Newport On Way to 11 P.M. Beach Curfew

The Newport Beach City Council early Tuesday took its first step toward setting an 11 p.m. curfew at city beaches to help reduce noise and traffic that oceanfront residents blame on late-night beach-goers in their public front yards.

All 6 miles of city-owned beaches--from the Santa Ana River south to the Wedge at the Newport Harbor entrance--now close at midnight. Curfew is 10 p.m. citywide for minors.

Three homeowner associations representing hundreds of oceanfront residents had asked the City Council to close the beaches at 10 p.m. because, they say, they are kept awake by loud cars and revelers on the sand outside their homes.

But Police Chief Arb Campbell told the City Council that his department’s busiest part of the day is from 9 p.m. to midnight, and he expressed concern about response times for the other 67,000 residents of the city.

“There are hundreds, sometimes thousands, more people on the beach at 10 than at midnight,” Campbell said, so it is even harder to clear the beach earlier.

Campbell and City Manager Robert L. Wynn had recommended the installation of floodlights at the Balboa and Newport Beach piers--where crime and disturbances are concentrated.

“I don’t want to be in a position of enforcing a law I can’t enforce,” Campbell said.

Nevertheless, the City Council voted 5 to 2 to spend about $30,000 on floodlights for the pier areas and to have the city attorney draft an ordinance setting an 11 p.m. curfew that will be introduced at the May 8 council meeting. If approved then, the ordinance would be given a second reading 2 weeks later and become effective June 22.

It was not immediately clear how soon the lights could be installed.

Mayor Donald A. Strauss and Councilman John C. Cox Jr., who cast the dissenting votes, said they favored trying the lights before restricting beach access.

After the meeting ended about 12:30 a.m., Campbell said he was not sure how his officers would enforce an earlier curfew on the beach.

“We’ll just have to do the best with what we have available,” he said.

Oceanfront residents had suggested that police in a helicopter buzz the beach with a loudspeaker to announce the new closing time, a practice the officers may adopt.

Dayna Pettit, president of the Balboa Peninsula Point Assn., added that police might better be able to clear the beaches at 10 p.m. because they are too busy changing shifts at midnight.

But Campbell told the council that he would need three new officers and two more off-road vehicles to enforce a 10 p.m. beach curfew.