Newport Slow-Growth Groups Plan Petition Against Project

Slow-growth groups in Newport Beach, angered by City Council approval last month of a nine-story complex near John Wayne Airport, announced Thursday that they plan a petition drive for an initiative to halt the development.

Approval of McLachlan Investment Co.’s plans to replace the two-story Bank of America building at MacArthur Boulevard and Newport Place Drive with a structure that would include offices, a health club, a restaurant and retail shops “made a lot of people very, very angry” because of the traffic it may bring to the area, slow-growth advocate Allan Beek said.

Last year, Beek and residents groups Newport 2000, Gridlock and SPON (Stop Polluting Our Newport) led a successful effort to block an expansion of Newport Center that had been approved by the council.

Since then, Beek said, the council has been asking developers to bring their plans back to the city on a “piecemeal” basis.

The proposed initiative, though still unwritten, would prevent construction of a building taking up more than 50% of a site’s available land, Beek said.

Smaller Building

Patricia Temple, an environmental coordinator for the city, said that in reviewing the developer’s original proposal for the new building, the Planning Commission shrank the number of square feet allotted for development at the site by 61% and that the council cut the building from 11 stories to nine.

Mayor John C. Cox Jr., who voted for the Newport Place development, criticized the slow-growth groups’ efforts, saying “no-growthers want a moratorium on all construction in the city. I don’t think the public does.”

Cox said McLachlan has been working with city officials for more than two years to devise a construction plan that would be a “win-win situation for everybody.”

McLachlan has agreed to institute a flex-time work schedule for the building’s employees and pay for improvements of nearby roads in a bid to prevent traffic congestion, Cox said.

Councilwoman Evelyn R. Hart said that this is the first time the city has extracted such traffic prevention measures from a developer and that the council is considering a law that would tie traffic considerations to all construction proposals in the city.

Proponents of the initiative would have to gather signatures from 10% of Newport Beach’s 43,000 registered voters within 180 days to qualify the measure for a spot on the November ballot, Beek said. They plan to start the drive in about two weeks.