Petition urges rejection of 45-unit Newport Center residential project
A Newport Beach activist group and a political action committee are circulating a petition online urging the city Planning Commission to vote down a residential development planned to replace a car wash and gas station in Newport Center.
Stop Polluting Our Newport and the Line in the Sand PAC began circulating the petition against the 150 Newport Center project via email and social media on Tuesday. By Thursday morning, about 500 people had registered their support, according to the two groups.
“I don’t know how much effect it will have, but it indicates the feeling that we object to the way this is being planned,” said SPON co-founder and Line in the Sand member Jean Watt. “They’re proposing to change the whole look and feel of the area. It’s just backward planning.”
Newport Center Anacapa Associates has proposed building 150 Newport Center, a six-story, 65-foot-tall townhome and condominium project with 45 units, to replace the Beacon Bay Auto Wash and an adjacent gas station on 1.26 acres along Newport Center Drive near Anacapa Drive.
The building previously was proposed to be seven stories reaching 69 feet tall and including 49 residential units. The developer reduced the size in its most recent plan.
However, more changes likely will be presented at the Planning Commission’s next meeting Sept. 1, said Tod Ridgeway, a former Newport Beach mayor who is one of the applicants on the proposal.
After about two hours of discussion at its meeting Aug. 18, the Planning Commission couldn’t come to a consensus about various points of the project, including its density and height. However, several commissioners indicated they would support the site being used for residential purposes.
But the commission provided some parameters for 150 Newport Center, including setting the maximum number of units at 45 and a maximum building height of 50 feet, which would be in line with other buildings in that area, commissioners said.
For the development to move forward, the Planning Commission would have to vote to change the land-use designation for the site from regional commercial office to multi-unit residential to allow homes to be built. The City Council also would have to sign off on the proposal.
Ridgeway said SPON and Line in the Sand should defer their petition until the proposal has been finalized and has a chance to move through the commission to the council.
“It would be more appropriate and fair to the project,” he said. “We’re in the middle of doing redesign work to try to accommodate what we heard at the Planning Commission.”
The two groups wrote in the petition that 150 Newport Center is inappropriate for the location because of its height and bulk and the fact that it proposes residential on a site not zoned for it. The zoning should remain commercial, they said.
The groups also point to noise issues that could arise from the units being close to restaurants, bars and a movie theater at Fashion Island.
Ridgeway said the project would replace an “obsolete” car wash and provide economic vitality to Newport Center.
“It’s not like we’re overpowering the site,” he said. “We’ve agreed to a lower footprint, and I think it fits very well.”
SPON and Line in the Sand member Dorothy Kraus said the project not only would set a precedent for large-scale residential development in Newport Center but also could provide leeway for developers looking to build in other parts of the city that aren’t zoned for residential.
“We’re on a very slippery slope here,” Kraus said.
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Hannah Fry, hannah.fry@latimes.com
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
