Newport Beach : Council OKs Plans for New Restrooms

The Newport Beach City Council approved plans Monday night to build public restrooms just west of the Newport Pier amid complaints from beachfront homeowners, merchants and lifeguards that such a facility would attract vagrants and violence.

“I think the location for this restroom, for the council, is like trying to pick a new prison location in Orange County,” said Carl Ackerman, a member of a group of landowners and merchants known as the McFadden Square Assn. “No one wants it.”

The council, with one member absent, decided by a 6-0 vote to tear down and rebuild the restrooms very near their existing location.

While area residents agree that there is a need to construct new restrooms as part of an improvement plan that would raze existing restrooms at the base of the pier to create a plaza for beachgoers, they have disagreed on location.

The city staff’s original plan to place the restrooms east of the pier near the Marine Department’s lifeguard headquarters--and a similar proposal incorporating the restrooms into the scheduled expansion of the lifeguard building itself--drew vehement criticism from department director David Harshbarger.