Roundabout is an option under Bayside Drive plans headed to Newport council
The Newport Beach City Council is scheduled to review a roadwork project Tuesday for a portion of Bayside Drive that could include installing a roundabout.
City staff will present two primary options to change a four-lane, 1.3-mile stretch of Bayside between East Coast Highway and Marine Avenue. Both have the potential to reduce speeding and traffic accidents and make the area more accessible for non-motorists, according to city staff.
One option, estimated to cost $2.2 million, would install a roundabout at Bayside and Harbor Island Drive and reduce the number of lanes on Bayside between Harbor Island and East Coast Highway from four to two. From the roundabout to Marine Avenue, Bayside would keep its existing four lanes, but their width would be reduced to discourage speeding.
City staff contends the roundabout would reduce speeds and “increase driver attention, thus reducing accident potential.”
The plan also would include installing medians and more sidewalk and bicycle lanes.
An alternate plan, pegged to cost $1.8 million, doesn’t include a roundabout but would reduce lane widths and install medians.
City staff noted that Bayside Drive, unlike several other major roads in Newport, does not have landscaped medians.
City officials have budgeted $3 million for either project.
Construction could begin in fall 2017.
Several area homeowners associations have been in contact with city staff about the proposals.
The Bayside Cove Community Assn. board said it is not “overly concerned with the status of Bayside Drive as it is” but wants the sidewalks redone. It said it does not approve of a roundabout.
The board of Harbor Island said it prefers the plan without the roundabout.
The Linda Isle Community Assn. also doesn’t want the roundabout, instead preferring to simply repave the street for $1.2 million.
Agreement extension with Irvine Co.
The City Council also is scheduled to consider extending a development agreement by 15 years, through 2032, between the city and the Irvine Co. on future development of Newport Coast and Newport Ridge.
If renewed, the agreement — first reached in 2001 — would maintain the Irvine Co.’s rights to develop the area under plans dating to the 1980s.
Under the previously approved plans, Newport Ridge is permitted for up to 363 more homes and an additional 37,684 square feet of commercial space.
Newport Coast could have up to 422 more homes, 1,046 more hotel or resort rooms and about 1.2 million square feet of new commercial space, most of which would come with constructing another hotel or resort.
City staff said the additional development “may not occur in the near future, or may never occur.”
City staff is recommending that the council require the Irvine Co. to pay a one-time $5-million fee. A portion of the funds would go toward city cultural facilities and the rest would be put into the general fund.
A letter to the city by a firm hired by the Irvine Co. noted that the company has kept up many of its public benefit obligations, including giving $422,500 for a library, $250,000 for the Newport Coast fire station and dedicating nearly 2,700 acres as wilderness open space.
Tuesday’s council meeting will start at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 100 Civic Center Drive.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
