Newport Center Plan

Those who advocate the Newport Center expansion plan are ignoring some very important traffic consequences of this plan.

Advocates know full well that 52,000 more car trips a day will be caused by this plan. Expansion advocates point to the construction of Pelican Hills Road and widening of MacArthur Boulevard as the way to accommodate this traffic, thereby relieving traffic through Corona del Mar.

However, this won’t be the case. Pelican Hills Road is designed to serve a large development south of Newport Beach, the Irvine Coast, where thousands of homes, 2,000 hotel beds, and commercial areas will be built. Also, traffic to and from Crystal Cove State Park will be serviced by Pelican Hills Road. Pelican Hills Road will be built regardless of expansion of Newport Center. The expansion of Newport Center just adds to already planned traffic on this road.

The upshot of all this development (Newport Center, Irvine Coast and Crystal Cove State Park) is that traffic will increase 50% through Corona del Mar.

How will Pacific Coast Highway handle 60,000 cars a day through Corona del Mar? It won’t. It will have to be widened, which it can’t be because of a lack of space. Traffic will bypass a gridlocked PCH and go up residential streets to avoid the gridlock. There will be no on-street parking on PCH, causing financial hardship to local businesses. PCH will basically turn into the “Coast Freeway.”

Are all these traffic consequences worth it? Not to me.

If people in Newport Beach are at all concerned about the traffic in Newport Beach, they should sign the referendum petition now being circulated in Newport Beach. Let’s put this matter to a vote of all the people. This could be the last chance that people will be able to get a grip on the traffic situation in Newport Beach.

JAN D. VANDERSLOOT

Newport Beach