City Council May Place Expansion of Newport Center on Fall Ballot

In an unusual move, the Newport City Council will hold a special meeting at noon today to consider placing the expansion of Newport Center on the November ballot.

The meeting comes just three weeks after the council voted 5 to 2 in favor of the Irvine Co.’s massive commercial and residential project in and around the posh Fashion Island shopping complex.

Mayor Philip R. Maurer said he called the meeting to prevent the city from having to spend $60,000 on a special election favored by a citizens group opposing the expansion.

Immediately after the City Council approved the project, the citizens group--known as Gridlock--began collecting signatures to force a referendum on the plan. The proposed ballot measure would ask voters whether they favored or opposed the Newport Center expansion plan.

Although Gridlock has only until Wednesday to collect 4,300 signatures for an election that would likely take place early next year, Maurer said he was confident the group would succeed and suggested that the city take preemptive action.

“Naturally we didn’t want a ballot measure on this thing, but if they push it, we have to take action the other way,” Maurer said Wednesday. “In order to get more people out to vote and to save money for the city, it would appear to be a good idea to call an election ourselves, since we can make the November deadline,” he added.

Deadline Is Friday

The deadline for placing measures on the November ballot is Friday, City Clerk Wanda Raggio said. If the council decides to put the Newport Center expansion before the voters in November, Raggio noted, the action would render Gridlock’s referendum effort “ineffective.”

Ron Covington, a member of Gridlock and president of the Corona del Mar Community Assn., said he hopes the council will vote to place the matter before Newport Beach voters.

“This is the best thing for the community, to get the (Newport Center expansion) out in the open and let people decide on whether they want this kind of growth,” Covington said. “It is just such a massive plan and quite out of character with the rest of the community.”

Allan Beek, who has been spearheading Gridlock’s petition drive, said the group will continue to collect signatures even if the council votes to place the matter on the November ballot.

“They could turn around and take it off and we are naturally suspicious. . . ,” Beek said. “We want to preserve our right to have a referendum.”

The Newport Center expansion, which has been revised three times since the early 1970s, calls for several new office buildings, hundreds of shops, town homes, cultural amenities and road improvements on 518 acres in eastern Newport Beach.

Referendum Sponsored

Controversy over the future of the Irvine Co.’s proposed expansion is not new. A similar political scenario played itself out in 1982 when an angered citizenry sponsored a referendum for a special election on the plan after the City Council had approved it.

The City Council cited the expense of a special election and proposed placing the measure on the June ballot. But in a last-minute reversal, the council withdrew its approval of the plan at the request of the Irvine Co.

Irvine Co. officials say they have no intention of withdrawing the plan this time around.

“We have worked for a very long time with the community and the city to develop a program for the completion of Newport Center that provides a variety of benefits to the community and we are confident of the desirability of that plan,” said Monica Florian, vice president of policy management for the Irvine Co. “We would not be interested in having the council overturn its previous action.”

Irvine Co. ‘Disappointed’

Florian said the company was “very disappointed” that the council is considering putting the plan before the voters.

“That is obviously the council’s choice,” she said, adding, “if they think that’s necessary despite their initial action.”

Voting in favor of the Newport Center expansion on July 15 were Maurer and council members Bill Agee, John C. Cox Jr., Jacqueline E. Heather and Ruthelyn Plummer. Council members Evelyn R. Hart and Donald A. Strauss voted against it.

Today’s meeting, which is open to the public, will take place in the City Council chambers at 3300 Newport Blvd.