3 Crowd-Control Laws Advance in Newport

The Newport Beach City Council has approved preliminary readings of three ordinances designed to control noisy and rowdy crowds on Balboa Peninsula during the summer, especially during the Fourth of July holiday.

In a unanimous action Monday, the seven-member council supported recommendations by the city’s chief of police and city attorney for a general curfew, a tighter noise ordinance and traffic checkpoints during the holidays.

The council also approved a temporary shutdown of several beach area streets July 3 and 4 between 6 p.m. and 3 a.m. to allow police and other emergency vehicles a clear route to the peninsula.

The three ordinances are scheduled for a second reading and final vote May 26.

The city already has a curfew law that requires minors in Newport Beach to be off the streets by 11 p.m. The new ordinance would allow Police Chief Arb Campbell to declare a curfew anywhere in the city anytime he believed that the police might be unable to handle a developing disturbance, City Atty. Robert Burnham said in an interview last month. Burnham could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The proposed curfew ordinance, however, has guidelines that limit emergency rules to a length of seven days and require widespread public notice, documents from the city clerk’s office said.

Campbell had also sought a ban on weekly rentals of area apartments to discourage rentals of party houses--properties mostly on the Balboa Peninsula that are filled with new tenants each week during the summer.

Police said the city has drawn troublesome crowds during the Fourth of July holiday for the past two years. Last year, police arrested more than 100 people during disturbances in which youths threw rocks and bottles at officers patrolling Seashore Drive on the Balboa Peninsula.