Newport Beach OKs Plan for High-Rise : Building Near Airport Wins Approval Despite Opposition

In its first vote on a major commercial project since voters rejected expansion of Newport Center last fall, the Newport Beach City Council has approved plans for a high-rise office building near John Wayne Airport.

By a 5-2 vote, the council Monday night approved McLachlan Investment Co.’s plan to replace the two-story Bank of America building at MacArthur Boulevard and Newport Place with a tower as high as nine stories. The new building, which could be as large as 209,700 square feet, would house offices, a health club, a restaurant and other retail shops.

The city’s slow-growth groups opposed the project because of the traffic it would bring into the busy airport area. They criticized the vote as an affront to local residents, who delivered a strong anti-growth message last November when they passed Measure A. In that election, voters overturned the council’s previous approval of the Irvine Co’s. plans to expand Newport Center.

“This is an indicator of what’s to come,” said Paul Ryckoff, president of Newport 2000. “They didn’t get the message of (Measure) A.”

Ryckoff said his group would be meeting with representatives of two other groups, SPON (Stop Polluting Our Newport) and Gridlock, to discuss their alternatives at this point.

“There are several possibilities, including an initiative or a recall,” Ryckoff said. “We’d like to not have to jump up every time something comes along.”

City Councilwoman Ruthelyn Plummer, who supported the project, said the increased square footage for the Newport Place site was justified. “We need flexibility to give the private sector an opportunity to develop their sites as needs and times change,” she said.

Plummer also said the changes actually represented a “tightening up” of the proposal, since the increases were less than the developer had sought.

Councilwoman Evelyn Hart said the project could “set an example” for the city because it also requires the developer to pay for road improvements and make sure that the building’s tenants take steps to reduce traffic.

But Councilman Phil Sansone, who joined Donald Strauss in voting against the project, said it would add “to an almost currently intolerable situation. . . . Newport residents told the City Council on Nov. 25th (the Measure A election date) what they did not want, and I am sure they would deliver the same message if this were put to a vote. We are leading toward another referendum.”