NEWPORT BEACH : Panel to Deliberate on Irvine Co. Land

City officials this week named a committee to begin negotiations with the Irvine Co. on the future of about 400 acres of vacant land the company owns in the city.

Committee members are Mayor Ruthelyn Plummer and council members Clarence J. Turner and Jean H. Watt. They will negotiate to ensure preservation of open space and to gain funds for transportation.

On the Irvine Co. team, selected last month, are Vice Chairman Ray Watson and two officials of a company subsidiary, Patrick Smith and Dave Dmohowski.

“These properties are very significant in terms of what people are concerned about in Newport Beach,” Watt said Tuesday. “About half of them are very sensitive areas, like around the bay, and we want to preserve open space and get a community park.”

The basis of the negotiations was laid last year, when city officials adopted a new land use and traffic plan within the city’s general plan.

The Irvine Co. then proposed a conceptual plan whereby the firm would advance money for road improvements. In return, the company would receive a development agreement to build on its remaining vacant parcels.

“This way the city gets road funding now instead of it trickling in,” said Dmohowski. “That’s why we want to pool them all up front and look at these properties as a package instead of coming back on every single one and reinventing the wheel.”

While the precise number of parcels to be discussed has not yet been determined, at least six highly visible sites will be looked at in terms of open space preservation:

* A 60-acre tract known as Castaways at Dover Drive and Coast Highway, site of the original McFadden’s Wharf. The upper portion of the parcel is designated by the general plan for 151 residential units and 10 acres of open space. Watt said this parcel is the favorite potential site for a park.

* The Newporter North parcel, about 80 acres east and north of Upper Newport Bay between San Joaquin Hills Road and the John Wayne Tennis Club. Under the general plan, 212 units are permitted, with provisions for open space.

* The 33-acre Newport Village site on the northwest corner of the junction of MacArthur Boulevard and Coast Highway. The Irvine Co. gave 10 acres at the site for the Newport Harbor Art Museum, and four acres are under negotiation for a new public library site. The remaining acreage is slated in the general plan for about 115,000 square feet of commercial space and a four-acre park.

* The San Diego Creek North and South sites between Jamboree Road and MacArthur Boulevard at the head of Upper Newport Bay. The north site totals 13 acres and is designated for commercial space and a fire station. The south site totals 20 acres and is planned for 300 residential units.

* Bayview Landing at the corner of Coast Highway and Jamboree Road. The upper pad of the 17-acre parcel will probably become a park, Watt said.

Most of the other sites to be considered as part of the overall package are zoned for commercial or residential development. Others, such as Buck Gully, 55 acres between Coast Highway and Spyglass Hill in Corona del Mar, are designated to remain open space. Still others, such as five ecologically sensitive acres at Jamboree and MacArthur, may be preserved as open space if development rights can be transferred elsewhere, Dmohowski said.

Preliminary findings are expected in three to six months, Dmohowski said.