construction projects, the report said.

The city partnered with four consulting firms in the last three-year contract period.

Commission and board appointments

The council made 14 appointments among seven city commissions and boards, with a mix of incumbents and newcomers.

The appointees are:

• Arts Commission: Lynn Selich (incumbent), Miriam Baker, Grace Divine
• Board of Library Trustees: Douglas Coulter (incumbent)
• Building and Fire Board of Appeals: Brion Jeannette (incumbent), Richard Luehrs (incumbent), Audrey Cook
• Civil Service Board: Jane Della Grotta
• Harbor Commission: David Girling (incumbent), Ira Beer
• Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission: Walter Howald (incumbent), Heather Ignatin
• Planning Commission: Lauren Kleiman, Lee Lowrey

All terms begin Saturday and end June 30, 2021, except for Cook’s on the Building and Fire Board of Appeals, which ends in 2019, and Beer’s on the Harbor Commission, which ends in 2018.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD